Single and integrated use of forest lands in British Columbia - theory and practice
Creators: name: Sahajananthan, Sivaguru
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: This study deals with the multiple use management of forests. The main objectives of the study are i) to review the literature on economic theory of multiple use and examine various approaches taken by foresters to practice multiple use, and ii) to compare, with respect to timber supply, rent and selected environmental indicators, two alternative forest land use systems under three timber management intensities (basic, medium and high). A review of the literature suggests that benefits accruing from multiple use forestry can be measured in terms of rent and the provision of amenity values (non-timber goods and services). There is an inverse relationship between timber rent and the flow of natural amenity values. Current forest practices in British Columbia (BC) attempt to maintain a constant flow of natural amenity values by retaining certain structural elements in the landscape through a system of resource emphasis rules (RER). These stringent RERs may lead to high amenity flow and low rent. These theoretical findings were empirically tested by simulation with spatially explicit models, ATLAS and SIMFOR, in a sub-unit of the Revelstoke Timber Supply Area, Revelstoke 1 in British Columbia. The study shows that the opportunity costs of integrated management, as currently practiced, is equivalent to 60% of potential sustainable timber supply. Analysis of RERs shows that universally applied adjacency constraints reduce sustainable timber harvests and rents by 58% and 65% respectively, when compared to an unconstrained base case. Visual quality constraints reduce sustainable timber harvests to as low as 9 % of the base case. The study also estimates that, in the absence of RERs, 46% of the net operable area of Revelstoke 1 can produce evenflow volumes equivalent to those currently produced by the whole area of the Unit. This area can be further reduced to 35% with intensive timber management. Two types of multiple use systems, integrated use (IU) system and single use (SU) system were devised. The IU system treats the whole operable’ area as an integral unit, while the SU system has a timber zone and an integrated zone. This research shows that the SU system rent is higher than that of IU system at all assumed management intensities, and at “high intensity”, can be as much as 216% relative to that of the IU system at basic intensity. Rents from both systems were found be to very sensitive to discount rates. Rent from the IU system is found to be more sensitive to changes in prices than from the SU system but their relative performance does not change. Environmental indicators suggest that the IU system leads to higher fragmentation of critical “interior forest” wildlife habitats and consequent loss of amenity values compared to the SU system. The road density in the SU system is found to vary from 65% to 68% of that of the IU system under “basic” and “high” intensities. As for the protection of biodiversity, the SU system is likely to help maintain a system of small reserves scattered throughout the working forest as a complement to the system of large reserves in the protected areas. This research has implications for short timber supply, rent and forest stewardship. In the short term, the SU system will release for immediate harvest, highly productive sites carrying high timber volumes hitherto locked up by adjacency constraints. Timber production zones will facilitate the creation of secure tenure arrangements designed to protect public investments and provide incentives for the private sector to invest in timber production on public land. The study, also, demonstrates the high potential for single use management through land use zoning as a strategy to balance economic and environmental values from British Columbia’s forests and offers an innovative method for achieving sustainability of timber and non-timber resources.