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This paper presents an alternative approach to expressing net value of wood in standing trees in relation to important tree characteristics. The approach aims at increasing woodlot owners’ and managers’ understanding of stand profit production and lead to consideration of stand interventions with higher profitability than those suggested by commonly used guidelines designed for maintaining biologically desirable stock levels. Our investigation showed that determining net wood value in individual trees for stand management purposes is not only feasible but relatively simple to do, requiring little additional information than typically used in stand level cash flow analysis. The presentation of wood value in the form of profit–size relationships presents two major improvements over traditional stand average values and product stumpage values: (1) it links both revenues and costs to determinant tree characteristics, providing a clearer picture of actual financial contributions of trees to stand value. (2) it gives the value of all wood grown and not just the value of volume sold. These two improvements allow landowners and managers to actually see where value is produced in specific stands, and design treatments accordingly to capture financial opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

This study demonstrates a simple method to gather information from old demonstration trials. It was undertaken in the context of a 32-year-old thinning trial in a naturally regenerating stand of Shorea robusta Gaertn. f. in a community forest in the Sindhupalchok district of Nepal. The trial was established by the Nepal–Australia Forestry Project in 1983 and the only documentation of the trial is a report of measurements undertaken in 2005. The site has been relatively untouched, apart from the collection of non-timber forestry products (NTFPs) by the Community Forest User Group (CFUG) that manages the site. The 1983 project had 6 treatments including: pruning, selective thinning, and mechanical harvesting. The impacts of the six treatments were measured by pairing the treatment plots with comparison plots at the same position on the slope in the surrounding forest. Measurements taken were: height, diameter at breast height, canopy cover, and species distribution and count to compare with the area of forest outside the treatment plots using the slope position as strata. Evidence of a remaining treatment effect from 1983 was found for only two of the original thinning treatments. These treatments were the most intensely thinned, and had either positive or negative impacts on S. robusta growth, depending on their position on the slope, indicating the overriding influence of slope position. Using information from measurements taken in 2005 and 2015, it is recommended: that a 4 m × 4 m target spacing should be used as the basis for silvicultural treatments for regenerating S. robusta forests; this density be maintained with planned removal of regenerating saplings; this target be modified with sensitivity to the position on slope; and it should be a staged harvest done in coordination with the community’s annual needs.

The evaluation of conservation practices has become increasingly important to many environmental scientists, land managers, and policymakers due to rising concerns regarding the continued provision of ecosystem services. As part of efforts to identify forests in need of special protection under Forest Stewardship Council principle 9, the High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) toolkit was designed and published in 2003 and has been applied to forestlands globally. Through a meta-analysis of research papers and technical reports, the present study explores the application of the toolkit in conservation efforts from 2003 to 2021. We analyzed 108 documents to extract information on measures and methods used through toolkit application, core conservation values considered, outcomes of the toolkit application in different geographic regions, challenges addressed, and possible solutions. Among six categories of HCVs identified using the toolkit, those related to biodiversity conservation were the most frequently mentioned. However, recent studies have also emphasized the importance of conserving forestlands offering a wide range of ecosystem services as well as forests with critical cultural values. Our analysis showed that the HCVF toolkit is a useful tool in identifying and prioritizing forestlands with high conservation values and that it has been used in contexts outside of its original intended purpose in support of forest certification processes. Yet there are challenges and limitations in using the toolkit in different countries with varied conservation regulations and socio-economic conditions that may require improvements in future updates of the toolkit.

An empirical study was conducted of the attitudes, perceptions and preferences of owners of homegardens in Bangladesh. A wide spectrum of opinions regarding various agroforestry issues was observed. Landholders were found to maintain their homegardens mainly for subsistence, although some additional family income was derived from selling surplus products. Due to lack of scientific knowledge the growing stock of homegardens was not of high quality. Seedlings were mostly preferred to other planting materials. Mango was accorded the highest ‘preference ranking’ among the available species. The farmers expected a number of external support measures, including high quality planting materials, assured credit facilities, and access to state-of-the-art management knowledge. It was concluded that various perceptions, preferences and attitude of the farmers would provide a framework for future policy formulation, preparation of homegarden management plans and development of homegardens in the study area and more generally in Bangladesh.

