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Supply schedules for forests planted on marginal agricultural lands are used to simulate a national carbon sequestration program. A cost-effective program should focus on establishing softwood forests on pastureland, and select lands by minimizing cost per ton sequestered. A program similar to the Conservation Reserve Program would sequester 48.6 million tons of carbon per year (3.5 percent of U.S. emissions) on 22.2 million acres. Costs would include $3,700 million in land rental costs and forest establishment costs. Minimizing cost per acre would increase enrollment to 23.1 million acres and would sequester 45.0 million tons per year.

We estimate the impact of government payments on United States land use, using county-level data from the National Resources Inventory and the Census of Agriculture in 1987, 1992, and 1997. Although payments were made under decoupled support programs, effects on land use are found to be significant. On average for the years studied, our simulations indicate that United States cropland acreage would have been 89 million acres (22%) less if program payments had been reduced to half their observed level (holding market prices of commodities constant). Percentage reductions are largest in marginal crop producing areas of the nation. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Gold is frequently mined in rainforests that can provide either gold or forest benefits, but not both. This conflict in resource use occurs in Ghana, a developing country in the tropics where the capital needed for mining is obtained from foreign direct investment (FDI). We use a dynamic model to show that an ad valorem severance tax on gross revenue can be used to internalize environmental opportunity costs. The optimal tax must equal the ratio of marginal benefits from forest use to marginal benefits from gold extraction. Furthermore, the tax should increase (decrease) when adjusted net return on all other assets in the economy is higher (lower) than the growth in the price of gold. Empirical results suggest that the 3 per cent tax rate currently used in Ghana is too low to fully represent the external cost of extraction (i.e., lost forest benefits).

Forests in northern Sweden are used for both timber production and reindeer grazing. Negative externalities and open access effects threaten the ability of the region to sustain economic benefits f ...

The paper describes an experiment with the integration of geographic information systems (GIS) into farmland preservation techniques using the data and policies of Hunterdon County, NJ as a case study. The automation process incorporates a variety of factors as criteria for evaluating properties for a purchase of development rights. The spatially explicit criteria include evaluations of the soils, neighboring land uses, proximity to preserved farms, and local communities’ commitment to practices contributing to sustaining farming. This automation is particularly notable in that it uses a parcel-based approach at a county-wide scale. This supports both an assessment of individual farms and a broad understanding of policy outcomes and pattern across the entire county. More interesting are the emerging pattern of benefits and barriers in the automation process highlighted by this exploration.

This paper develops an analytical framework to simulate management- and policy-driven environmental changes in Swedish mountain environments. The framework is based on a dynamic model that includes economic connections between timber and reindeer. Economic benefits are obtained in the timber sector and the reindeer sector, by harvesting forest and reindeer stocks and selling the harvests in markets. Unharvested forest and reindeer stocks provide benefits outside of markets. Reindeer stocks provide benefits by supporting the reindeer husbandry lifestyle for members of the indigenous Saami population. The paper analyzes decisions made by a hypothetical planner of a geographical area corresponding to a Swedish sameby (Saami village). Decision outcomes are measured using the present value of net benefits measured in economic terms, and are obtained both inside and outside of economic markets. The final section gives examples of management and policy decisions that might be simulated for Swedish mountain environments, such as market-based policies to increase the economic welfare derived from private timber and reindeer harvests.

Marginal cost curves are developed for carbon monoxide abatement from mobile sources through the use of a hypothetical incentive program. Highway toll discounts are provided to drivers who install abatement devices beyond those required to comply with state emissions standards. With participation rates and toll demand derived from data on the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey, marginal costs would be $78 per ton CO to abate emissions from current stationary sources, and would require a toll discount of $0.015 per toll. Marginal costs increase due to the inelastic demand for transportation services (tolls) from the Parkway.

Demands for forest, farm, and developed land are evolving in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. The demand for land in developed uses, as well as demands for various forest and farm products are changing in response to population growth, demographic shifts, and market forces. As demand factors change so do relative land values. Land area in future forest, farm, and developed uses may shift as landowners re-evaluate relative net benefits from land use alternatives. This study examines the effects of various land demand and supply factors on the determination of land use patterns in the mid-Atlantic region. Driving variables include costs and benefits from various uses, population density, and measures of land quality. Model parameters are estimated using a binomial logit procedure. Results from the study are used to estimate proportions of forest area on a county by county basis. Simulated forest landscapes under hypothetical future conditions are prepared and illustrated using geographic information system (GIS) techniques.

Methods are described for evaluating economic and carbon storage aspects of tree planting projects (e.g., plantations for restoration, roundwood, bioenergy, and nonwood products). Total carbon (C) stock is dynamic and comprises C in vegetation, decomposing matter, soil, products, and fuel substituted. An alternative (reference) case is essential for project evaluation.

The U.S. medical and scientific communities are undergoing dramatic change, including a reevaluation of positivistic values and assumptions. The integration of scientific and humanistic principles is one objective of humanistic psychology. Development of conscious awareness of normally unconscious mind-body reactivity patterns can allow access to profound existential insights. A humanistic approach to psychophysiologic self-regulation integrates values of humanistic psychology with tools and methodologies of the mechanistically oriented scientific community. Through collaborative clinical, educational, and research efforts, humanistic psychologists and applied psychophysiologists are developing a model system of crossdisciplinary resource sharing that embraces the strengths of the humanistic and the materialistic scientific communities. A single case descriptive analysis with journal entries, imagery reports, and physiologic records is included. It is through such collaborative efforts that humanistic psychology can best contribute to the ongoing reconceptualization of scientific values and assumptions.

