The economics of ecoforestry is typically misunderstood. One of the reasons is that traditional economics is all about the quantitative weighing of dollar costs and commercial values. The economics of ecoforestry is far broader than that.
Even traditional economics is not just about the protection, maintenance and creation of quantities. It is also about qualities - but it just does not acknowledge this fact. This shortcoming has grossly distorted our understanding of how the world actually works. It has also produced a hazardous guide to forest policy.
In neoclassical economics, the assumption is that people consume things, we "use things up." That perception is false. Rather, when materials and energy are extracted from the natural world and when they no longer have value, what remains is dumped as waste - into the air, land and water. So the traditional economy does not use things up - it redistributes them.
What is used up are the qualities of matter and of energy, that is, the concentration, structure and purity of matter, and the capacity of energy to do work. For example, high quality material properties of wood include its strength, durability and appearance. Similarly, high quality energy properties of wood include its energy yield per unit of measure.
The primary way these qualities are increased in the world is through the sun-driven processes of photosynthesis, that is, green plants. In brief, every economy is the wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. No environment - no economy.
In principle, forestry should pay, and produce a profit. Since ecoforestry is grounded in the concepts and principles of natural capitalism, ecoforestry addresses the economic issue head on. The economics of ecoforestry is premised on:
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- living off the interest (i.e., the annual growth), not the capital.
- producing a wide range of forest products of the highest quality and value.
not transferring costs on to other resource values and future generations.
In conventional plantation forestry, young forests are either planted, and/or spaced at very young ages to (say) 800 to 1,000 trees/hectare (320 to 400 trees/acre). In a typical plantation, the objective is to grow the largest diameter tree at the youngest possible age (say 40 to 50 years), followed by a one-time commercial clearcut.
Trees like these, grown at wide spacings, have large diameters, wide annual rings, large knots, a high percentage of low-grade wood (called juvenile wood), rapid taper and, in many cases, they have top damage from natural factors - all characteristics of low-quality, low-value wood.
In ecoforestry, stocking levels in young forests are initially kept in excess of 2,000 trees/hectare (800/acre) and reduced to about 1,600 trees/hectare (640/acre) in the first spacing. The objective is to grow quality wood, using frequent light commercial thinnings, similar in some ways to frequent light natural disturbances. Small clearcuts will occur at an extended age, if perpetuation of Douglas fir or other early successional tree species is desired. Trees grown at narrow spacings have narrow annual rings, small tight knots, low percentages of juvenile wood. If top damage does occur, there are enough trees with good form left to become future crop trees.
Trees grown in wide spacings produce low-grade sawlogs, with a value today of about $80 to $100 per cu. m. In contrast, because trees grown in narrow spacings produce high-grade saw logs, low-grade veneer logs and even better grades of logs, they generate prices several times greater.
Ecoforestry also sees future timber supply needs in a different way. In conventional forestry, it is assumed that technological change will compensate for any future reduction in the quality of the timber supply. But this approach condemns the future forest industry to vast quantities of low-grade saw logs, and there is already an abundance of these in the world.
Ecoforestry assumes that a premium will always be paid for wood with exemplary structural properties (i.e., high density wood with high ring count, small tight knots), especially for solid wood products. It is more advantageous to work with nature to grow quality wood than it is to use technology to compensate for low-grade wood. There has been a stable relationship between desirable wood properties and market demand for at least a century.
Silvicultural regimes which grow high-quality wood, with extended rotations, truly are a win-win forest practice, because of fewer inherent conflicts among competing forest users. Ecologically, the mixed-tree species necessary to provide high stocking levels will help maintain biodiversity, productivity and forest health. And extended rotations mean there will be a smaller proportion of a forest area in very young age class, with a higher proportion of older forests providing habitat for certain wildlife species. With extended rotations, there will also be a reduced need for hydrological recovery after clearcutting, and there will be a reduction in visual impacts.
Economically, interest will not have to be paid for as long on the costs of early spacing in combination with the periodic commercial thinnings. While innovative logging systems are needed to economically utilize small trees, this is already being done in forests where only small trees grow.
The economics of ecoforestry is fully compatible with the triple bottom line of ecological, economic and social sustainability. It benefits the forest, forest workers, forest companies and forest communities. It doesn't get any better than that.