Economics of boreal conifer species in continuous cover and rotation forestry

Abstract

We study the management regimes of size-structured boreal Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestric L.) stands. Our aim is to compare the economic profitability of continuous cover and rotation forestry and to study the hypothesis that continuous cover forestry is more favourable for Norway spruce compared to Scots pine. The optimization is carried out with two different empirical growth models by using a theoretically sound economic optimization model with optimal timing of thinning and the choice of management regimes. The model is solved as a tri-level problem, where rotation period choice is the highest level, thinning timing is the middle-level and thinning intensity the lowest-level problem. Independently of the ecological models, continuous cover forestry is found to be less favourable for Scots pine compared to Norway spruce. However, the extent of this favourability and the characteristics of the optimal solutions strongly depend on the ecological model used. Also, optimal continuous cover solutions for Scots pine have very low stand densities and many of the economically optimal solutions violate the new Finnish Forest Act of 2014.