Abstract
The sustainable management of tropical forests has been a great concern and challenge for the forest sector in the Brazilian Amazon. This study aimed to better understand sustainable forest management in the Brazilian Amazon focusing on two research questions: (a) Is sustainable tropical timber production financially viable? (b) What are the profit determinants under sustainable forest management? In this research, we assessed information of all approved forest management plans in 2011 in the Sinop region, located in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Sequentially, we selected and tested using econometric tools these variables: Profit, managed area, volume of timber, number of managed species and timber price. Our results show that the average profit is of US$ 1,003.00 per hectare in sustainably managed forests and we observed that the variables volume of timber per hectare and timber price explain the profit of this forest activity presenting the best fit econometric results. Key words: Economic analysis, forest management, timber production, tropical forest.
Highlights
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) had become an important research topic in the 1990's since the definition of its principles in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Wang, 2007)
Our results show that the average profit is of US$ 1,003.00 per hectare in sustainably managed forests and we observed that the variables volume of timber per hectare and timber price explain the profit of this forest activity presenting the best fit econometric results
We observed that forest management for timber production is a profitable business and this large profit variation can be explained by the type of the species and the extract volume by hectare in the property because a property with a high valued species and a high volume extraction will be much more profitable than a property with low valued species and low volume extraction that is a natural fact and can occur
Summary
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) had become an important research topic in the 1990's since the definition of its principles in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (Wang, 2007). Sustainable management is a broadly accepted terminology that defines forest management according to the principles of sustainable development and, it involves balancing social, economic and environmental values related to forest resources and taking these values into consideration for future generations (Canova, 2012). The SFM has been an alternative forest use to guarantee continuous long-term tropical timber production and those forest related environmental services. The SFM needs to be properly certified to assure to the consumers that forest products meet the environmental criteria. Certification efforts have been fostered as a means of improving sustainability in tropical forest management (Agrawal, 2008). The adoption of practices for SFM is crucial and only a few logging
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
