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Costs of delayed reforestation and failure to reforest

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Abstract

Lack of reforestation after timber harvesting or natural disturbances leads to forest loss and degradation in many parts of the world. In this paper, I illustrate that, as the extensive margins of reforestation and timber harvesting differ, some non-reforestation may be justified financially and economically even in places where market and institutional arrangements encourage reforestation. Nonetheless, considering the environmental benefits of reforestation would reduce the potential area of non-reforestation or the gap between the two margins. I further demonstrate with an example the substantial financial costs of delayed reforestation in the U.S. South and explain why reforestation is not taken on some private and public lands. I conclude with comments on reforestation from public policy and ethical perspectives.

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Fig. 1

Adopted from Zhang and Pearse (2011)

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Notes

  1. The United Nations Sustainable Development target No. 15.2 states: “by 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally”.

  2. In the case of intentional regeneration, the new forest would be expected to meet management objective, possibly with the help of silvicultural interventions such as removal of woody and undesirable species.

  3. On the other hand, conversion of land use from forestry to other uses occurs when the economic return of other uses is higher than forestry, which causes deforestation. Although this deforestation process may increase social welfare, I point out that the undervaluation of forest-based environmental services and government policies (such as granting land tenures if “improvements” on land are demonstrated) contribute to this process.

  4. This assumption simplifies things because the rotation ages, species, and species distribution for a planted forest often differ from those of a natural forest.

  5. Stumpage prices on private lands are only available from 1955. This interest rate is similar to the interest rate that most institutional timberland owners were using in the decade between 2007 and 2016 (Zhang and Hall 2018).

  6. Dennis Lebleu (2017) F&W forestry. Personal communication. April 10, 2017.

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge comments received from Kas Dumroese, John Stanturf, Mette Wilkie, two anonymous referees an associate editor of this journal, and participants of Reforestation Matters Conference organized by U.S. Forest Service in Portland, Oregon between April 12 and 13, 2017. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

    Daowei Zhang

  2. Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

    Daowei Zhang

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  1. Daowei Zhang
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Correspondence to Daowei Zhang.

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Zhang, D. Costs of delayed reforestation and failure to reforest. New Forests 50, 57–70 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-018-9676-y

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