论以林地资源管理为中心创新森林资源管理制度

森林资源包括森林生物资源、林地资源和森林环境资源,但林地资源是基础。森林资源管理必须以林地资源管理为中心。由于公益性森林资源作为公共物品其经营的主导利用目标是生态效益。因此,林政资源的管理要以林地资源管理为基础,林木与林地管理并重,严格森林资源的保护。而商品性森林资源经营的主导目标在于经营利润的最大化,应赋予经营者更灵活的处置林木的权力,资源管理以林地资源管理为主。     

Forest carbon benefits,costs and leakage effects of carbon reserve scenarios in the United States

This study evaluated the potential effectiveness of future carbon reserve scenarios, where U.S. forest landowners would hypothetically be paid to sequester carbon on their timberland and forego timber harvests for 100 years. Scenarios featured direct payments to landowners of $0 (baseline), $5, $10, or $15 per metric ton of additional forest carbon sequestered on the set aside lands, with maximum annual expenditures of $3 billion. Results indicated that from 1513 to 6837 Tg (Teragrams) of additional carbon (as carbon dioxide equivalent, CO₂e) would be sequestered on U.S. timberlands relative to the baseline case over the next 50 years (30–137 Tg CO₂e annually). These projected amounts of sequestered carbon on timberlands take into account projected increases in timber removal and forest carbon losses on other timberlands (carbon leakage effects). Net effectiveness of carbon reserve scenarios in terms of overall net gain in timberland carbon stocks from 2010 to 2060 ranged from 0.29 tCO₂e net carbon increase for a payment of $5/tCO₂e to the landowner (71% leakage), to 0.15 tCO₂e net carbon increase for a payment of $15/tCO₂e to the landowner (85% leakage). A policy or program to buy carbon credits from landowners would need to discount additions to the carbon reserve by the estimated amount of leakage. In the scenarios evaluated, the timber set-asides reduced timberland area available for harvest up to 35% and available timber inventory up to 55%, relative to the baseline scenario over the next 50 years, resulting in projected changes in timber prices, harvest levels, and forest product revenues for the forest products sector.     

Assessing the Financial Performance of Forestry-Related Investment Vehicles: Capital Asset Pricing Model vs. Arbitrage Pricing Theory

Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and arbitrage pricing theory (APT) are used to assess the financial performance of eight forestry-related investment vehicles. Although results from APT support previous findings from CAPM about timberland investments, three bodies of evidence show that APT findings are more robust. The major conclusions are (a) institutional timberland investments and timberland limited partnerships have a low risk level and excess returns; (b) forestry industry companies have not earned risk-adjusted returns, and the performance of medium forest industry firms is worse than that of large firms; (c) stumpage price does not resemble the return generation process of timberland investments; and (d) lumber futures have little excess return.     

Scale of harvesting by non-industrial private forest landowners

We examine the intensity of harvesting decision by non-industrial landowners at the lowest price offer they deem acceptable, using a multiple bounded discrete choice stated preference approach that draws upon and connects two subfields of forestry, one identifying characteristics of landowners important to past harvesting or reforestation decisions, and another proposing how landowners evaluate price offers for forest harvesting decisions. Variables important to harvest intensity choices when the landowners find an acceptable price have only been considered for those landowners who actually have participated in harvesting markets, whereas here we examine the behavior of these individuals as well as those who are on the margin (i.e., have not harvested at prevailing current or past market prices). We show that harvest intensity depends critically on the extent of urbanization, indicated by the presence of structures on a parcel as well as forested tract size, along with landowner characteristics such as absenteeism and length of ownership. The results are useful for understanding the timber management behavior for a majority of landowners who may not harvest at prevailing prices, but may participate should prices reach a level acceptable to them, where this level is determined by individual preferences for standing timber resources.     

On the market risk of securitized timberlands

Over 10 million acres of timberlands in the United States have been securitized through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in recent years. Publicly traded timber REITs have better liquidity and tax efficiency than private ownership, but at the same time, they are exposed to higher market risk as public firms. In this study, copula modeling is employed to assess the joint distribution between daily returns of five timber REITs and a stock market index. Both constant and time-varying symmetrized Joe-Clayton copulas are estimated to evaluate the dependence of timber REITs on the equity market from 1994 to 2010. In most cases, there exist lower tail dependence for market stresses, upper tail dependence for market booms, and tail asymmetry between individual firms and the market. On average, the dependence measure becomes larger after a firm is converted into a REIT. Each firm has smaller volatility of tail dependence after the conversion, except for Plum Creek. These findings reveal that the REIT structure has introduced non-diversifiable market risk into its ownership, and thus the diversification benefit of publicly traded timber REITs in a portfolio may be limited.     

