In: Economics
Economics of forestry - what is the basic question that needs to be answered? What is the answer to that question? How is the harvesting of forests affected by various factors that enter the Faustmann formula
Forest economics courses per se concentrate on the evaluation of
the forest resource, on BUSINESS MANAGEMENT principles as applied
to forest regeneration and stewardship, and forest products
industries, and on the relation of the forest resource and its
exploitation to national economic and social policies. Thus courses
address factors affecting the financial viability of a given
operation, the industry in general, and the objectives of society
as a whole.
Fiscal factors that affect the success of a particular operation
include the revenues and costs involved in licensing of public
timberland; TAXATION; industrial legislation and regulation; costs
of inputs and prices of commodities; geographic distribution of
customers (as it affects transportation costs); marketing
constraints; LABOUR MARKETS; and various federal and provincial
policies. The forest economist must also be familiar with technical
aspects of forest management and industrial production, and should
have at least some knowledge of forest ecology, the processing of
timber products, technological innovation and WILDLIFE
MANAGEMENT.
FORESTRY resembles agriculture in that both deal with CROPS, but
the differences between them point out some of the constraints that
forest economists must consider. For example, agricultural land is
usually cropped annually; forests must be managed over several
years (the shortest crop cycle, that of hybrid POPLAR for pulpwood,
is approximately 10 years). Failure to do so threatens the
long-term viability of an operation also has a negative effect on
the ECOSYSTEM. On the other hand this extended perspective has some
advantages: it enables the industry to make management decisions,
marketing arrangements and other plans for the longer term.
Another difference between forestry and agriculture is that while
farmers own their land or rent it from private owners, most
forestland is publicly owned (the provinces own 71%, the federal
government 23%). This may create a conflict between short- and
long-run objectives for public forests. There are also several
economic and social activities, such as grazing, HUNTING,
recreation or watershed protection, that may conflict with timber
harvesting in some locations.
Finally, the scale of operation is also an important factor for
forest economists. Farms occupy a few square kilometres, but at
least 30 million ha are cropped annually. In contrast, forest areas
under management are often much larger, but only 1 million ha, or
less than one-quarter of 1%, are harvested in a given year.
Analytical Framework
While forest economists apply general economic ideas such as supply
and demand, and other market factors like financial rates of
return, capital investment, development, conservation, etc, they
must take great care when choosing the analytical framework they
work with. For example, the relative costs and benefits of forest
management differ depending on the length of time under
consideration; on whether the calculation involves indirect as well
as direct effects; on whether it is done from the perspective of an
individual company, a province or a national economy. An
experienced analyst can ensure the recognition of economic, social,
environmental and political linkages.
One of the most important issues today is the apparent conflict
among forestry investment criteria. The traditional approach in
professional forestry was to emphasize biological growth. A forest
was said to be mature and ready for harvesting when timber of
sawlog size was available, or when a timber stand ceased to add
volume because annual growth was exceeded by disease, decay and
mortality. In recent decades, support has grown for the concept of
financial rotation, whereby the ideal harvest date is set by its
calculated maximum value to the owner. A financial rotation age is
based on economic efficiency as measured by market prices, costs
and profitability. It assumes free competition and the absence of
external costs to the ENVIRONMENT, wildlife, etc. This method tends
to favour exploitation for timber over other values.
Since timber supply problems began to emerge worldwide in the
1970s, the fairness of liquidating forest capital was questioned.
This change in attitude resulted in the increasing use of
CONSERVATION criteria that seek to keep the resource base
essentially intact over time. This is a goal with particular appeal
to managers of public land who do not operate by the profit motive
and are not expected to apply corporate financial criteria.
Conservation tends to emphasize stewardship of ecosystems rather
than timber.
This approach does not mean a complete break from financial rates
of return. Provincial land managers must still use financial
methods to allocate funds budgeted for REFORESTATION, and they must
choose among sites and silvicultural treatments to achieve the best
growth and yield possible with limited funds. Economics aside, the
only politically and socially acceptable policy, for public and
private forest managers alike, is to replant promptly after
harvest. But how much should be spent on intensive silvicultural
activities, such as thinning and fertilizing? For provincial
foresters the answer is largely political, though it is based on
expected long-term economic and social benefits. Private industry
and small woodlot owners apply a variety of measures to determine
the level of forest management, usually with a shorter time in mind
than their public counterparts and with taxes playing a key
role.Deforestation is one of the major effects posed by the
smallholder tobacco farming as the farmers heavily depend on
firewood sourced from natural forest for curing tobacco. The
research aims at assessing the factors that influence the
harvesting of natural forest in the production of tobacco. Data is
collected through the structured questionnaire from 60 randomly
selected farmers. Binary logistic regression model is used to
explain the significance of factors influencing natural forest
harvesting. Results show that farmer experience, tobacco selling
price, and agricultural training level negatively affect the
harvesting of natural forests (to obtain firewood) for curing
tobacco significantly (). However, gender, size of the household,
tobacco yield, and level of education are insignificant () in
influencing natural forest harvesting. Though farmers are
exploiting the environment and at the same time increasing foreign
currency earning through tobacco production, there is therefore a
need to put in place policies that encourage sustainable forest
product utilization such as gum plantations, subsidizing price of
coal, and introducing fees, as well as penalties or taxes to the
offenders.
Faustmann's formula, or theFaustmann Model, gives the present value of the income stream for forest rotation. It was derived by the German forester Martin Faustmann in 1849. ... The optimal time to cut is when the time rate of change of its value is equal to the interest rate modified by land rent.
ƒ(T) is the stock of timber at time T
p the price of timber and is constant
which implies that the value of the forest at time T is pf(T)
r is the discount rate and is also constant.
The Faustmann formula is as follows: