Title: On optimal forest management: a dynamic programming approach

Authors: T. Heikkinen

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 68, FIN-00014, Finland

Abstract: This paper studies optimal any-aged forest management, including uneven-aged and even-aged management as special cases. The approach is based on applying a dynamic programming approach. Dynamic optimisation is applied to study optimal profit-maximising harvesting policies, based on decomposing the forest management problem to smaller subproblems. The optimal harvesting policy implies a modification of the optimal rotation period of the Faustman model to a discrete state model allowing for uneven-aged stands. When maximising the present value of revenue from harvesting, it is optimal to periodically harvest trees from a group of efficient size classes, determined by an optimal stopping problem, while maintaining sufficient ingrowth. Numerical examples with constant or non-linear transition functions suggest that dynamically optimal harvesting policies are robust to varying the initial conditions.

Keywords: forest management; operations research; resource economics; dynamic programming; numerical optimisation; profit maximisation; harvesting policies; optimal rotation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSS.2011.041766

International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2011 Vol.3 No.3, pp.217 - 235

Published online: 27 Feb 2015 *

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