Tax Policy and Sustainable Forestry in Georgia

David Newman (Presenter), University of Georgia

Warren A. Flick, University of Georgia

Coleman W. Dangerfield, Jr., University of Georgia

Forestry is Georgia’s largest agricultural industry, providing on the order of $20 billion in total economic activity. The development of this sector is dependent on the production of raw material from the state’s 23.6 million acres of forestland. Private individuals and corporations own over 90% of this forestland, with myriad objectives and means. Economic factors have a major role in the determination of how this land will be used and whether the production of goods and services from the states forests can be maintained. A serious concern regarding the sustainability of the resource bases has been the role that property taxes play in the conversion of forestland into development. As a means of counteracting this effect, the state passed a preferential tax program called the Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) program. The CUVA can substantially lower property taxes for non-corporate landowners and currently has over 55,000 tracts and over 4.5 million acres of land enrolled in the program. This paper will present an analysis of the program, its impacts, and the likely implications of tax programs such as these to limit land use change in the state and their implications for sustainable forest management.

Workshop I: People and Forests

Online presentation

Sustaining
Southern
Forests

a conference sponsored by the Southern Forest Resource Assessment