Wood Prices Research Articles

Fundamental consideration on public participation in forest development using the forest ecotax in Kochi Prefecture

Prices of wood have fallen since the import price of foreign wood fell in Japan. It caused a decline of management will of forestry managers. Consequently, forest desolation progresses. People are anxious about the decline of the function of forests and outbreak of natural disasters, etc. In Kochi, in order to preserve the forest by all people of the prefecture, the forest ecotax was introduced from fiscal 2003.After introduction of the tax, consciousness of residents of the prefecture towards forest management has been enhanced, but it is not sufficient yet.In this research, the authors did literature surveys and interviews, identified and analyzed problems, and proposed their solutions. The first proposal is collaboration and cooperation from the silviculture workers and Kochi prefecture with volunteers to increase the opportunities and amount of volunteer activities. The second proposal is active disclosure of information on volunteers' activities. These measures are expected to bring effects of better understanding of the forest ecotax and raising concerns with forest by residents of the prefecture. Through these effects, the authors hope that development and management of forests through active participation by residents of a prefecture will be promoted.

Economic impacts on the forest sector of increasing forest biodiversity conservation in Finland

In the next coming years, political decisions will be made upon future actions to safeguard forest biodiversity in Southern Finland. We address the economic consequences on the Finnish forest sector of conserving additional 0.5% to 5% of the old growth forest land in Southern Finland. The impacts on supply, demand and prices of wood and forest industry production are analysed employing a partial equilibrium model of the Finnish forest sector. An increase in conservation raises wood prices and thus the production costs of the forest industry. This makes sawnwood production fall, but does not affect paper and paperboard production. The forest owners’ aggregated wood sales income is unaffected or slightly increased, because an increase in stumpage prices offsets the decrease in the harvests. If conservation increases wood imports, negative effects on forest industry become smaller whereas aggregated forest owners’ income may decline depending on the magnitude of import substitution.

Public cost-sharing in private forest investments in Finland 1983–2000

A model of public cost-sharing in private forest investment is proposed to describe the substitution between the private financing of investments and public investment assistance. The substitution depends on the curvature conditions of the forest investment function on forest stock. When the second-order investment effects are close to zero or when they do not exist, the funding substitution will not take place. A simultaneous econometric model for private and public funding employing forest incomes, forest income taxes, interest rates, investment scale and market wood price expectations as exogenous variables is estimated. The model estimation based on Finnish regional data in 1983–2000 rejects the substitution alternative. A 10% increase in private investment funding increases the demand for public funding at the same rate, but a 10% increase in public funds will increase the private funds supply by 2.5%. Significant income effects are found only in the case of private funding. In northern Finland, the scale effects are large for public financial assistance. The effects of the income tax reform on the private supply of funds are positive, especially for the new wood-sales profit taxation, whereas the interest rate and price expectation effects are negative.

Avaliação financeira de plantações de eucalipto submetidas a desbaste

O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar o regime de manejo mais rentável, dentre as variações de idade e intensidades de desbaste, índice de local, taxas de juros, preços de madeira e idades de corte final. Para tanto, utilizaram-se dados de um experimento de desbaste instalado na Empresa Copener Florestal Ltda., Bahia. O sistema de prognose empregado foi desenvolvido por Clutter (1963). O método de avaliação financeira utilizado foi o Benefício Periódico Equivalente (BPE). Os resultados indicaram que o regime com desbaste foi mais rentável economicamente, comparado ao regime sem desbaste. No entanto, à medida que aumentou a intensidade de desbaste, os valores de BPE tenderam a diminuir. Pôde-se observar, também, que menores taxas de juros e maiores índices de local tenderam a aumentar a rentabilidade dos regimes. O regime que proporcionou maior rentabilidade foi o do desbaste realizado aos 4 anos e o corte final aos 9 anos. Não houve influência significativa das variáveis índice de local, taxa de juros e custo de implantação, na determinação do regime mais rentável, ou seja, o regime mais rentável permaneceu sendo do desbaste aos 4 e corte final aos 9 anos. No entanto, a variável preço da madeira do desbaste influenciou a determinação do regime mais rentável, e o aumento no preço de acordo com a idade de colheita resultou em desbaste aos 6 anos e o corte final aos 9 anos, como o regime mais rentável. Da mesma forma, a elevação no preço da madeira do corte final, de acordo com a idade de corte, resultou em desbaste aos 4 anos e corte final aos 12 anos, como o regime mais rentável. A simulação de elevação no preço da madeira do desbaste e do corte final, simultaneamente ao mesmo tempo, gerou como regime de manejo mais rentável o desbaste aos 6 anos e o corte final aos 12 anos. Concluiu-se que houve influência direta das variáveis preço da madeira do desbaste e do corte final na determinação do regime mais rentável.

