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Ulrik explaining his financial analyses to a stakeholder group involved in one of the silvicultural systems trials. |
Image: Leigh Edwards |
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Project summary:
The study analyses the economic feasibility of the various silvicultural practices that may prove potential more socially and environmentally acceptable to the Tasmanian community, and compares the results with the performance of the current practice of clearfell, burn and sow (CBS).
Four of the six treatments in the Warra Silvicultural Systems Trial (SST) were analysed: CBS; CBS with retained habitat islands; stripfelling; and 10% dispersed retention. These treatments were further compared against two silvicultural systems not being trialled at Warra: an intensive regime which includes establishment by CBS, pre-commercial thinning at age 16 years, commercial thinning at age 32 years and clearfelling at age 65 years; and the option of leaving the oldgrowth forest in its natural state. The assessment of timber values was based on the assumption that the existing oldgrowth stand forms the baseline.
The analysis was conducted for rotation lengths of 90 and 200 years. The results revealed a rank in terms of timber value that placed the current practice (CBS) as economically superior to all other regimes in the SST. However, based on a 65 year rotation, the regime involving thinning generated higher profit. The discount rate was identified as the most crucial variable, having significant impact on the scale by which the systems were ranked but not on the rank itself.
Methodology: The Willingness-to-Pay for Land (WPL) concept was used. This is the notional price an investor would pay for an existing forest stand, assuming a defined silvicultural system with a designated rotation length is in place and will continue to be in place over infinite rotations. Growth and suppression were modelled and cost data obtained from the Warra SST. WPL values were calculated over infinite time horizons, using discount rates of 2% and 10%.
Datasets: None available.
Publications: Nyvold, U. (2001). Financial assessment of alternatives to clearfelling in wet eucalypt forests. BSc thesis, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen.
Nyvold, U., Dawson, J.K. & Hickey, J.E. (2005). An assessment of timber values from alternative silvicultural systems tested in wet Eucalyptus obliqua forest in Tasmania.Tasforests 16: 19-34.
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