Abstract

This book provides a theoretical basis and a collection of management science tools that account for the interactions between different components of a managed forest ecosystem. Accounting for these interactions is the rapid evolution of forest management away from a traditional agricultural commodities production problem to a multi-output problem that gives equivalent emphasis to nonmarket goods and the health of forest ecosystem itself. The book is a comprehensive theoretical demonstration of the breakdown of traditional benefit/cost analysis in the presence of forest ecosystem (or demand) inteactions and is followed by a set of management science (optimization) procedures that address these interactions and better capture the ecosystem function.

• Discusses optimization under conditions of risk and uncertainity in forest management
• Explores spatial optimization and multi-level optimization in forest management
• Examines joint production theory and joint cost allocation in forest management