The linkage between global climate change and forests have assumed political prominence as forest sinks are now acknowledged as a means for off-setting carbon dioxide (CO,) emissions under the Kyoto Protocol targets. As such, policies to stimulate forest carbon sequestration in an open economy will require varying levels of economic information to allow for decisions that are both eficient and ...

Policies to effectively reduce deforestation are discussed within a land rent (von Thünen) framework. The first set of policies attempts to reduce the rent of extensive agriculture, either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase ...

This paper analyzes how sustained yield (SY) forestry is defined and implemented in Sweden and Russia, two countries with different forest-industrial regimes. We first compare definitions of SY forestry in national legislation and policies. Then we study forest management planning in two large forest management units with respect to: delivered forest products and values, how the harvest level o...

Tropical forest change is driven by demand in distant markets. Equally, investments in tropical forest landscapes by capital originating from distant emerging economies are on the rise. Understanding how forest outcomes vary by investment source is therefore becoming increasingly important. We empirically evaluate the relationship between investment source and deforestation from 2000 to 2010 in...

Accurate estimates of forest cover and forest fragmentation are critical for developing countries such as Costa Rica, which holds four to five percent of the world’s plant and bird species. We estimated forest cover for Costa Rica using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper satellite scenes acquired between 1986 and 1991. In 1991, 29 percent (ca 14,000 km2) of the land cover of Costa Rica was closed forest...

In the wake of numerous catastrophic wildfires, forest management policies have been implemented in recent years in the United States, including the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003. A key premise underlying these policies is that fire suppression has resulted in denser forests than were present historically in some forest types. We evaluate this premise for the montane zone of the northe...

w f a Paul W. Adams, Extension forest watershed specialist; and Anne B. Hairston, graduate student in forest hydrology; Oregon State University. olicy making usually is more art than science, creating policies from a shifting palette of social, political, legal, conomic, and environmental concerns. However, policy ecisions increasingly involve scientific or technical issues. echnology has grown...

A new Faustmann optimal rotation harvesting stands’ problem under Brown geometric price and Logistic and Gompertz wood stock, diffusions is presented. The optimal cut policies for the stochastic Faustmann model and the single harvest rotation or Vicksell model are evaluated in the case of a Chilean Radiata pine forest company. The company cut policy validates the Vicksell model, its optimal cut...

We estimate the effects of neighbors’ deforestation actions on individuals’ deforestation decisions in Costa Rica. We find evidence that neighbors’ effects are positive and significant. To address simultaneity and spatially correlated unobservable factors, we instrument for neighboring deforestation using neighboring land parcel characteristics. Under the presence of interactions, local forest ...