Economics of home grown forestry

Costs of applying silvicultural treatments prescribed to increase yields of timber and non-timber forest products from natural forests should be calcu lated differently for industrial logging companies, private non-industrial forest owners, and community based forest management operations. For forest owners who are not concerned solely with maximizing short term profits fro m their forests, the opportunity costs of forest labor are often lower than official minimum wages. Furthermore, for forest owners who do not have rea dy access to interest-accruing savings mechanisms or where bank solvency is in question, the opportunity costs of waiting for long rotation forest cro ps to mature may not be as high as public interest rates would suggest. Bot h the true costs of management and the multitude of marketed and non market ed benefits from well managed natural forests need to be considered when as sessing forestry as one component of a diverse portfolio of conservation op tions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.