English Woodlands and the Supply of Fuel for Industry

The perception of post-medieval English woodlands as a dwindling resource, felled to fuel industries whose consumption of charcoal and wood was unsustainable, was widely held in the middle of the 20th century. However, research into woodland and industrial management has shown that for many estates coppicing practices made woods a renewable resource, and that the development of industrial uses of mineral fuel was not only to combat increasing wood prices but also due to the inherent attractions of innovative coal-using processes. It has become clear that at the end of the Middle Ages coppicing was not universal, and that the skills of managing sustainable woodlands developed over the 16th and 17th centuries. Archive and archaeological evidence shows that after a peak in the use of wood-derived fuels at the threshold of the Industrial Revolution, woodland management shifted towards the production of timber, with cutting-cycles longer than those practised for the fuel trades. This paper considers aspects of the archaeology of woodland management: how far woodland products and their industrial destinations can be identified; the physical indicators of former managed woodlands; patterns of change over the post-medieval period, and concludes with a brief consideration of the socio-economic context of the woodland economy.

FORESTRY SECTOR REFORM AND DISTRIBUTIONAL CHANGE OF NATURAL RESOURCE RENT IN INDONESIA

After the collapse of the centralized Soeharto regime, deforestation caused by over-logging accelerated. To tackle this problem, an IMF/World Bank-led forestry sector reform program adopted a market-friendly approach involving the resumption of round wood exports and raising of the resource rent fee, with the aim to stop rent accumulation by plywood companies, which had enjoyed a supply of round wood at privileged prices. The Indonesian government, for its part, decentralized the forest concession management system to provide incentives for local governments and communities to carry out sustainable forest management. However, neither policy reform worked effectively. The round wood export ban was reimposed and the forest management system centralized again with cooperation from a newly funded industry-led institution. In the midst of the confusion surrounding the policy reversal, the gap between the price of round wood in international and domestic markets failed to contract, although rent allocations to plywood companies were reduced during 1998–2003. The rents were not collected properly by the government, but accumulated unexpectedly in the hands of players in the black market for round wood.

Lithuania

In Lithuania forests occupy about 2 million hectares, it consists 31.3% of total land area. 32.2% of forests are privately owned. Annual removal is 6.5 million m³. The main production of the Lithuanian woodworking industry is sawn wood, furniture. Lithuanian forests are not only the source of wood products but also non- wood forest products such as berries, mushrooms, game etc. Forests are owned by 222.2 thousands private forest owners and 42 state forest enterprises. Forest industry consists 873 companies; most of there are SME’s. The main factors effecting the competitiveness of forest-wood /non-wood/servicesconsumer chain from the point of view of entrepreneurship in Lithuania: rich wood and non-wood products resources; low level of round wood prices;, favourable geographical location; low cost of labour; the possibilities to get financial support from EU funds. Barriers to entrepreneurship: low level of domestic market development for wood and non-wood products (especially for small-sized round wood); the small-scale private forestry; high transaction cost for entrepreneurship; low capital resources (GDP per capita is low; biggest part of consumption expenditures fall to food and housing); low level of investments and innovations; very weak integration of forest sector to rural development programmes; low knowledge of business establishment and management; weak connections between research and business. The main problems and research questions for enterprise development in the forest sector: domestic market development strategies; urban consumers demand for forest products and services, integration of forestry into rural development; clasterisation of wood working industry; social structure of small-scale private forest owners; conflicts resolutions of multipurpose forest utilisation.

