On Equilibrium Cycles and Normal Forests in Optimal Harvesting of Tree Vintages

In the current paper we examine the role of forest carbon sequestration benefits in optimal forest management. When carbon benefits are considered not only the forested area is relevant, but also the flow of carbon between land and the atmosphere through the carbon cycle. To account for all these impacts a multi-vintage forest setting is used, following Salo and Tahvonen (2004). The model is extended to three different carbon accounting methods to measure the benefits form carbon sequestration: carbon flow regime, tonne-year crediting and average storage. In the case of the carbon flow regime, the impact on the optimal management and allocation of land will depend upon the amount of carbon released when the forest is harvested. Under the other two accounting systems optimal steady state forest area will be increased, and in cases where optimal management imply cyclical harvesting, considering carbon benefits will always increase cycles dimension.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Vintages and Carbon Sequestration

Costa-Duarte

Cunha-e-Sá

2006

“…We recall that optimal forest management has developed since the late 1970s following Samuelson's review paper (Samuelson, 1976), and mainly focuses on the dynamics of forest rotation on a fully occupied plot of land, where new trees are immediately replanted after old trees are cut (see, e.g. Mitra & Wan, 1985, 1986Salo & Tahvonen, 2002, 2003Khan & Piazza, 2012;Fabbri et al, 2015). Immediate replanting and continuous full occupation of the land are justified by the assumptions that cutting and replanting costs are null and that the productive life of trees is finite.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Ricardian Model of Forestry

Faggian

Freni

2015

T his paper provides a continuous-tim e "R icardian" m odel of forestry, w here, in response to an increase in tim ber dem an d, forest cultivation is progressively intensified on the m ost fertile lands and/or extended to less fertile qualities of lands. It is show n that, at a given level of the rate of interest, a set of "break-through tim ber prices" gives the order of fertility (i.e., the order in w hich the different qualities of land are taken into cultivation) and that, for each land, prices of standing trees are positive above a "threshold tim ber price". Since, for each land, the break -through price is higher than the threshold price, R icardo is show n to be right: a higher dem and for tim ber could sim ply raise those com ponents of the landlord com pensation w hich are not rent.

“…For the multiple vintage forest model, Salo and Tahvonen [1], [2] and [3], were able to provide a full proof for the optimality of the long run equilibrium of a normal forest based on the Faustmann rotation period, that is, the one that maximizes present value from timber production. The results are based on a strictly concave utility function for timber harvesting and positive discounting, as well as on the possibility of allocating part of the land to other uses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous versus Discrete Time Forest Management Models with Carbon Sequestration Benefits

Costa-Duarte

Cunha-e-Sá²

2006

Forest literature uses both continous and discrete time models to study forest management problems, and when carbon sequestration benefits are considered, the results obtained in both approaches are not always equivalent. This issue is relevant from a policy point of view if credits are to be allocated to forest owners within the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. This note explores the impact of different carbon sequestration accounting methods on both settings. It studies the specific conditions for optimal rotation period and the value of a marginal unit of bare land on a one stand model and compare them with the long run optimal stationary steady state of a forest vintage model.