Forest Endowment Research Articles

Forest carbon trade in Malaysia: Early assessment of awareness, knowledge, and constraints among forest owners

Forest carbon credit project developments throughout the world can contribute to nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change. With Malaysia’s large forest endowment, a study was conducted to evaluate the awareness and knowledge among forest owners, and to identify the main constraints faced when venturing into forest carbon credit projects. A total of 75 companies in both forest plantations and natural forests were involved in the study. The results clearly suggest that knowledge and awareness of forest carbon credit projects is relatively low among forest owners. Hence, forest carbon credit projects development in the country is relatively slow and only a few projects have had serious development to the auction phase. The slow uptake of carbon projects is plagued by the low carbon credit price, lack of clarity in the national carbon policy, limited expertise and capability for project development, and the lack of financing mechanisms for project development. Forest owners prefer biomass production and timber production due to the higher economic returns. Against this background, policymakers as well as federal-state initiatives need to address the gaps with the forest carbon credit project development ecosystem, in order to facilitate and realize the full carbon sequestration potential of the country.

An Empirical Analysis of Relationships between Forest Resources and Economic and Green Performances in the European Union

The growing concern for environmental sustainability drives efforts toward balancing economic growth with responsible resource management. Forests represent invaluable green assets central to combating climate change and supporting biodiversity. This research investigates the intricate interaction between forest resources and economic and green performances within the European Union (EU). The European Union, as a conglomerate of diverse member states with varying forest endowments and economic contexts, provides a rich framework for examining these connections. This paper applies structural equation modeling (SEM) and cluster analysis to a dataset collected from Eurostat. This study’s empirical findings underscore the multidimensional relationship between forest resources and green and economic performances. The findings reveal significant positive relationships between economic and green performances and forest resources and a negative relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and forest resources, implying a decline in GHG while green and economic performances increase. Cluster analysis identifies distinct groups of EU countries exhibiting similar profiles concerning forest management and economic and green performances. The cluster analysis results highlight the necessity for tailored strategies and policy benchmarking that acknowledge the heterogeneity of EU member states and their unique combinations of forest resources, economic structures, and ecological commitments.

A Gravity Model Analysis of Forest Products Trade Between Turkey and European Union Countries

The study aimed to understand the determining factors of the trade between Turkey and the European Union (EU) countries in the forest products sector and assess Turkey’s forest product export potential to the EU. The study period was from 2005 to 2020 and focused on HS44, HS47, and HS48 forest product groups. A gravity model was estimated using panel data with the Ordinary Least Squares, Random Effects, and Hausman-Taylor estimation methods. Results indicate that the forest products exports from Turkey to the EU are significantly influenced by the Gross Domestic Product, the population of Turkey and the EU partner, and negatively by the relative forest endowment. The elasticities estimated were then used to predict the export potential of Turkey in the trade of forest products. The findings revealed that the predicted forest export value exceeded Turkey’s actual forest products export to Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia and Spain from 2005 to 2020.