The study objective was to characterize noise exposures and hearing protector usage at small-scale logging operations. Noise dosimeters were used to measure exposures of 31 loggers at two cable operations and five mechanized operations in the United States. Activity cards were employed to evaluate hearing protector usage. Ninety-two percent of cable operation loggers were overexposed to noise according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommended criteria, but only 46% of cable loggers wore hearing protection. Six percent of mechanized operation loggers were overexposed to noise over the 8-h shifts observed, but this number increased to 33% when working 12-h shifts, which was a common practice among the participant companies. Only 6% of mechanized loggers wore hearing protection. Mean noise exposures and the proportion of hearing protection usage were both significantly greater at cable operations than at mechanized operations. None of the logging operations had hearing conservation programs in place. Despite the use of mechanized logging equipment and methods, the potential for noise-induced hearing loss remains a concern for workers employed at small-scale operations in the logging industry.

In order to respond to global competition challenges, the wood-processing industry in Finland and elsewhere is outsourcing roundwood harvesting to harvesting contractors. The industry also seeks to negotiate with fewer, larger and more diverse contractor enterprises. The weak profitability, liquidity and solvency of harvesting contractors and the consequent difficulty in hiring qualified machine operators make networking and enterprise growth a complicated process. Financial data of 1,060 Finnish wood harvesting contractors from the period 2001 to 2007 were studied using the ‘closing of the accounts’ data. The material represents most of the full-time contractors. For 2007 net profit was about 6%, credit share of turnover over 50% and median financial reserve €18,000. High machine depreciation and interest expenses together with low solidity make it difficult for small enterprises to absorb seasonal variations and to cope with recessions. Profitability varies considerably amongst smallest enterprises, which most often are sole-operator enterprises. Moreover, even the median profit of the smallest enterprises tends to be negative, which means that enterprise capital will be consumed and many enterprises are at risk of failure. Larger enterprises are more likely to be limited liability companies. Their median profit is clearly positive and the profit varies relative little between enterprises.

This paper presents findings from a representative opinion poll among Swiss private forest owners regarding the actual and future role of outside professional advice, training and extension services. First, the Swiss private forest owners are a highly heterogeneous group insofar as they are difficult addressees for any form of public support and extension services. Second, the majority of Swiss private forest owners appreciate the presently offered training facilities as well as the advisory activities of the cantonal and communal public forest services. Third, Swiss private forest owners are open to new forms of extension provided that such services will be custom-tailored and initiated by the advisers. Custom-tailored in this context means that the individual demands of private forest owners need to be addressed in a differentiated manner and advice will not be limited to the economic aspects of timber production. Local advisers from cantonal and communal forest services are presently in a pole position for offering new forms of extension, however, there are also more opportunities for services offered by private firms and non-governmental organisations. The broader scope for advisory and supporting activities as well as an increasing variety of potential actors providing such services implies a change in formulating and implementing forest policy programs at federal and cantonal levels.

The income-generating dimension of berry and mushroom picking is important in many European countries or regions of countries, predominantly for rural livelihoods. Due to the role and economic potential in the utilization of non-wood forest products (NWFPs), there is a need, and also an increasing interest in, monitoring their market volume and values both at national and international levels. There is a wealth of information from different sources at the national level, but at the international level there is a need to harmonize the information. It is a major challenge for international data collection efforts to balance the need for harmonization of statistics without losing interesting information. This paper presents and analyses statistics on the quantity and value of two groups of marketed NWFPs: (1) mushrooms and truffles, and (2) fruits, berries and edible nuts. The statistics came from the State of Europe’s Forests 2007 report and its country reports. Our paper describes the shortcomings of the statistics and identifies potential explanations for the limitations. The results from this study reveal that the usability of data on marketed mushrooms and berries varies a lot between countries. In general, the data are incomplete and not comparable among countries. Another challenge is the consistency of information on production, trade and consumption flows. Based on a Finnish example, balance sheets can be used to control the consistency and derive missing sub-components of trade flows. A regional case study of Nordic and Baltic countries and the Russian Federation illustrates potential from national household and operator surveys for complementary information.