Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2009

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Natural Resources

Major Professor

Donald G. Hodges

Abstract

Forests contain characteristics of market (timber and forest products) and non-market goods (e.g. ecosystem and environmental services, outdoor recreation). The mixed characteristics of forests create difficulties in policy implementation, especially when sustainability of forests is an objective. Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), the global concept, is a challenging solution for forest uses and management combining social, economics, and environmental dimension. Due to several calls for research in SFM, particularly in trade in forest products and forest landowner behavior, this dissertation presents two empirical models with implications related to SFM. Because some SFM opponents believe that applying SFM will lessen trade transactions and their forest products volume and value, the first essay applies a vector autoregression (VAR) model to clarify confusion surrounding trade and SFM, including the controversy of exchange rate depreciation policy.This study uses U.S.-Canada forest products trade data and exchange rate, and predicts the dynamic patterns of those factors when imposing a shock due to policy or other disturbances. The estimated results show that an alteration in exchange rate policy and changing forest conservation affect trade components both in the short run and the long run. Any calls for exchange rate depreciation policies should be rejected. Increasing forest conservation in the U.S. would discourage exports and increase the social price of wood products. The second essay deals with fragmentation and parcelization of U.S. forests. Resolving the problems requires information about forest owners. This study utilizes a simultaneous-equation model to estimate interactions among ownership objective categories (non-timber benefits, monetary returns, farm or home site value, and bequest), willingness to harvest in the future, and interest in managing for non-timber uses.The study estimates factors influencing ownership objective categories and planned behavior. The empirical results reveal that forest landowners are not homogenous and possess multiple ownership objectives. The interdependence between ownership objective categories and behavior show that implementing incentives and revised U.S. forest policy with SFM objective should be considered in order to remedy the current forest problems.

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