劳动力转移和森林管护水平对森林碳密度的影响——基于福建253个村的实证研究

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 劳动力转移和森林管护水平对森林碳密度的影响——基于福建253个村的实证研究 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202110172926 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 中央高校建设世界一流大学（学科）和特色发展引导专项（中国人民大学2022年） Effects of labor transfer and forest management on forest carbon density based on an empirical study of 253 villages in Fujian Province Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:森林生态系统具有重要的固碳功能，有效的森林管理是提升碳密度的重要方式。随着农村劳动力转移，森林管护水平也随之变化，进而可能影响森林碳密度。为了厘清劳动力转移和森林管护水平对森林碳密度的作用机理，以提升森林碳密度。利用福建5县（区）253个村1999年与2009年的林业二类调查数据和入村调研数据，采用转换因子连续函数法评价了森林碳密度，再运用层次回归模型分析了劳动转移对森林碳密度的影响，并检验了森林管护水平对二者的中介作用。结果表明：（1）10年间森林碳密度普遍提升，但区域差异明显；空间上森林碳密度呈由南向北递增，提升率呈由南向北递减。（2）劳动力转移对森林碳密度有显著促进作用，而森林管护水平对森林碳密度有显著削弱作用，并对劳动力转移与森林碳密度之间的关系具有显著中介效应。（3）劳动力特征、采伐方式及森林自然禀赋等因素，主要通过生计依赖、生境状况和生物量对森林碳密度产生显著影响。据此提出：适当减少对森林的人为干扰，丰富林农生计来源，转变林业经营目标，科学采伐成熟和过熟林，保护天然起源林，丰富人工林树种等政策建议。 Abstract:Forest ecosystem has the function of carbon sequestration, and effective management is essential to increase its carbon density. However, as rural labor transferred, the level of forest management changed accordingly, which in turn affected the carbon density of forest ecosystem. It is necessary to clarify such influencing mechanism so as to maintain the high carbon density. Thus, based on the official forestry survey data and questionnaire survey data of 253 villages in five counties (districts) of Fujian Province from 1999 to 2009, this paper evaluated the forest carbon density by adopting the conversion factor continuous function method. Then hierarchical regression model was developed to analyze the effect of labor transfer on forest carbon density, and to verify the mediating effect of forest management. The results showed that:(1) The forest carbon density in the sample area generally showed an upward trend in the past 10 years, but presented significant regional differences in space. The forest carbon density increased from south to north, while the lifting rate decreased from south to north. (2) Forest carbon density is significantly promoted by the labor transfer and weakened by forest management, where forest management exerted a significant mediating effect on the relationship between labor transfer and forest carbon density. That is, the labor transfer can ultimately promote the increase of forest carbon density through weakening the level of forest management and reducing the human disturbance. (3) Factors including labor characteristics, harvesting methods and natural forest endowments have significant impacts on forest carbon density. Specifically, the higher the average age of the labor force engaged in forestry production in the village, the higher the forest carbon density. It is related to the reduced dependence on forest livelihoods as the workforce ages. The proportion of harvesting has a significant positive effect on the increase of forest carbon density, due to the benefits from appropriate harvesting to the stock volume and the regeneration of understory vegetation. Natural forest origin positively affects the carbon density, attributed to its abundance in tree species and better function of carbon sequestration. Single tree species negatively impact the forest carbon density, which conversely proves that richer forest tree species contribute to overall carbon density increase. To this end, suggestions are proposed as follows:appropriately reducing the artificial interference to forest ecosystem, enriching livelihood sources of foresters, transforming the objectives of forestry management, scientifically harvesting the mature and overripe forests, protecting natural origin forests, and enriching plantation tree species. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Forestry and the forest products sector: Production, income and employment, and international trade

Latin America is a crucial source of global forest values—whether the domestic and export values of commercial production or the global non-commercial values of forest services like carbon sequestration and biodiversity or the less-measured and generally more local contributions like watersheds and tourism. This paper reviews the extensive forest sector data for the period 1990–2020 for 19 South and Central American countries plus Mexico. Its intent is to show the larger flows displayed in the basic measures of forests and forest products, forest area and stocking, natural and plantation, certified or not, products export and domestic, in total and relative to country GDPs and population levels. The major producers, Brazil, Chile and, more recently Uruguay, are obvious. But distinctions are important for policy; distinctions within these three major producers, distinctions between the three and other Latin American countries with large forests (Argentina and Venezuela, for example), and distinctions between the generally higher income Latin American and other lower income developing countries with large forest endowments elsewhere in the world. Exports are a substantial segment of total commercial forest production for some Latin American countries and distinctions in the expected trends, the projected future, of their larger export markets are largely beyond the management of domestic policy but they too will be important to the future of the Latin American forest sector. It is these various distinctions and their implications that are the focus of this paper.

Structural determinants of global trade in graphic paper and pulp products

Both trade and production of graphic paper have decreased over the last three decades. While this general decrease can partially be attributed to increased prominence of information technology, the overall figure is devoid of context and thus of most of its meaning to global economy. In this study we aim to break this trend down across the geographical and temporal scope, across its supply-chain commodities and to find out what drives the global trade patterns. Econometric trade models focus on the trading countries and direct exports or imports but fail to consider the structural and the indirect trade relations. We take the approach of network analysis, where the emphasis is on the structure of trade and not on country-level descriptors.We focus on 1995–2017 period as within it this decrease can be observed and assess the entire graphic paper and pulp supply chain, consisting out of printing and writing paper, mechanical wood pulp, chemical wood pulp, semichemical wood pulp, pulp made from fiber other than wood, recovered paper and paperboard. We employ descriptive statistical and network analysis, grouping and role analysis, and end with an inferential logistic regression quadratic assignment procedure model.Results show that newsprint trade decline is mirrored in printing and writing paper and mechanical wood pulp. The trade network densities have remained generally stable throughout the observed period, but the topological proprieties of the individual product groups vary greatly. Although no stabile grouping of countries throughout the assessed period could be observed, role analysis shows that countries tend to trade within their continent, that European countries are at the core of the trade network, and that the structural shift of decline of the trade value is followed by increasing prominence of several Asian countries, such as China and Indonesia. The most important finding of the study is that internal trade effects such as reciprocity and transitivity are much more explanatory than classical effects used in trade models such as GDP per capita, geographical distance or forest endowment.