Finnish sawlog market under forest taxation reform

The stepwise transition in forest taxation from site productivity tax to taxation of profits from timber sales was one of the major institutional changes to impact Finnish non-industrial private forest owners in the 1990s. In this study the effect of the forest taxation reform on the aggregate supply of sawlogs was investigated using time series analysis and quarterly data. In particular, we estimated two simultaneous equations systems for the pine and the spruce sawlog markets. According to the results, the forest taxation reform strengthened the supply of spruce and pine sawlogs in the anticipatory stage of the taxation reform in 1992. Also during the fiscal transition period, which started in 1993, the supply effect of the taxation reform has clearly been positive. The strong own-price elasticity of sawlog supply found in this study indicates high sensitivity to actual and expected wood price changes in the determination of sawlog supply in Finland. Furthermore, the results indicate that the theoretical assumption of a competitive market is suitable for the Finnish sawlog market, but that separate analysis of pine and spruce sawlogs provides additional insights into market behaviour.

Transition towards improved regional wood flows by integrating material flux analysis and agent analysis: the case of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland

Transition towards improved regional wood flows by integrating material flux analysis and agent analysis: the case of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland

Transition towards improved regional wood flows by integrating material flux analysis and agent analysis: the case of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland

Transition towards improved regional wood flows by integrating material flux analysis and agent analysis: the case of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland

Solid wood supply impediments for secondary wood producers in British Columbia

Many nations are attempting to strengthen the development of secondary wood manufacturing in an attempt to cope with job losses due to declining annual allowable cut levels, increasing global competition and decreasing prices of commodity lumber products. This paper describes the results of a survey conducted in the province of British Columbia aimed at uncovering the impediments to wood supply relationships between secondary and primary manufacturers. The study looks at the raw material needs of different categories of secondary manufacturers pertaining to wood quality, price and service and highlights similarities and differences between these groups. In general, the study found that the majority of secondary manufacturers are experiencing lumber procurement problems. Lumber grading issues are the biggest overall concern of manufacturers, and manufacturers of engineering building components were found to experience the most difficulties. The paper concludes with a discussion and recommendations to improve synergies between primary and secondary wood producers in British Columbia. Key words: value-added wood products, wood quality, supply chain management, customer-oriented manufacturing

Waldwirtschaft und Waldpolitik im Kanton Aargau | Forestry and forest policy in the canton of Argovia

Conditions in the canton of Argovia for efficient forest management are relatively good. The natural conditions and the present condition of the forests allow a high degree of sustainable yield with a high proportion of valuable, goodquality wood. The character of the new Argovian Forest Law is liberal and grants a great measure of freedom to forest owners in organisational and managerial matters. The progress in rationalisation achieved by restructuration over the past ten years has been considerable, but largely cancelled out by falling wood prices. Future development will depend, not least, on the goals and values of the political authorities as the largest group of forest owners.

Log supply and price adjustment mechanisms in industrialized economies: Impacts on small-scale forest farmers

Log pricing and supply arrangements vary between countries. Some countries use open markets to determine log prices while others regulate supply and offer medium to long-term contracts to log buyers. A study of four industrialised countries — the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia — is undertaken to compare variations in log pricing methodologies and contract price adjustment mechanisms. Market concentration and market power is found to vary between these countries. Variations also exist in supply arrangements, contract term and price adjustment mechanisms both between countries and across regional jurisdictions within each country. The United States and New Zealand are strongly market oriented while Canada and Australia remain highly regulated. Both Canada and Australia use a weighted wood price index to adjust contract log prices. Policies are required in these regulated markets to encourage entry of small-scale suppliers if seller concentration is to be reduced and competitive market efficiency increased.

Avaliação econômica da regeneração da vegetação de cerrado, sob diferentes regimes de manejo

