A multiple of stakeholder goals, regarding natural resource utilisation, are integrated into an overall provincial strategic forest and fisheries utilisation decision support system providing a platform for defining tactical forest planning objectives within a 10-year planning horizon. The case study area is a 5362 ha mangrove forest enterprise, divided into a buffer zone and a full protection zone, which has 46 permanent staff, 575 farming households, 450 near-shore fishing families, and 200 landless families. The analyses are based on a modification of the forest management planning package PEB, which incorporates multi-objective (political, economic, and biological) linear programming using a 10-year planning horizon based on stand data. Numerous stakeholders' goals are included in the forest management plan. A revenue of US$ 2.6 million in the 10-year planning period is achieved of which 46% is generated from forestry in the full protection zone, 33% from non-farm forestry, and 21% from farm forestry in the buffer zone. The full protection zone forest has the potential to generate the highest revenue and, therefore, a discussion is made on allowing limited forestry in the zone. If the firewood value is included, the revenues would increase to US$ 3.4 million. Findings suggest that firewood collection for landless, fishermen, and farmers is sustainable and, therefore, ought to be legalized. The value of on-farm silviculture and firewood collection accounts for 10% of net revenues, which can be compared to the other income generators: tiger shrimp (8%), mud crab (6%), sluice-gate fishery (44%), animal husbandry (5%), and off-farm activities (27%). The ecological linkage between mangroves and fisheries provides a major additional gross margin of between US$ 4 and 12 million from fisheries alone. A discussion on the general applicability, strengths, and shortcomings of the system is made.

Biodiversity policies in the European Union (EU) are mainly implemented through the Birds and Habitats Directives as well as the establishment of Natura 2000, a network of protected areas throughout the EU. Considerable resources must be allocated for fulfilling the Directives and the question of optimal allocation is as important as it is difficult. In general, economic evaluations of conservation targets at most consider the costs and seldom the welfare economic benefits. In the present study, we use welfare economic benefit estimates concerning the willingness-to-pay for preserving endangered species and for the aggregate area of heathland preserved in Denmark. Similarly, we obtain estimates of the welfare economic cost of habitat restoration and maintenance. Combining these welfare economic measures with expected species coverage, we are able to estimate the potential welfare economic contribution of a conservation network. We compare three simple nonprobabilistic strategies likely to be used in day-to-day policy implementation: i) a maximum selected area strategy, ii) a hotspot selection strategy, and iii) a minimizing cost strategy, and two more advanced and informed probabilistic strategies: i) a maximum expected coverage strategy and ii) a strategy for maximum expected welfare economic gain. We show that the welfare economic performance of the strategies differ considerably. The comparison between the expected coverage and expected welfare shows that for the case considered, one may identify an optimal protection level above which additional coverage only comes at increasing welfare economic loss.

Understanding stakeholders’ perceptions and motivations is of significant importance in relation to conservation and protected area projects. The importance of stakeholder analysis is widely recognized as a necessary means for gaining insight into the complex systemic interactions between natural processes, management policies, and local people depending on the resource. Today, community and group-based participatory inquiry approaches are widely used for this purpose. Recently, participatory approaches have been critiqued for not considering power relations and conflict internal to the community. In this article, we suggest that the five-step Rapid Stakeholder and Conflict Assessment (RSCA) methodology addresses this critique. The objective of the methodology is to provide a facilitator with a comprehensive foundation on which to plan and conduct subsequent participatory project development. The RSCA integrates elements of soft systems and critical systems thinking. Qualitative research interviews and cognitive mapping of stakeholders’ mental models are used for collection of empirical material and analysis. The RSCA methodology is demonstrated in a case study concerning buffer zone management in the coastal wetlands of southern Vietnam. The case study shows that the RSCA methodology can provide an efficient way of obtaining a holistic and critical understanding of a complex resource management situation, thus potentially enhancing project performance in an instrumental as well as an ethical sense.

Conversion from even-aged management of beech (Fagus sylvatica) to target diameter harvesting was analysed by the use of diameter class models. Results were compared with traditional even-aged shelterwood natural regeneration regimes for a highly productive site. It was found that for discount rates from 0.5 to 3%, the profitability of the two silvicultural systems differs by up to 5%, with target diameters of 45–55 cm and rotation ages of 80–110 years in the traditional regimes. Target diameter harvesting tends to be preferred if the discount rate is >2% and traditional even-aged management if it is ≤1%. The results of target diameter harvesting are weakly sensitive to the regeneration pace and success and to variations of the quality of logs from large and old trees. Owing to the almost equal profitability of target diameter harvesting compared with the traditional regimes, the former may be preferred for ecological reasons since it better resembles the natural dynamics.

Performance of several optimisation models is compared, using genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and mixed integer programming. They are applied to the multi-criteria problem of delineating conservation areas in a case forest in Lithuania, searching for the best trade-off between opportunity cost, connectivity, and proximity to swamps. The study indicates that, compared with the genetic algorithms and simulated annealing, mixed integer programming is time-inefficient for complex problem formulations that involve a large number of sites and consider spatial connectivity. The practical applicability of any of these techniques will to a high degree depend on the success of combating the professional isolationism within the science and practice of reserve selection.

