Finn Helles

Windthrow probability as a function of stand characteristics and shelter

In 1981 a storm caused windthrow of 3 million cubic meters of softwood in Denmark, equal to the normal removals of three years. The object of the present analysis is to determine the way in which the probability of windthrow depends on parameters that can be affected by forest management, viz. rotation age, thinning programme, choice of species, spatial distribution of stands and drainage. An empirical data set from 612 stands is used in the estimations. It is found that the windthrow probability is negatively affected by tree diameter, drainage, the time since last thinning and the protection from other stands. The probability increases with tree height, age and relative thinning volume in the latest thinning. Picea is more stable than Abies and Pseudotsuga.

Modelling near-natural silvicultural regimes for beech – an economic sensitivity analysis

Near-natural silvicultural regimes for beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), in the form of uneven-aged selective felling, receive increasing interest in Denmark. This is partly due to the ability of this system to preserve the forest climate and maintain important ecological functions such as bio-geochemical cycling and biodiversity conservation. The optimal age to convert from even-aged management to uneven-aged selective felling seems to be as early as possible, about 55 years, when sufficient natural seeding can be expected. A fixed conversion period of 100 years is assumed. This regime, here analysed by the use of a so-called chessboard model, appears to be economically superior to clear felling if the regime is initiated in medium-aged stands down to the age of 55 years, assuming a high site quality and a real discount rate of 3% per annum. Uneven-aged selective felling seems to be economically superior to even-aged natural regeneration, assuming that: (i) the stumpage prices of regeneration harvests are increased by 10%, or (ii) the diameters of regeneration harvests exceed those of even-aged management by about 17% simultaneous with an identical increase of the maximum stumpage price. Clear felling seems to be the more profitable regime only if: (i) the stand is close to the economic optimal rotation age for clear felling, and (ii) when the stumpage prices of regeneration harvests achieved by use of the uneven-aged selective management regime are reduced by 10% or more due to quality defects caused by prolonged rotation ages. The above results are sensitive to variation of stumpage prices, but less so to variation of regeneration costs associated with near-natural management systems. However, the near-natural silvicultural regimes may be unable to fulfill the liquidity objectives following from the application of traditional management systems.

Development and economic significance of forest certification: the case of FSC in Bolivia

Abstract Certification receives major attention in the debate about sustainable forest management, and in Bolivia a relatively wide experience exists regarding Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of natural tropical forests. The present paper studies the conditions imposed on forest operators for getting certified, and the export prices of certified vs. non-certified timber products. This provides a basis for assessing aspects of the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of certification. Effectiveness in terms of certified area has been modest: almost 1 million ha of natural forests, or 14% of the area with management plans, dominated by only five large companies that probably are among the best performing. The conditions for certification are a proxy of its impact, and they mainly regarded documentation, monitoring and environmental issues that might immediately be complied with. Forest management in Bolivia has developed on the basis of an external supported law reform imposing restrictive and controlled regulations and norms, and when fulfilling the new law requirements the FSC principles and criteria are largely met. Only little improvement was obtained through certification in itself. Furthermore, deforestation persists unabated. Therefore, it appears that major roles of the FSC certification have been (i) regulation-oriented verification of compliance with already established norms and (ii) creation of a forum for consensus formation between dominating policy formulating actors. Higher prices, in the range of 5–51%, were paid for the majority of exported certified timber products. There are indications that the price premiums exceed the direct operational costs of certification, but this excess profit will presumably disappear when the market develops. However, the substantial support not based on private initiative that has been given to the certification development restricts the interpretation of the concept as a successful market-based forest policy instrument. The dominance of large enterprises in certification confirms the fear that this tool distorts the conditions of forest production at the national level—small-scale and community based enterprises had difficulties in getting certified.

Park-people conflict resolution in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal: buying time at high cost?

The grass cutting programme (GCP) of Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) has been very successful in gaining local peoples acceptance of RCNP. The GCP is recognized internationally as a model for park-people conflict resolution, but has seemingly become a spent force. The aim of the present study was to assess the extent to which the GCP is a form of ‘community-based conservation’ on the one hand, or ‘nature-based development’ on the other. During the ten days of open access in 1999, almost 50 000 tonnes of biomass were removed from the Park; the total gross economic value of the GCP in 1999 was more than US

MEDICINAL PLANTS, MARKETS, AND MARGINS IN THE NEPAL HIMALAYA: TROUBLE IN PARADISE

1 million. Illegal fuelwood was the single most important product extracted from RCNP and accounted for half of the total quantity and economic value of all resources collected. It is argued that the GCP does not, in its present form, comply with the concept of community-based conservation, but is rather an example of nature-based development, where important natural core areas are exploited in the name of development. This study suggests a two-fold approach to reappraise the importance of the GCP in solving park-people conflicts without ignoring nature conservation. Firstly, access should be provided in different areas at different times instead of opening the whole Park at the same time. Secondly, since for the last 10–15 years buffer-zone community forestry has not been able to substitute fuelwood from RCNP, other ways to address local peoples energy demand should be considered. It is argued that park-people conflicts in RCNP have not been solved, but only postponed, especially by compromising forest conservation and the possibility of the GCP to supply villagers with essential products in the future.