Os objetivos deste estudo foram avaliar a viabilidade econômica de manejar a vegetação nativa do cerrado submetida a seis diferentes níveis de intervenção, levando-se em conta alterações nos parâmetros valor da terra, nível de produtividade, custo de produção e preço da madeira, e comparar, em termos econômicos, duas opções para uso de terras originalmente ocupadas com vegetação de cerrado: produção de madeira (lenha) para energia, manejando a vegetação do cerrado, e retirada da vegetação para plantio de eucalipto. Os dados foram obtidos em Coração de Jesus-MG, em experimento instalado em uma área de 30 ha, submetida a seis tratamentos (retirada de 50, 70, 80, 90 e 100% da área basal e testemunha), com cinco repetições cada. Para avaliação econômica usou-se o valor presente líquido, considerando um horizonte de planejamento infinito. Concluiu-se que o ciclo de corte ótimo econômico é de 10 anos. Todos os regimes de manejo foram viáveis economicamente, exceto a retirada de 50% da área basal. O custo da terra é significativo na formação do custo de produção da vegetação do cerrado, o que evidencia que planos de manejo podem ser mais lucrativos se forem implantados em regiões onde o preço da terra é baixo. Variações na produtividade, nos custos de produção e no preço da madeira também afetaram de maneira significativa a viabilidade econômica dos regimes de manejo. Do ponto de vista econômico, investir no plantio de eucalipto em regiões de cerrado, visando produzir madeira para energia, só é mais interessante que manejar a vegetação do cerrado se a produtividade do eucalipto for maior do que 45 st/ha.ano.

Modelo para prognose do crescimento e da produção e análise econômica de regimes de manejo para Pinus taeda L.

Os objetivos deste estudo foram desenvolver um sistema para prognose do crescimento e da produção de Pinus taeda L. para simular e avaliar economicamente diversos regimes de manejo, visando produzir madeira livre de nós (clearwood) e madeira para múltiplos usos; e analisar a lucratividade dos regimes de manejo em diversas condições de sítio, espaçamento, taxas de desconto e preço da madeira, considerando plantios realizados em terras da própria empresa e em terras arrendadas. O modelo desenvolvido baseia-se no conceito de compatibilidade em área basal entre o modelo para o povoamento e o modelo por classe diamétrica. Utiliza-se a distribuição Weibull, que em conjunto com os atributos do povoamento permite fazer a prognose para diferentes estratos e idades desejadas. Aplica-se então o simulador de desbaste para obter a floresta remanescente desejada. A partir desta faz-se nova prognose até a idade desejada, e novamente aplica-se o simulador de desbaste. Este procedimento é repetido até o corte final, utilizando-se para tal do software SPPpinus - Sistema de Prognose da Produção para Pinus sp. Na análise econômica foram testados dois cenários, com diversos números, épocas e intensidade de desbaste, a partir de diferentes densidades iniciais de plantio, considerando vários níveis de produtividade. Foi realizada uma análise de sensibilidade da lucratividade dos regimes de manejo gerados, considerando três taxas de desconto, dois níveis de preço da madeira e as opções de plantar Pinus sp. em terras arrendadas e em terra da própria empresa, viabilizada através da integração do SSPpinus com o software de análise de investimento Invest. Concluiu-se que o modelo de crescimento e produção desenvolvido não apresentou tendenciosidade nas estimativas, sendo, portanto, um sistema preciso; os regimes de manejo com a realização de um desbaste pré-comercial seguido de dois desbastes comerciais e desrama devem ser adotados; arrendar terras para plantar Pinus taeda é uma opção lucrativa, contudo, para o estudo em questão, o plantio de Pinus taeda em terras próprias é mais lucrativo que o plantio em terras arrendadas; a densidade inicial de plantio ideal é de 833 árvores/ha, podendo-se também adotar 1.111 árvores/ha como alternativa; e a lucratividade dos regimes de manejo aumenta bastante quando se considera a elevação do preço da madeira, devido à melhoria de sua qualidade promovida pela desrama das árvores.

Umwandlungs- und Aufforstungsmassnahmen in vernachlässigten Kastanien-Stockausschlagwäldern im Tessin – Aufwendungen und Kosten | Transformation and afforestation measures in neglected chestnut coppice stands in the canton of Tessin – expenditures and costs

The attack of the chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) on chestnut coppice stands on the southern side of the Swiss Alps started to take on epidemic proportions in 1948. At the time,catastrophic experiences in America raised fears that it would lead to the total destruction of the chestnut. In consequence a wide-ranging transformation programme was initiated in the canton of Tessin. For want of relevant practical experience all promising species were planted using the then existing planting and silvicultural techniques for systematic, high-quality wood production. However, the existing infrastructure did not allow for a detailed control of expenditure for the measures taken. Starting in 1973, within a teaching-forest project, the Institute of silviculture of the ETH Zurich made control possible. In this report we present and analyse the measures applied to 17 parcels of land, nine of which were transformed and eight afforested. From today’s point of view the total cost was disproportionately high, sometimes more than 1500 hours per hectare in the first 15 to 20 years. Taking developments in wood prices and forest management costs since then into consideration we conclude that indiscriminate planting is not to be recommended, especially in view of the fact that the chestnut blight turned out to be relatively harmless thanks to the phenomenon of «hypo-virulence». Finally, we discuss alternative silvicultural measures for chestnut coppice stands.

