Private Forests: Management and Policy in a Market Economy
Abstract
This chapter discusses privately owned forests and timber management in a market economy, including private property rights and tenure, landowner objectives and characteristics, markets, and government policies. Private forest land ownership and management-whether it be industrial or nonindustrial-is often assumed to represent the classic model of atomistic competition in a free market, private enterprise system. Private stumpage markets for timber are perhaps the best example of how this kind of market competition allocates scarce inputs such as land, capital, and labor for efficient production of wood fiber outputs, for example, pulpwood and sawtimber. Where strong private markets for timber exist, there are usually many private forest landowners (producers) and a moderate number of timber buyers (consumers).