Welfare implications of the Allowable Cut Effect in the context of sustained yield and sustainable development forestry.

摘要

Welfare implications of the Allowable Cut Effect (ACE) have been largely ignored in the literature since the early 1980s. This paper re-assesses the welfare implications of the ACE in the context of sustained yield and sustainable development forestry. With respect to sustained yield forestry, the resolution of the ACE issue was incomplete. Concerns regarding the subsidization of silvicultural investments with existing timber values, and the inability of the ACE to consider values, were not reconciled with the acceptance of the ACE, which occurred upon realization that the ACE reduces the shadow price of sustained yield constraints. This paper attempts to reconcile these two phases in the literature. Furthermore, problems associated with the ACE were essentially assumed away with the acceptance of sustained yield, rather than considering ACE concerns as legitimate problems associated with sustained yield policies. The absence of a resolution to these issues could impede a transition from sustained yield forestry, focused on timber volumes, to sustainable development forestry, that focuses on sustaining forest resource values. Although such a paradigm shift could potentially alleviate some of the concerns associated with the ACE, similar problemsarise that are endemic to the use of sustainability constraints.