Abstract: The forestry literature has sought to describe competitive equilibria by first solving social planning problems. This "indirect" approach may cease to be useful in determining market equilibrium if the government intervenes. The equilibrium price path of timber is characterized directly here under the assumption that once a site is cleared, the site is used for some other purpose of exogenous value. While extreme, this assumption permits us to show that familiar Herfindahl results from the Hotelling literature extend to forestry economics: if differing in age, older trees are harvested first; if different in site value, trees on more valuable land are harvested first. As trees of the same vintage (or site value) are harvested, the timber price may decline during intervals when wood volume grows faster than the rate of interest. As the concluding section suggests, some of these results reappear in special cases of the model with replanting.

Abstract: Tropical forests provide critical global and local ecosystem services and habitat for many of the world’s plants and animals. Their loss threatens the sustainable economic growth and social stability of developing countries, and illegal deforestation abroad places U.S. producers at an unfair disadvantage. For these and other reasons, the United States has long been engaged in programs to reduce forest loss. This engagement has recently increased, with the new Presidential Global Climate Change Initiative including a pillar dedicated to slowing forest loss. While promising, this new funding and coordination is insufficient, with a narrow focus on climate-based development assistance. Engaging the full suite of forest policy levers in the federal government, or taking a “whole-of-government” approach, would provide greater immediate impact in preventing forest loss while building the foundations of a working landscape ethic. In this discussion paper, we explore the opportunities to expand U.S. contributions to reducing tropical deforestation through this approach. A whole-of-government approach to international deforestation consists of coordinating and focusing the programs across the federal government that could reduce the rate of tropical forest loss. It is an integrated strategy that employs existing activities and authorities of the U.S. government and directs them under an overarching goal of reducing deforestation in tropical forest countries, while continuing to support other developing-country goals, such as economic development, health, food security, and biodiversity. We identify three major areas where policy adjustments and actions by relevant authorities can have immediate and tangible impact on reducing deforestation.

Abstract: Trees have multiple purposes in rural Ethiopia, providing significant economic and ecological benefits. Planting trees supplies rural households with wood products for their own consumption, as well for sale, and decreases soil degradation. We used cross-sectional household-level data to analyze the determinants of household tree planting and explored the most important tree attributes or purpose(s)that enhance the propensity to plant trees. We set up a sample selection framework that simultaneously took into account the two decisions of tree growers (whether or not to plant trees and how many) to analyze the determinants of tree planting. We used logistic regression to analyze the most important tree attributes that contribute to households’ tree-planting decisions. We found that land size, age, gender, tenure security, education, exogenous income, and agro-ecology increased both the propensity to plant trees and the amount of tree planting, while increased livestock holding impacted both decisions negatively. Our findings also suggested that households consider a number of attributes in making the decision to plant trees. These results can be used by policymakers to promote tree planting in the study area by strengthening tenure security and considering households’ selection of specific tree species fortheir attributes.

Abstract: This paper provides an empirical exploration of the dependence of villagers on non-timber forest products in the Morogoro region in Tanzania, the decision rules that villagers use concerning where and how much they collect, how their collection changes with degradation, and the implications of introducing more restrictive access rules of participatory forest management. Villagers' responses to increased degradation vary by forest product: fuelwood collection tends to be displaced to other forests in response to degradation, fewer forest fruits and vegetables are collected, and collection times increase considerably for weaving and building materials.

Abstract: This paper explores the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) initiatives in Tanzania that have excluded villagers from forests to which they have traditionally, albeit illegally, had access to collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Motivated by our fieldwork and using a spatial-temporal model, we focused on the paths of forest degradation and regeneration and villagers’ utility before and after PFM has been introduced. Our paper illustrates a number of key points for policymakers. First, the benefits of PFM tend to be greatest in the first few periods after it is introduced, after which the overall forest quality often declines. Second, villagers may displace their NTFP collection into more distant forests that may have been completely protected by distance alone before PFM was introduced. Third, permitting villagers to collect limited amounts of NTFPs for a fee, or alternatively fining villagers caught collecting illegally from the PFM forest, and returning the fee or fine revenue to the villagers, can improve both forest quality and villagers’ livelihoods.

Abstract: This paper relates the key findings of the optimal economic enforcement literature to practical issues of enforcing and managing forest and wildlife access restrictions in developing countries. Our experiences, particularly in Tanzania and southern India, detail the major pragmatic issues facing those responsible for protecting natural resources. We identified large gaps in the theoretical literature that limit its ability to inform practical management, including issues of limited funding and cost recovery, multiple layers of enforcement, different incentives faced by those responsible for enforcement, and conflict between protected-area managers’ job requirements and rural people’s needs.