How forestland size affects household profits from timber harvests: A case-study in China’s Southern collective forest area

To improve the economies of scale in forest management and reduce the fragmentation of forestland, the Chinese central government has implemented a collective forest tenure supplementary reform since 2008. This has included a series of policies for motivating transfer of forestlands use rights among households in the country’s Southern Collective Forest Area (SCFA). However, to date there is little evidence that large-scale forest owners can earn more profits from timber harvests than small-scale forest owners in the SCFA. Using data collected from household surveys in the three of the SCFA’s provinces in 2016, this paper examines the return to scale of forestland ownership for timber harvests in this region, and how the scale of forestland ownership affects households’ profits from timber harvests. The results show a constant return to scale in timber harvests in the case provinces in China’s SCFA, that forestland area makes the most important contribution to the output of timber harvests, and that fragmentation of forestland results in lower profits from timber harvests. It appears that a moderate scale of forestland ownership should be identified for increasing the profits from timber harvests. With the rapid urbanization throughout China, an increase in off-farm employment among rural household members has a negative impact on timber harvests in the region. We argue that policymakers should realize the importance of encouraging the forestland transfers and improve the concentration of forestlands in the next stage of forest tenure rights reform in China’s SCFA.     

Relationships between absenteeism,conservation group membership,and land management among family forest owners

Absentee landowners, or those who do not live on their forestland, own approximately 117 million acres of private forestland in the U.S. Thus, their land management decisions and activities influence the flow of forest-based goods and services. We explore the question of whether absentee family forest owners are less active land managers than resident landowners and whether membership in conservation organizations is associated with higher levels of land management activity by absentee owners. To examine these questions, we administered a mail survey to randomly-selected family forest landowners in Indiana. While we found some support for the contention that absentee owners are less active forestland managers than resident owners, we also found they are not necessarily inactive landowners. We found absentee owners were less likely to have: inspected their forestland for invasive plants, pulled or cut invasive plants, used herbicides to kill invasive plants, reduced fire hazard, or grazed livestock than resident owners. Absentee owners were more likely to be enrolled in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands Program, a preferential forest property tax program. Absentee owners who are members of a conservation organization were more likely than absentee non-member owners to have undertaken a variety of land management activities, including: undertaking wildlife habitat improvement projects, inspecting their forestland for invasive plants, pulling or cutting invasive plants, enrolling in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands program, and obtaining a management plan.     

Bequest Intentions of Forest Landowners: Theory and Empirical Evidence

This article studies in an overlapping generations forest economy the conditions under which money and/or timber bequests occur across generations, assuming the usual case of one–sided altruism. We assume nonindustrial landowners have preferences for consumption and for amenities from unharvested forest stock. Within this framework, we examine conditions under which landowners choose to leave timber or money bequests, and we show how taxation is important to these conditions. Empirical evidence from bequests decisions for a cross–section sample of nonindustrial landowners in Virginia is then used to investigate the hypotheses suggested by the model with regard to the motive to leave bequests. The results are broadly consistent with the theoretical findings.     

世界森林生态系统的商品和服务评价

森林生态系统为人类提供了众多的商品和服务。商品性的木材生产是重要的全球性产业,木材燃料是当前主要的非化石能源,在可预见的未来,它将仍具有极大的重要性。森林的生物多样性在它拥有的效能是一种商品。森林在地球碳循环中起着中心作用,形成了最大的陆地碳库。在水源保护方面,森林提供了多种有价值的服务,森林的损失已使得世界的水源受到极大的影响。     

