Long‐Term Forest Resources Trade, Global Timber Supply, and Intertemporal Comparative Advantage

Abstract

Forestry today is experiencing a transition similar to that experienced in agriculture two or three millennia ago. Just as agriculture experienced a transition from foraging and hunting to cropping and livestock raising, so forestry today is experiencing a transition from production from naturally created old growth stands of timber to production from industrial forest plantations which involve investments in planting, growing, and harvesting of trees. Today, increasing portions of the world's industrial wood supply is the outgrowth of investments in forest plantations. The development of forest plantations can imply important changes in the underlying economics of forest production and in the comparative advantage of the various regions in the production of the forest resource.