A hidden scale dependency in conserving working woodlands
A hidden scale dependency in conserving working woodlands
Because plans for large-scale landscape preservation in the US do not rely exclusively on lands held in trust, conservation programs have a vested interest in forest stewardship by private landowners. Selective harvests for commercial sale are often highlighted as a financial incentive for owners of non-industrial "family forests" to sustainably maintain the working character of their acreage rather than subdivide it or convert it for development. However, the business costs inherent in even a small-scale commercial timber harvest typically mean that forest parcels smaller than approximately 80 acres are too small to support a financial return. Statistics for private forest ownership in the U.S. suggest this minimum scale makes commercial harvest incentives effectively inaccessible to more than 90% of forest owners. Rural landscape conservation and commercial timber harvests depend on the same economies of scale to be viable. Designs for regional-scale forest conservation need to account for non-industrial but nonetheless commercial economies of scale that set an inherent limit on financial incentives intended to foster stewardship activity among family-forest landowners
Lazarus, Eli
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Schaible, David
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Lazarus, Eli
642a3cdb-0d25-48b1-8ab8-8d1d72daca6e
Schaible, David
bcfea313-77dc-43a4-9525-110001ab12a0
Abstract
Because plans for large-scale landscape preservation in the US do not rely exclusively on lands held in trust, conservation programs have a vested interest in forest stewardship by private landowners. Selective harvests for commercial sale are often highlighted as a financial incentive for owners of non-industrial "family forests" to sustainably maintain the working character of their acreage rather than subdivide it or convert it for development. However, the business costs inherent in even a small-scale commercial timber harvest typically mean that forest parcels smaller than approximately 80 acres are too small to support a financial return. Statistics for private forest ownership in the U.S. suggest this minimum scale makes commercial harvest incentives effectively inaccessible to more than 90% of forest owners. Rural landscape conservation and commercial timber harvests depend on the same economies of scale to be viable. Designs for regional-scale forest conservation need to account for non-industrial but nonetheless commercial economies of scale that set an inherent limit on financial incentives intended to foster stewardship activity among family-forest landowners
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e-pub ahead of print date: 2015
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Earth Surface Dynamics
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Local EPrints ID: 400727
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/400727
PURE UUID: b08f3a09-1699-43d4-966b-9e609a0ac9aa
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Date deposited: 23 Sep 2016 13:59
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:57
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David Schaible
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