A simulation model for evaluating technical and economic aspects of an industrial eucalyptus-based agroforestry system in Minas Gerais, Brazil

This study analyses the economic aspects of a eucalypt-based agroforestry system established in the savanna region of Brazil. In 1993,eucalypt clones were planted at a spacing of 10 × 4 m, to facilitate their future association with crops and pasture grasses. The results show that the establishment and maintenance costs represent 37% of the total costs associated with the system. More than half of the revenues are from the sale of the wood products obtained in the 11-year rotation. Variations of ±20% of the sale price of the cattle significantly affected the sensitivity analysis, closely followed by the variations of the price of wood for lumber and energy. Variations of ±20% of the establishment costs of the forest component significantly affected the economic indicators. The viability of the system is also sensitive to a slight change in interest rate. Finally, the agroforestry system adopted by the company is economically more attractive than eucalypt monoculture.

Growth and yield of some indigenous trees in an Amazonian agroforestry system: A rural-history-based analysis

Over the years farmers of Japanese descent in the Brazilian Amazon have planted indigenous trees that yield various products and services: fruit, seeds,bark, latex, oil, and shade and wind breaks for understory crop plants. Production of timber is often the intended end use of such planted trees. Long-term growth performance of these trees nevertheless has not been well documented. The authors constructed 65-year growth curves for nine indigenous tree species based on measurements of diameter at breast height (dbh), height, and tree age data provided by farmers in the Brazilian State of Para. An index of wood prices used to calculate state stumpage taxes was then applied to mean stem wood growth curves to produce price curves. These price curves estimate both present value of standing timber, and the value added from annual growth of standing timber in the agroforestry systems studied. The results of this study provide local farmers with a tool to estimate potential annual income from the growth of their trees, and a basis for planning timber harvest rotations. This study's approach may be applicable in other parts of the tropics, where growth information about indigenous trees commonly used in agroforestry is lacking.

Efficiency and economy of wood-fired biomass energy systems in relation to scale regarding heat and power generation using combustion and gasification technologies

Efficiency and economy of wood-fired biomass energy systems in relation to scale regarding heat and power generation using combustion and gasification technologies

The global wood market, prices and plantation investment: an examination drawing on the Australian experience

A global wood shortage generating real inflation-adjusted price increases for wood has been a long and widely-held expectation. This paper assesses the validity of this view by examining global trends in wood and wood-products consumption, developing a model to explain movements in wood prices and testing it empirically. No evidence was found of increasing real prices for wood over the long-term, indicating that there is no looming global wood shortage. A global wood shortage is not predicted because technology is increasing resource productivity, enabling wood products to be made using less wood, and also increasing wood supply. It is superficial to interpret this to mean that there is little to worry about from a native forest biodiversity perspective. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that real prices for wood are likely to continue to fall. This will discourage commercially-driven investment in plantation establishment on existing agricultural land. But industrial pressure will continue for a wood resource that is attractive in cost and quality terms, increasing the risk of biodiversity loss through intensification of native forest management and clearing of native forests for plantations. It is prudent to consider approaches that encourage plantation investment on existing agriculture land using the price mechanism. Currently, much private sector plantation investment is based on price expectations derived from an incorrect view of an imminent global wood shortage. Withdrawing old-growth forests from commodity wood supply is likely to increase wood prices in line with widely-held, though apparently false, expectations and also deliver an absolute best ecological outcome. As increasing volumes of wood become available from maturing plantations, government policy changes will be required to ensure that levels of logging in native forests actually decline rather than new markets being found for native forest wood. Despite its strategic commercial importance, little is known about the potential of the existing global plantation estate to supply wood. Addressing this information gap is a timely task that would enhance industry policy and clarify future plantation investment requirements.