Valuing habitat regime models for the red-cockaded woodpecker in Mississippi

Managing Mississippi's forest lands to produce both quality wildlife habitat as well as merchantable timber can be a daunting challenge for forest managers and a source of great concern for the public. In some cases, producing both the quantity and quality of habitat needed and the timber desired is all but impossible. In other cases, a delicate balance that achieves both objectives can be struck. The objective of this study was to quantitatively estimate monetary gains and losses and changes in timber inventories relative to the timber growing stock when producing more or less habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) (Picoides borealis). USDA Forest Service vegetation data, habitat ratings, and economic variables were compiled for those regions of Mississippi best suited for RCWs. Data was then analyzed with Spectrum, the USDA Forest Service-based forest planning software. Models maximizing such objectives as net present value (NPV) alone as well as five different levels of RCW habitat quality over a 50-year rotation were developed. Revenue foregone, acres and volumes harvested, land expectation value (LEV), and equivalent annual income (EAI) were compared for all objectives for the South Central Hills and Pine Belt regions of Mississippi (1,036,208 acres) for three ownership types. As expected, when maximizing for any quality level of RCW habitat, revenue forgone was higher ($0.11–$49/acre/year) than for NPV alone. Volume harvested for high-quality habitat ranged from 152,296 to 10,237,649 cunits, while harvests from low-quality habitat ranged from 637,491 to 116,357,673 cunits. Lower levels of habitat management allowed for an increased emphasis on timber harvesting. In general, we determined that increases in habitat quality resulted in lower timber harvest levels and increased revenue forgone than regimes maximizing NPVs. While this result may be expected, of greater importance are the relative differences between regimes and the ability to use these values for policy decisions.     

Landowner valuation of a working wetlands program in the Prairie Pothole Region

Wetlands conservation within agricultural working lands is currently incentivized by land retirement programs and farm program eligibility criteria. Private ownership of the majority of agricultural lands within which these wetlands reside and growing opportunity costs facing landowners put wetlands at risk and motivate consideration of alternative policy options. A choice experiment was used to estimate likelihood of enrollment in a hypothetical working wetlands program. Landowners preferred shorter contract lengths, higher rental rates, midterm adjustment rather than a fixed‐rate contract, the right to conduct managed burning on their lands‐containing program wetlands, and no conservation practice requirement. Landowners with higher expressed valuation of conservation and who favor protecting wetlands, believe that small wetlands are important for their farms, who would not drain any of their wetlands, and raise ruminant animals are more inclined to participate in the program. Recommendations include consideration of program targeting during program design, practicing creative thought regarding program promotion, and exploration of no‐loss wetlands solutions, especially those market based.     

Economics of carbon sequestration under fluctuating economic environment,forest management and technological changes: An application to forest stands in the southern United States

This study presents a model that determines the effect of current and future payments for carbon sequestration, proportion of wood that sequesters carbon in long-lived product and landfills, and amount of carbon in the wood, on the optimal current forest harvest age. Increased current and future prices of carbon would lead to a longer and shorter harvest age, respectively. Higher current prices of carbon could increase the supply of carbon at a decreasing rate due to longer harvest ages. Moderate prices of carbon would encourage landowners to maintain standing timber. Policies focused then on stimulating landowners to hold timber on forestlands may not necessarily imply higher amounts of sequestered carbon. Increased future values of carbon could imply a reduction of the current supply of carbon.     

Futures markets and real estate public equity: Connectivity of lumber futures and Timber REITs

This paper investigates connectivity between lumber futures contracts, Timberland REITs, the FTSE NAREIT U.S. REIT index, spot prices, and timberland capitalization rates, and contributes to this tranche of research by empirically linking the price discovery process of Timberland Real Estate Investment Trusts to lumber futures. We employ VEC and GARCH models, providing evidence that lumber futures have a positive significant long- and short-run equilibrium relationship with publicly traded Timber REIT prices, connecting a specific futures commodity with its theoretically entwined real estate equity index. As such, exogenous factors that influence Timber REIT prices are documented leading to possible diversification/risk reduction strategies.     

Assessing land reallocation decisions during transition in Romania

The post-socialist countries underwent dramatic changes in agricultural land ownership and production system. Former socialist collective farms have been dismantled, rural land has been privatized, and land markets have been formalized. Nevertheless, more than a decade later farming associations still persist in the choices that landowners make in terms of land reallocation despite collective action problems and the availability of leasing-out land as a close substitute. While the decision of farming the land individually has been well understood, there is less research on why landowners join farming associations rather than participate in land transactions. The paper examines this question using household survey data from the two largest agro-regions in Romania. I find that farming associations constitute a good land reallocation option for landowners that are resource constrained but are still willing and able to be engaged in farming. Associations provide security of tenure and capital access, allowing landowners to draw on the benefits of scale economies. Leasing-out is a viable alternative for younger landowners who can engage in non-farming activities and for older landowners with limited farming abilities.     