Fuelwood Consumption, Restrictions about Resource Availability and Public Policies: Impacts on the French Forest Sector

In the context of climate change and of increasing energy prices, the share of fuelwood in primary energy consumption may increase, especially in countries with large forest endowments. However, larger fuelwood consumption may have non-negligible impacts on forest sectors. This paper assesses those impacts for France using a new model of the French forest sector, and comparing four different policy options to boost fuelwood demand. First, supply- and demand-side policies yield very different outcomes, with a trade-off between trade balance and harvest intensity. Second, even a modest increase in fuelwood consumption leads to tensions over forest stock over time under pessimistic views about resource availability.

Did Government Expenditure on the Grain for Green Project Help the Forest Carbon Sequestration Increase in Yunnan, China?

Reasonably assessing the effectiveness of government expenditure on the Grain for Green project (GFG) in providing forest carbon sequestration would contribute to the development of China’s forest carbon sequestration. Using the government expenditure data from the GFG in Yunnan Province from 2001 to 2015 and the MODIS Land Cover Type (MCD12Q1) time-series datasets, we calculated the forest carbon sequestration of various counties (cities or districts). The impacts of GFG government expenditure on forest carbon sequestration were empirically evaluated by the least squares dummy variables method (LSDV). The research results indicate that a 1% increase in government expenditure on the GFG yielded a 0.0364% increase in forest carbon sequestration. However, the effects of GFG government expenditure on forest carbon sequestration differed greatly in different areas because of the diversity of the natural environments, forest resource endowment, and government policies. If the initial forest endowment was not considered, the effectiveness of government expenditure on the GFG in providing forest carbon sequestration would have been overestimated. This study argues that, to improve the efficiency of GFG government expenditure in Yunnan Province, more investment should be made in regions with positive regression coefficients that have passed the significance t-test, such as Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the northwest, Baoshan City in the west, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the south, and Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the east.

European trade in forest products and fuels

Abstract The purpose has been to determine to what extent differences in net trade and revealed comparative advantage between EU member states could be explained by differences in forest endowments, domestic demand, energy policies and other country specific characteristics. An adopted model of the Heckscher–Ohlin theory, suggesting a direct relationship between a country's trade, forest endowments and income (HOV model), has been empirically estimated for three forest products (roundwood, chips & particles and wood fuel), 19 European countries and for the period 1994–2006. Both net export and an index of revealed comparative advantages was constructed and used as dependent variables. Moreover, different model specification was estimated using different measures of forest endowments. The results suggest that forest endowments are an important determinant for explaining differences in net trade of the included forest commodities. However, domestic demand, measured by income level, is not. Thus, the results provide mixed support for the HOV model.

Forest endowment, logging restrictions, and China's wood products trade

Abstract This paper uses the gravity model to investigate determinants of China's wood products trade from 1995 to 2004. The results suggest that trade partners' forest resource endowment and China's own logging restrictions policy affect its wood products imports and exports. China's exported wood products are shown to be inferior goods while China's imported wood products are labor intensive for the exporting countries. Due to rises in Chinese currency against other major currency, transportation costs, and foreign trade actions, China's wood products exports and imports may slow down. The results may have implications on trade and global forest resource conservation.

A gravity model analysis of China's pulp and paper products trade

We used a gravity model to investigate determinants of China’s pulp and paper products trade from 1995 to 2005. The results show that an importing country’s economy size, forest endowment, distance to China, exchange rate, and membership in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), plus China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its forest products policy change implemented in 1998, all significantly affect China’s pulp and paper products exports. On the other hand, China’s pulp and paper products imports are affected by exporting countries’ economic size, forest and capital endowment, APEC membership, China’s accession to the WTO, and tariff reductions on forest products.

Why May Forest Devolution Not Benefit the Rural Poor? Forest Entitlements in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

Summary This paper examines the effects of forest devolution on the livelihoods of the rural poor. The paper analyzes changes in forest endowments and entitlements among households brought about by “forestland allocation” in two villages of Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Its results indicate that not only the nature of devolved rights but also broader political and economic processes influence the extent and distribution of benefits. Even where devolution generates benefits to local people in poor areas, local power relations and the institutions regulating access to productive resources may constrain the ability of the “poorest of the poor” to take advantage of devolution.

Forest devolution in Vietnam: Differentiation in benefits from forest among local households

Abstract Proponents of forest devolution argue that by involving local people in forest management, forest devolution can improve economic efficiency. While empirical evidence shows that outputs of devolution remain unclear across locations, the issues of whether or not devolution can generate economic benefits for local households and how the benefits from forest are distributed among them arise. This paper subjects these questions to empirical research in thirteen villages in Dak Lak province of Vietnam. The purpose of the paper is to examine the distribution of forest benefits among local households and the links between household productive resources and the benefits from devolved forests. Two major types of benefits are identified: the forest endowments (legal rights over forest) and forest entitlements (actual harvests from forest). Findings show a wide differentiation in forest benefits, particularly forest entitlements, among local households. Wealth, labor capacity and political position were influential to the distribution of forest benefits. Furthermore, there exists a difference between forest endowments and forest entitlements. Not only the legal rights over the forest but also access are needed to bring in true economic benefits for local people.