Optimal stand management with endogenous risk of sudden destruction

The trade in medicinal and aromatic products (MAP) from the rural areas of Gorkha District in central Nepal to the wholesale markets in India was investigated over a two-year period. The annual trade varies from 180,000 kg to 418,000 kg and is currently composed of 36 products with an average collector value of 12 million Nepali rupees (US

Spatial optimization by simulated annealing and linear programming

240,000). Approximately 98 percent of the products are exported unprocessed to India. The main actors in the trade are collectors, road-head traders, Terai wholesalers, and Indian wholesalers. Analysis of marketing margins and price data indicates that MAP markets are imperfect: there is limited market information and poor market integration. A small number of Terai wholesalers earn excessive profits while road- head traders have very low net margins. The implications of this for developing the trade, and thus increasing collector incomes at the national level are discussed. It is emphasized that the government should focus on provision of public goods, such as dissemi- nation of price information and developing physical infrastructure, and not direct interventions in the market. Credit facilities should be promoted, and the royalty system should be reviewed and possibly replaced with an export tax. Bans on collection and trade need to be reviewed and justified and a restructuring of current approaches is required. RESUME Plantes midicinales, marches et marges commerciales au Nipal, Himalaya: Difficultis au Paradis. Le commerce de produits medicinaux et aromatiques des regions rurales du district de Gorkha au centre du Ne"pal, sur les marches de gros en Inde, a fait l"objet d"une &tude de deux ans. Le commerce annuel varie de 180 000 "a 418 000 kg et comprend actuellement 36 produits ayant une valeur moyenne de 12 millions de roupies nepalaises (240 000

Discount rate and harvest policy: implications for Baltic forestry

US) pour les ramasseurs. Environ 98 pour cent des produits sont export6s directement vers l"Inde, sans traitement. Les participants principaux " ce commerce sont les ramasseurs, les premiers acheteurs, les grossistes Terai et les grossistes indiens. L"analyse des marges commerciales et des donnees de prix indiquent que les marches des plantes medicinales et aromatiques sont defectueux : informations limitees sur les marches et faible integration des marches. Un petit nombre de grossistes Terai fait des b6nefices excessifs, alors que les premiers acheteurs ont des marges nettes tres faibles. Les implications de ces observations pour le developpement de ce commerce, et cela englobe le revenu des ramasseurs, sont examinees au niveau national. Il est souligne que le gouvernement devrait se concentrer sur la fourniture de biens publics, tels que la diffusion d"informations sur les prix et le developpement de l"infrastructure physique, et non pas sur des interventions directes dans le march&. Des facilit6s de cr6dit devraient tre encourag~es et le systeme de redevances examine et 6ventuellement remplac6 par une taxe "a l"exportation. Les interdictions sur le ramassage et le commerce doivent etre examin6es etjustifiees. I1 est a pr6sent n6cessaire de restructurer les approches actuelles.

Market efficiency and benefit distribution in medicinal plant markets: empirical evidence from South Asia

The optimal thinning and rotation age policy for a stand subject to risk of destruction by windthrow is investigated. In particular, risk is not assumed exogenous as in previous research, but is modelled as endogenous to stand management. It is shown that the optimal solution when risk is endogenous differs significantly from the optimal solution to a problem where risk is assumed absent or exogenous. We find that in spite of substantial fixed costs related to thinning, the optimal number of thinnings increases and the optimal intensity of each thinning decreases. Furthermore, we find that the shortening effect of risk on the optimal rotation age is reduced substantially, when the thinning strategy is optimized subject to the effect on the risk levels. We conclude that the presence of endogenous risk strongly affects the optimal management strategy, and that an ecologically better founded approach to stand management is optimal in such cases. A group of solutions centred around a local optimum was characterized by fewer, more intense thinnings and a drastic shortening of the rotation age. If fixed costs were to increase substantially, this local optimum may become global, but still result in a longer rotation and more frequent thinnings than in the case of exogenous risk. Finally, features of the models risk dynamics allow an analysis of the effect of changing the stands resistance to and ability to recover from (i.e. the stands resilience) the disturbances caused by thinnings, measured as changes in the susceptibility to windthrow. We find that in spite of the fixed costs related to thinning, a decrease in resistance or resilience makes it optimal to increase the number of thinnings, while at the same time making each thinning less intense.

Multiple Use of Forests and Other Natural Resources

Forest management planning comprises selection among treatment alternatives in management units. A traditional linear programming (LP) approach may effectively account for a profit maximization objective combined with sustainability constraints, e.g. on the temporal distribution of harvest volume flows, cash‐flow, and net present value development, but it fails to account for spatial constraints, especially those associated with final felling. By applying a simulated annealing adjacency model based on net present value maximization and combined with an LP consequence computation model, it is possible to delineate optimal strategies of final felling scheduling. Evaluation is made of the trade‐off between (1) the incremental cost (determined by use of the LP model) of an optimal adjacency model solution, and (2) the potential damage cost resulting from adjacency characteristics such as windthrow and bark injuries. The decision support system may contribute significantly to reduce damage costs and may improv...