Full text of this article is only available in PDF format.

Yaoqi Zhang (email), Daowei Zhang, John Schelhas

Small-scale non-industrial private forest ownership in the United States: rationale and implications for forest management

Zhang Y., Zhang D., Schelhas J. (2005). Small-scale non-industrial private forest ownership in the United States: rationale and implications for forest management. Silva Fennica vol. 39 no. 3 article id 378. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.378

Abstract

The transaction cost approach is used to explain why small non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownerships are increasing in the U.S. We argue that the number of small NIPF owners have increased because: 1) a significant amount of forestland is no longer used economically if primarily for timber production, but rather for non-timber forest products and environmental services (particularly where population density is high), 2) when a person makes frequent use of non-timber products and services, owning forestland is more efficient for them because it saves the transaction costs involved in getting them from the market, 3) forestland parcelization takes place when non-timber value increases faster than timber value, and 4) marginal value for non-timber product is diminishing much faster than that for timber production. The paper also discusses implications of the parcelization of NIPF ownerships on forest management.

Keywords
non-industrial private forest; forest land parcelization; timber supply; transaction costs; economic efficiency; land use change

Author Info
  • Zhang, School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, AL 36849-5418, USA E-mail yaoqi.zhang@auburn.edu (email)
  • Zhang, School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, AL 36849-5418, USA E-mail dz@nn.us
  • Schelhas, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Tuskegee University, AL, USA E-mail js@nn.us

Received 5 July 2004 Accepted 6 September 2005 Published 31 December 2005

Views 3534

Available at https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.378 | Download PDF

Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 4.0

Register
Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.
Log in
If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.
Contents alert
Sign up to receive alerts of new content

Your selected articles
Your search results
Zhang Y., Zhang D. et al. (2005) Small-scale non-industrial private forest owners.. Silva Fennica vol. 39 no. 3 article id 378