The free market economy, to which East European countries are increasingly being exposed, implies that classical budgeting techniques in the form of the Faustmann approach present themselves as the tools of choice for forest investment analysis. One implication is that the choice of a proper discount rate (r) must be made as part of the basis for formulating a harvest policy. The paper discusses this choice in the light of practice as well as theory, and, using Lithuania as a case, examines the potential economic and political impact of softening the current restrictions on forest management. A review of the debate on discounting in forestry is provided. A statistical analysis of the relation between reported r values and internal rates of return (IRR) from numerous studies on forestry investments reveals a strong correlation between r and IRR. Possible explanations are provided. Analysis reveals that application of any positive r will significantly change forestry practice in Lithuania. Setting r=3%, slow growing species are to be replaced by fast growing species, and rotation periods should be substantially shortened. The standing volume of (over-)mature forests is approximately 160 million m3, as compared with the currently harvestable volume of approximately 40 million m3 according to the minimum allowable rotation age. The macroeconomic perspectives of cashing some of the mature forest for the small transition economy are discussed, taking into account the effects of externalities of forests. Consequently we suggest an alternative formulation of the normal forest. Finally, based on these considerations, a real r of 0–2% is suggested for State forestry in Lithuania. A post-tax r of 2% is advocated for private forestry, with potential project specific deviations downward to 0 or upward to 4%. It is stressed that discount rate is viewed as one of the important decision parameters and due regard should be given to non-timber forest outputs, social and institutional settings and other factors.

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.

A multiple-use forest management method is developed to support decisions on insect control in state forests of a case area in Central Poland, aiming at optimisation in a socio-economic context. The model is closely linked to the specific planning situation, but its structure is adaptable to other cases of optimal decision-making on multiple-use forestry. It is a four-stage consecutive model incorporating: (i) financial value of timber production; (ii) stage (i) plus the dual value of non-market outputs; (iii) stage (ii) plus the social value of carbon storage; and (iv) stage (iii) plus the social value of recreational benefits. That is to say, the complete model covers four important multiple-use outputs of the case area. The geographical distribution of high-priority protection forest resources is very sensitive to the stage-wise application of the model, especially with respect to recreation, providing innovative decision support related to multiple-use in a socio-economic context.

Strategic decision-making within integrated forest pest management is often mistakenly based on a short-term treatment cost evaluation. A modelling framework is presented having a long-term perspective focused on the environmental impact associated with two groups of control agents — insect growth regulators and biological insecticides. The analysis is linked to the dynamical ecophysiological processes in a pine forest soil, based on the decomposing role of the soil fauna biomass in the ecological system. A considerable part of the soil fauna biomass depends on chitin formation and deposition which is halted by the presence of an effective insect growth regulator on the litter. The persistency of Dimilin (an insect growth regulator) on leaf surfaces has been reported to be up to 12 months, as opposed to biological insecticides having a short persistency of up to two weeks. Therefore, a subsequent mortality of elements of the soil fauna may block the release of nutrients associated with decomposition of litter and lead to a reduction of the growth and yield of the stand. A sensitivity analysis of the incremental cost is performed by use of a long-term dynamic linear programming model for the state forest area of Poland, leading to a financial cost-benefit analysis. Based on historical Polish data on treatment of defoliating forest pests it is found that a possible yield reduction of approximately six per cent of the treated forest area seems to make a biological insecticide more profitable than an insect growth regulator, in despite of the annual treatment cost per ha of the former being considerably lower.

Traditionally, commercial forests in Lithuania are managed to maximise timber output. In this paper we suggest a methodology for integrating economic efficiency and user group preferences in multiple-criteria forest management decision-making. The methodology includes i) a heuristic decision-making approach, ii) the use of an optimisation model — PEB — comprising political, economic, and biological aspects of forest management, and, iii) the use of a geographical information system (GIS) to facilitate communication between forest user groups and administration. The methodology is illustrated on multi-criteria short-term management problem in the central part of Lithuania.

Cet article presente un systeme de planification pour l'amenagement forestier polyvalent. Un tel systeme permet aux autorites d'appliquer un niveau optimal et efficace d'incitatifs fiscaux (prix) ou de taxation ainsi qu'un niveau de compensation justifie au plan ethique tout en offrant une allocation optimale des ressources pour differents usages dans des perspectives economiques, politiques et environnementales. Les auteurs exposent des developpements en programmation lineaire appliques a l'amenagement forestier polyvalent en se concentrant sur la dualite et les couts d'opportunite dans les processus de decision. Ils utilisent un modele de programmation lineaire dynamique dont les resultats sont integres a une analyse de comptabilite environnementale. Le modele comporte des objectifs de nature politique, economique et biologique. Il aborde le probleme de l'allocation des ressources en regard d'extrants hors-marche. Il s'appuie sur un systeme multicritere d'aide a la decision applicable tant dans un environnement prive ou la maximisation des profits est privilegiee que dans un cadre public reposant sur l'analyse cout-benefice. La comptabilite environnementale fournit les bases a des analyses de politique qui sont utilisables a l'echelle du peuplement, de la foret, du secteur, de la region et du pays. Les analyses de politique decoulant des controles legislatifs peuvent etre realisees a partir d une evaluation des couts de production, du surplus du producteur et du surplus du consommateur. Le modele comble le fosse qui separe la rationalite economique des decideurs, des philosophies d'amenagement, des preoccupations societales et des considerations pratiques en amenagement forestier tel qu'on l'observe souvent dans un contexte traditionnel de planification.

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 improve the reliability of forest management planning.