Managing a tropical rainforest for timber, carbon storage and tree diversity

Abstract

Natural tropical forests can provide income, serve as carbon sinks, and be reservoirs of biological diversity. Management for these diverse goals can be guided by optimisation models that seek the best cutting regime, given different constraints and objective functions. The results for a lowland tropical rainforest in peninsular Malasia show that to maximise a sustainable income one would cut all commercial trees of 30 cm and above every 20 years. All non-commercial trees would remain, and this contribute to diversity and carbon storage. The best policy to maximise carbon storage was not to cut at all. This also maximised diversity, by leading to a forest in its climax state. However, this policy had a very high opportunity cost. Compromise policies were obtained, for example by maximising carbon storage, or diversity, while getting a competitive rate of return on the capital in trees. Findings suggest that increasing carbon storage and tree diversity can be attained only at significant costs in terms of foregone income. For example, increasing carbon storage beyond the income-maximising amont would cost $47/ton.