An Economic Guide to Silviculture

The paper describes an economic guide to silviculture which is designed to provide field personnel with an easy way of determining the financially sound alternative or possibility when choosing between various forestry practices, primarily with respect to reforestation.The guide consists of a number of charts, one for each of six rotation periods between 40 years and 100 years. Each chart shows three quadrants which are used as nomogrammes for various purposes.Since the economic efficiency of silvicultural operations basically depends on the quality of the land, this guide can be used for an exploratory analysis of the capability spectrum of a given management unit against the background of selected economic criteria. Such an analysis would show how much of the productive forest land can be managed continuously to produce a desired rate of return on capital invested in land, machinery, labour and administration. The guide can also be used to give an outline of the input of labour, employment opportunities, that can be justified annually in various kinds of silvicultural work.