Community participation in forest resource management in Nepal

Livelihood of the people in Nepal hills depends much upon forest resources in addition to farming as forest plays a critical role in the well being of the farming households where access to alternative sources, such as energy for cooking, nutrition for animals, materials for fertilizer and constructing materials for shelter, are limited. Thus, the well being of the people in the hills is directly affected by the management of these forest resources. This issue was addressed in this paper by examining the forest resource management practices and its effect on well being of rural people in two different stages in a village lying in the steep hill of Mahabharat Range in the southern hills of Kathmandu valley, Lalitpur District. The main ethnic/caste groups in the village are Brahmin/Chhetri (high Hindu caste), Magar/Tamang (Tibeto Burmans) and Kami (occupational caste: cobbler). Currently there are four community forest users groups, with mixed ethnic membership, organized to manage the forest resources. The endowments, weak institutional settings, before 1990 helped the Bhramins, Magars and Tamangs to get access into the private forest endowment, which made them easy to get access to the forest resources, mainly fuel wood, fodder and timber in 1990 and enhanced their well beings. But the socially backward Kami could not get benefit from the institutions that existed during that time and had less chance to enhance their well beings. After the set up of different endowments during late 1990s, i.e., hand over of forest management to users groups in line with the concept of community forest, environment to use the forest resources became better for all the groups, along with the management of the forest. This enhanced the well beings of all the groups in the study village. However, the ability of Kami to use the forest resources to enhance their well beings was still lacking behind. The reason was partially due to the difference in endowments carried over from the endowments before 1990, and partly due to their occupational work and location of their settlements.

Efficient and equitable forest rent capture in three pacific island nations: Opportunities and impediments in forest policy reform

Various contrasts may be observed in the way three Pacific island countries - Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - exploit their natural forest endowments. The modes of exploitation, the efficiency of forest revenue systems and the sustainability of forest allocation mechanisms are analysed. It is argued that equity issues are also important in forest policy given that forests in all three countries are under customary tenure. The forest revenue system in PNG is criticised for being inefficient and inequitable. In the Solomons the rate of logging is found to be unsustainable, being linked to the country's economic crisis. In Vanuatu a logging ban has stimulated timber processing, but probably at a cost to the economy, and has failed to confer sustainability on the industry. Changes to forest revenue systems and forest allocation procedures that would enhance efficiency, equity, sustainability and conservation are identified, along with impediments to these changes.

Comparative advantage and forest endowment in forest products trade: evidence from panel data of OECD-countries

abstract This paper provides panel data evidence on the question of how forest endowment and economic activity affect net exports of industrial roundwood and forest products. 18 OECD countries are studied with data covering the years 1977-1998. Our results derived from the cross-sectional variation of the variables give limited support to earlier findings that have supported the so-called Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) theorem. We identify two groups of countries: one group where net exports index of forest products have mostly had an increasing trend over the studied period, and another one where this trend has been decreasing or stagnant. In the latter group of countries the H-O theorem is confirmed while the data drawn from the first group fail to confirm the theorem. Analysis based on the longitudinal variation of the data showed that there has not been any long-run impact of changes in either the forest endowment or economic activity on the level of net exports of forest products. On the other hand net exports do have an impact on timber production. While historical differences in forest industries and resources still exist between developed countries the role of forest resources is becoming less important in shaping the development of forest industries in these countries.

Differences in final felling and thinning behaviour between owner categories in Sweden

This paper develops a simple two‐period present value maximizing model of forest management. The production possibility is determined by the initial forest endowment, a growth function and transformation relations between thinnings, final fellings, pulpwood supply and sawtimber supply. The model is applied on thinnings and final fellings data of three different ownership categories in Sweden; private industrial, private non‐industrial and public owners. The results show lower price elasticities than previous studies where no distinction between ownership categories are made. Also, a previously unused inventory variable seems to have an important explanatory power.

Conflicting Objectives in Forest Policy: The Case of British Columbia

This paper takes a critical look at some of the basic principles on which forest management policies in British Columbia are based. Much of our present management procedures are designed to serve technical objectives which can be traced to traditional forestry principles imported from Europe. These, it is suggested, are inappropriate criteria for maximizing the value we obtain from our forest endowment in modern conditions of rapid change and growing competitive demands on the resource base. It is argued that our well established concepts of sustained yield, full utilization and maximum wood growth, among other things, should be re-appraised in the light of modern economic criteria for maximizing the values generated by forest resources.