An economic analysis of double-cohort forest resources

Under increasing economic pressure the use of natural regeneration is steadily gaining importance in the forest sector. Double-cohort stand systems, such as seed-trees, shelterwood and many two-aged variations supporting natural seeding, are common silvicutural practices. This paper presents a unified economic approach integrating the most common management alternatives of a double-cohort forest resource in one generalized deterministic model. A three-dimensional problem is solved for regeneration age, overstory density and removal cut maximizing the land expectation value and analyzed in a comparative static analysis. The findings of the model analysis are discussed in a comparison with even- and uneven-aged management. In addition, the dynamic even-aged thinning problem is extended to two age-classes and solved.