Analysis of individual private forestry in northern Spain according to economic factors related to management

In addition to being motivated by profit, the management decisions taken by non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners involve other considerations beyond timber, such as non-timber goods and services, as well as factors that affect the level of timber output from the land. Ensuring and improving forest profitability to make NIPF management viable is one of the main challenges faced by this type of landowner. This study empirically explores and assesses management by NIPF owners, through analysing attributes of forest economics (investment in holdings, expenditure on planting and silviculture, public subsidies, along with timber and non-timber incomes). With the aim of predicting outcomes, a multiple regression model was also constructed to investigate and quantify the relationship between socioeconomic and holding factors, and the planting activities carried out by NIPF owners. For this, 103 resident forest landowners in a forest region in northern Spain were interviewed in person, during March 2004, about their commitment to and involvement in land management during the period 1999–2003. The results mainly revealed that attractive forest returns and favourable market conditions for timber production are significant factors for investment in and development of forestry, with personal and family conditions also being important factors in explaining the type of land management carried out. In particular, the multiple linear regression model for forest planting activity correctly explained 84.5% of the variability observed in the study population, indicating that both the investments in and the incomes from forestry play an important role in the activity, as does the size of the holding. The findings may be of interest in promoting public measures related to timber markets and economic incentives for forest management, which will allow landowners to develop economically viable practices, as well as enabling fulfilment of social and environmental demands for sustainable forestry and rural development.     

从三大效益角度分析伊春林权制度改革

任何改革都和效益分不开,改革就是为了追求最大效益的结果,国有林区林权制度改革本质上是一场效益改革。林业是一个特殊的行业,集三大效益即经济效益、生态效益和社会效益于一体,因而分析林权改革必须体现改革和效益的关系。对伊春林权改革的实施情况进行介绍,从经济、生态、社会角度来分析其改革的绩效,并从林权制度改革方案和相关配套制度两方面来分析林权改革存在的问题,针对这两方面问题提出完善林权改革的相应对策。     

试论林权概念的修正

林权作为一个法律概念,在林业实践中具有十分重要的地位。但长期以来,法学理论一直对林权内涵没有给予准确的界定。文章以此为立论基础,运用实证和比较分析的方法,通过对现行林业法和不同类型林权进行分析,将林权界定为自然人、法人或者其他组织对森林、林木、林地依法享有的占用、使用、收益或者处分的权利,在类型上包括森林、林木、林地所有权和森林、林木、林地使用权。     

The problem of fair division of surplus development rights in redevelopment of urban areas: Can the Shapley value help?

Many more people are expected to live in urban areas in the coming decades, and much of the physical transformation will take place in the built-up areas of cities. Landownership is a key factor in urban regeneration, and the fair division of benefits is a major obstacle to redeveloping urban land in a cooperative context. This paper aims to show that the Shapley value, a fair division scheme developed within the cooperative game theory framework, can be used to achieve a fair division of the surplus development rights among landowners remolding smaller and irregular parcels into bigger and regular ones, resulting in higher aggregate development rights. The methodology is illustrated by a case study of three parcels selected from the Karabaglar district in Izmir, Turkey, where surplus development rights are available for landowners cooperating for land amalgamation. The findings show that the Shapley values for the landowners satisfy the core conditions of the game and landowners can benefit from the highest possible development rights and share the surplus fairly. However, the current institutional setting has to be restructured to apply such division schemes.     

林地与农地制度变革的比较：产业特性的视角

土地制度改革一直是关系农村发展及社会稳定的重大问题。本文从产业特性的差异出发，对改革开放后林地与衣地制度改革路径中的制度安排与改革影响进行了比较，认为制度安排具有与产业特性相容的内在诉求，由于产业特性差异，林地制度对农地制度的简单复制难以凑效且不可持续，深化集体林权制度改革需要重视对林业特征的考察。     

采伐限额制度下实现经济效益最大化问题的研究

分析采伐限额制度的合理性,在这个前提下,探讨如何获得经济收益的最大化。林业资源的经济收益取决于市场状况的同时也受到它本身特性的约束,这里市场状况包括总体用材林限额决定的供给量和整体市场的需求量,林业资源特性包括林业用地的限制、木材培育费用和木材的生长期限。通过将市场状况和林业资源本身特点的结合,得出在不同的情况下如何使用和分配用材林采伐限额,在单位内转结的有效性或者在单位间转让的可能性,以实现在采伐限额制度下取得林业资源经济收益最大化。