This document discusses the economic importance of forests. It notes that forests provide timber, fuel, food and other products that have significant economic value. They are also economically important as they accumulate large amounts of biomass and store potential energy. The optimal harvest age of forest stands depends on factors like the distance to processing mills, land quality and market prices. Land use, agricultural and pricing policies can impact forest management if they encourage deforestation or unsustainable harvesting practices.

1. ECONOMICAL IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS
By
Dr.Thirunahari Ugandhar
Asst Prof of Botany
Govt. Degree College
Mahabubabad-506101 (T.S.)

2. Economical Importance Of Forests
Environmental Importance Of Forests
Ecological Importance Of Forests
Religious Importance Of Forests
• Introduction
• A forest is a type of ecosystem in which there is
high density of trees occupying a relatively large
area of land.
• An ecosystem is an ecological unit consisting of
a biotic community together with it’s a biotic
environment.

3. • In the case of a forest, trees dominate the biotic
landscape, although there are also other plants
and animals.
• There are many types of forest, such as
rainforests and temperate hardwood forest.
• Forests provide innumerable values to people,
provide aspects that address both physical
needs as well as the internal nature of people.

4. FOREST PRESERVATION
Environmental activists consider forests as one of the
top 5 natural resources on earth.
This is rightly so, and today, we shall look at how
wonderful our forests are to us, and why we should
immediately stop its' destruction.
There is more to forests than just a massive collection of
trees. It is a natural, complex ecosystem, made up of a
wide variety of trees, that support a massive range of life
forms.
Quiet apart from trees, forests also include the soils
that support the trees, the water bodies that run through
them and even the atmosphere (air) around them.

5. • Forests of the world are a natural wonder that
humans have sadly taken for granted.
• Forests come in many sizes and forms.
• For example, the piece of land with huge trees
and many animals, birds and water bodies
running through it in a part of Kenya can be
called a forest.
• In the same way, the large belt of thick,
evergreen trees running from Peru to Brazil
(called the Amazon Rain Forest) is also a forest.
• A good example is the Amazon Rain Forest.

6. • It is estimated that two-thirds of the world's
forest is currently distributed among 10
countries:
• Forests are hugely important for life on earth.
• This is because it serves as an ecosystem, and
sustains life for millions of animals, birds and
animals that live in the rivers and streams
running through these forests.
• It also does a lot of good to the atmosphere in
climate control, as well as supplying oxygen for
human sustenance

7. • ECONOMICAL IMPORTANCE…
• Forests have obvious economic significance through the
provision of timber and wood.
• In addition, non-timber products like rubber, cotton,
medicinal products, and food represent significant
economic value.
• Even more important is fuel wood and fodder, especially
in developing nations, where people depend on wood
almost entirely for their household energy.
• Given the immense economic benefit of forests, the
demand for commercial timber and other products is
ever increasing.
• Already, there are signs of a growing shortage of tropical
hardwoods.
• This is due to over-harvesting of timber, but also
increasing demands from a growing human population,
agriculture, mining and water storage.

8. • •Forests accumulate large amounts of standing
biomass, and many are capable of accumulating it at
high rates, i.e. they are highly productive.
• Such high levels of biomass and tall vertical
structures represent large stores of potential energy
that can be converted to kinetic energy under the
right circumstances.
• •Two such conversions of great importance are fires
and tree falls, both of which radically alter the biota
and the physical environment where they occur.
• •Also, in forests of high productivity, the rapid
growth of the trees themselves induces biotic and
environmental changes, although at a slower rate
and lower intensity than relatively instantaneous
disturbances such as fires.

9. • FOREST ECONOMIC THEORY
Even –Aged Forest Economic Optimization:
Maximize soil expectation value
 returns to the land, given price of inputs and
outputs and a discount rate.
Key results in optimization:
•Stand value decreases with distance to mill.
•Optimal harvest age increases with distance to
mill.

10. • The classical Faustian model of optimal forest
rotation shows in some cases a positive relationship
between optimal harvest age and distance to mill.
• Because of the complex interaction between land
value, distance to mill, and stumpage price.
• The same model would prescribe that stands
growing on lower quality sites are optimally grown
to later ages than stands on high-quality sites.
• Also, stands very far from mills have no economic
value and are not economically managed and
sometimes not even economically harvested.

11. • The same goes for stands growing on difficult to harvest
sites such as steep slopes or wet soils.
• We offer one additional comment.
• If a stand is close to a mill that consumes large-diameter
material only, then there might be an incentive for forest
managers to not cut the tree until it reaches larger
diameters, since economic value may be maximized this
way.
• In a sense, the rate of value increase is higher for those
stands, meaning that it might be optimal to cut the stand
at a later age than one far from such a mill;
• but this economic incentive hinges on many factors,
including species physical growth rates, the differential
between the large diameter and smaller diameter product
market prices, and how being close to that mill affects
land value.

12. • 12. THE POLICY ADJUSTMENTS, FOREST MANAGEMENT
PROGRAMMES CONTINUE TO BE DESTABILIZED BY POLICIES THAT
ENCOURAGE:
• Inappropriate concession agreements that allow
uncontrolled log harvesting beyond sustainable
levels; poorly drafted forestry regulations that
compromise sustainable forest practices;
• lack of enforcement of sound regulations; and
excessive incentives to forest product industries
resulting in inadequate investment in wood
processing capacity

13. • Land tenure policies that encourage deforestation,
particularly tendril rules that assign property rights over
public forests to private parties on condition that such
lands are `developed' or `improved'.
• Such rules have facilitated small farmer expansion into
forests, and in some countries have been used by wealthy
parties to amass large holdings for speculative reasons.
• Absence of national land-use policy that would guide land
allocation according to land capability and environment
impact considerations, including excisions of forest land
for inappropriate alternative usage.
• Pricing policies and investment priorities biased in favor
of agriculture, and farm policies that favor large farmers
over smallholders all of which ultimately retard the
demographic transition, make rural populations more
dependent on natural forests for subsistence needs, and
increase the concentration of agricultural landholdings.

14. • Pricing policies and investment priorities biased
in favor of agriculture, and farm policies
• that favor large farmers over smallholders all of
which ultimately retard the demographic
transition, make rural populations more
dependent on natural forests for subsistence
needs, and increase the concentration of
agricultural landholdings