Module 8: Forestry Flashcards
List the major types of challenges associated with managing forest resources
- Maintaining productivity for a wide range of outputs (lumber, paper, wood, non-timber forest products
- The shift in many developed countries from traditional forest use to new uses (outdoor recreation)
- Pressure to convert forest land to other uses such as subsistence and commercial agriculture, mine development
- identification, valuation, and preservation of alternative types of forest services (biodiversity, carbon sequestration, ecosystem production)
Forest management, governance, and policy requires understanding..?
- The biological factors affecting forest growth (soil fertility, insect pests, climate, etc)
- technological factors affecting forest growth (silviculture, thinning, tree varieties)
- Property rights and governance permitting use
- The rules for forest use (i.e., provincial policy)
Describe the forest logistic growth function
When the population size is small, the growth rate is exponential because resources are abundant. As the population size approaches the carrying capacity, the growth rate slows down and stabilizes
What is the maximum sustainable yield for a forest?
Every 50 years provides 3 harvests in 150 years
How does maximum sustainable yield compare to maximum quantity?
Maximum quantity would be harvested every 80 years, so 2 harvests in 160 years
Maximum sustainable yield gets 3 harvests in 150 years (so more lumber)
What factors does maximum sustainable yield leave out?
it only considered biological characteristics, leaving out monetary value, time, cost of planting and harvesting
How is an economically efficient harvest different from maximum sustainable yield?
Economically efficient harvest maximizes the value of the bet benefits: revenue from selling the timber, planting, and harvest costs.
Maximum sustainable yield does not consider those factors, only biological characteristics (soil fertility, climate, pests, etc)
What is the equation for present value net benefits?
PV net benefits = PV harvested timber - PV costs
How does a discount rate affect a forest company’s decision?
Higher discount rates, the forest company will be less tolerant of slow timber growth than what occurs at maturity.
Considerations like old growth forest vs new growth will also change the discount rates because of the species involved (woodland caribou, peckers)
How Do Forestry Market Failures Occur?
- External costs imposed by harvesting regime - market failure in the provision of a full range of forest services (wildlife habitat, hydrologic services)
- Government market failure - governments provide incentives for harvest and land conversion (subsidized stumpage fees, tax concessions to deforest areas (Brazil)
- Poorly defined property rights (timber contractors having limited incentive to conserve the forest because limited land rights vs tenure solutions)
What do Canada’s Constitution Act and Natural Resources Transfer Act affect provincial government
Gives provincial governments the exclusive responsibility for managing the use of forests
Natural Resources Canada (Federal) is limited to what in terms of forest policy?
- Conducting research
- Participating in international negotiations for forest conservation and use
- Coordinating reforestation strategies
- Promoting Canadian forest products to foreign buyers
How does forest land ownership differ in Canada vs the USA?
The majority of Canada’s forest lands are publicly owned by provinces and territories, whereas the USA’s are owned mainly by families and private
Describe Annual Allowable Cut (AAC)
Maximum rate of logging allowed in an area or harvest limits
What type of control instrument is the annual allowable cut?
Command and control policy
By federal legislation, all forests harvested on Canada’s public lands must be _____?
Successfully regenerated (command and control)
List some of the criteria used to set the AAC.
- Sustainable yield
- Mill capacity
- Government objectives: Social, economic
- Growth rate of trees
- losses due to fire, insects, disease (increasing the AAC where insects have infested the tree population)
- Silvicultural investment
- Constraints due to the land and forest uses
Describe the two types of forest ensure (volume-based vs area-based)
- Volume-based tenure: short time period with limited options to renew (1-5 years or 10-15 years)
- Rights to harvest a specific volume from a broadly defined area
- several licensees can hold rights within the same area
- Christmas trees, fence posts, fuel wood - Area-based tenure: Longer periods ( 20-25 years). Tenure holders are required to prepare forest management plans in return for the harvesting rights.
- Take better care of sustainable production because they hold the rights to the land for longer, so they will reap the benefits compared to volume-based.
In Canada what is the split of volume-based lands compared to area-based tenures?
60% volume-based, 40% area-based
- BC, AB, SK, have a mix of both
- SK: 16% volume, 84% area-based
Saskatchewan timber is allocated primarily using two mechanisms: Forest Management Agreement (FMA) & Terms Supply Licenses (TSL). What is the difference between the two?
- FMA (Area-based): provides the company long-term access to the timber on a specified area of land, given commitment to regeneration of cut blocks and other appropriate management (84%)
- TSL (Volume-based): shorter duration (<10 years), smaller timber allocations requiring less management responsibility, allocating specific volume of timber or other products (16%)
List some critiques of the forest policies of volume and area-based
- Most tenure agreement lengths are too short to plan for timber rotation lengths
- Has limited flexibility to accommodate changes and diversity in markets and social preferences
- Should be more engagement with local (Indigenous) communities for forest management instead of between the province and forestry company
List the three internationally recognized certification systems that are used in Canada
- Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
- Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
What are the advantages of the forestry certification systems?
- public can look to certification to improve forest practices from buying certified
- Forest companies can use certification to show they are responsible managers, can charge more, and increase export potential
How has fire suppression changed the characteristics of some forests?
- older forests
- increased insects and disease
- larger fuel forests for more destructive fires
