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This report provides a comparison of the costs and revenues of a typical Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) system relative to a typical, large-scale Conventional Logging (CL) system in the eastern Amazon. The analysis focuses on financial, operational, and technical aspects of CL in relation to RIL techniques and procedures. Although the study does not address biological or ecological questions directly, measurements were made of two key parameters affecting future forest productivity: damage to trees in the residual stand and the proportion of ground area disturbed. An economic engineering approach was used to estimate standardized productivity and cost parameters for typical RIL and CL operations in the Paragominas, Par< timbershed. Detailed data on productivity, harvest volume, wasted wood and damage were collected from on-site harvest blocks. Productivity and cost data were also collected using surveys of forest products firms in the timbershed. The major conclusion of the study was that reduced impact logging can be financially more profitable than conventional logging. This implies that economic self interest can help mitigate the loss of ecological services in tropical forests subject to logging pressure. However, a word of caution is due. Because tropical forests are heterogeneous and the markets for production inputs and outputs are variable, the conclusions of this study do not necessarily apply to other timbersheds in the Amazon basin or elsewhere. It is imperative for future studies to identify the set of conditions under which RIL can compete financially with conventional logging practices. Investments in "human capital", or training forest workers, yielded financial dividends in the initial harvest in terms of more efficient use of machinery (human-made capital) and timber (natural capital). Efficiency gains to skidding and log deck productivity were large, but required investments in planning that would nearly triple conventional logging fixed costs. Better recovery of potential merchantable timber volume using RIL techniques reduced the direct and indirect costs associated with wasted wood and increased the volume of wood that could be recovered from a fixed resource base. Overall, the cost per cubic meter associated with a typical RIL system in this timbershed was 12% less than the cost of a typical CL system. Reduced impact logging techniques greatly reduced damage to trees in the residual stand and reduced the amount of ground area disturbed by machinery. This result implies that future economic and ecological benefits provided by logged forests will be greater where RIL techniques are used. Adoption of RIL methods are likely hindered by a number of factors, including: (1) the perception that RIL systems are more expensive than CL systems, (2) failure of CL cost accounting systems to recognize direct and indirect costs associated with wasted wood, (3) the lack of trained human resources for field implementation, (4) high net profit margins, inducing maximization of "throughput" rather than profit, (5) adjustment costs related to machine replacement and the opportunity cost of worker training may be nonzero, (6) standing timber prices may be undervalued, and (7) environmental regulations are not fully enforced.
Fiscal Year: fy00 ·
Problem Area: pa98-5 ·
Source: coop
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Citation:
Holmes, T. P., G. M. Blate, J. C. Zweede, R. Pereira, Jr., P. Barreto, F. Boltz, and R. Bauch. 2000. Financial costs and benefits of reduced impact logging relative to conventional logging in the Eastern Amazon. -48. Tropical Forest Foundation,Washington, D.C.
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Forest Economics and Policy |
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USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station |