Area base models are being used in resource assessments to project the availability of farm and forest land. In this paper we introduce a heterogenous land area base model and apply it to a five-state region in the southeastern United States. Land quality turns out to be an important determinant of land use, suggesting that existing homogeneous land area base models may have an omitted variable problem. Parameter estimates are obtained using a modified multinomial logit model, which allows for error due to the use of county averages and error resulting from the use of sample estimates of land use acreage. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.

Farmer participation in wetlands restoration practices is explained using land benefits, land attributes, and owner attributes. The probability of participation is estimated using county-level data, and used to calculate the expected acreage restored. National restored wetlands reserves are simulated by sorting counties on government cost and enrolling acreage into the reserve until the acreage target is reached. Total government cost for a million-acre reserve ranges from $1736 million to $1869 million, depending on the administrative strategy used. Using estimated participation rates in place of hypothetical rates suggests that achieving acreage targets may be more expensive than previously thought.

When land users make dynamic land conversion decisions to maximize profits, persistent dedication of marginal land to agricultural uses can be explained as a consequence of risk aversion and expected capital gains. Land conversion increases in response to cost-sharing, rental payments, and technical assistance that reduces uncertainty about land benefits. When correlation between benefits is nonpositive, risk aversion leads the land user to diversify land among uses. Unless subsidy payments outweigh the sum of risk and capital gains costs, payments which appear potentially successful may fail. When payments succeed, the cost of accomplishing acreage targets may be higher than anticipated.

The joint supply of timber and other services from forest environments plays a central role in most forest land debates. This paper defines a general conceptual model of timber supply that provides the context for discussing both individual harvest choice and aggregate supply models. While the structure and breadth of these models has developed considerably over the last twenty years, unresolved issues remain. Supply formulations that account for the quality and vintage distribution of forest capital will be necessary for improving medium- and long-run forecasts. This will be especially important for examining the potential impacts of structural changes in forest production and timber markets. In addition, consistent aggregation of individual owners to total supply will be required to address changing forest land ownership patterns.

The paper provides a conceptual model that examines (i) openaccess exploitation and (ii) mangrove deforestation as two potential causes for the scarcity of post-larval shrimp inputs to shrimp mariculture in Ecuador. Results indicate that conversion of mangrove ecosystems to shrimp ponds may have obtained short-term profit at the expense of long-term productivity. Open-access collection of post-larval shrimp may also have contributed to dwindling stock levels. Specific policy recommendations are presented, and future empirical studies are proposed.

This paper challenges common assumptions about convexity in forest rotation models which optimize timber plus nontimber benefits. If a local optimum occurs earlier than the globally optimal age, policy based on marginal incentives may achieve suboptimal results. Policy-relevant nonconvexities are more likely if (i) nontimber benefits dominate for young stands while the optimal age depends primarily on timber benefits, or (ii) nontimber benefits dominate for mature stands and also determine the optimal age. Nonconvexities may create either temporary or persistent difficulties. Policymakers may improve efficiency by exploiting the relationship between the timber-only optimum and the global optimum.

In a series of experiments, observers' cognitive and psychophysiological responses to pictorial stimuli were evaluated. In the first experiment, subjects were viewing a set of randomly presented images. After each image presentation, they rates every image on a number of cognitive scales. In the second experiment, images producing certain physiological effects - deactivating, neutral, or activating - were individually selected based on the results of the first experiment and shown to the subjects again. Psychophysiological measurements included electrocardiogram, hand temperature, muscle tension, eye movements, blood oxygen, respiration, and galvanic skin response. Our result indicate that images produced significant emotional changes based on verbal and physiological assessment. The changes were in agreement with the predictions derived from the metric that we developed in a number of cases that exceeded the change level. The direction of changes corresponded to previous findings reported elsewhere.

A conceptual model links agricultural profits, capital gains, interest rates, and property taxes to the sale of agricultural land by profit-maximizing owners. The model motivates an empirical analysis of New Jersey data from 1949 to 1990. Results suggest that nonagricultural considerations may overpower the economic incentives provided by such policies as farmland assessment. Consequently, alternative policies (e.g., purchase of development rights and land use zoning) may be needed to sustain agriculture in rapidly urbanizing areas.

Many land-clearing decisions are made for economic reasons. In this study, a general model of land-use margins is used to obtain qualitative and quantitative conclusions about economic and other variables thought to influence land-use change. Geographically detailed land-use records for the state of Bihar in northeastern India are used to illustrate links between economic changes and exchanges of carbon between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. Estimated model parameters allow (1) land-area proportions to be estimated from economic and other data, (2) the sensitivity of land area to changes in economic or other variables to be quantified, and (3) relationships between trends in economic and other variables and carbon in terrestrial ecosystems to be quantified. This case study suggests that current trends in population on the Chhotanagpur Plateau region will lead to a 23.6% net loss of carbon from its terrestrial ecosystems by the year 2000.

A major strategy to combat deforestation caused by household fuel collection has been the establishment of plantations, especially in India. A household model is specified with a number of collection possibilities and analyzed empirically using household, vegetation, and GIS data, and the potential decrease in collection from the natural forest is estimated. The results show reduced pressure on the natural forest due to the establishment of plantations. It also questions buffer zone plantations very close to natural forests.

Ricardian and von Thunen land rent models are combined into a single land use share model including farm, forest, and urban land uses. The land share model is applied to the Southern United States, and elasticities are extracted that measure land share response to changes in population, income, land values, prices, and costs in counties with different degrees of urbanizationT. he study explores the effect of treating either rural or urban land as a residual use. While this practice is common in existing land use studies, it is found to significantly affect parameter estimates in this county-level analysis.

Land base models in regional forest resource supply analyses project area changes in forest vegetation and land use. Models of forest vegetation dynamics are classified according to the basic modeling unit (canopy gap and forest); land use dynamics models are classified according to technique (inventory–descriptive, normative, and positive). Relationships among models used in analyzing timber supply are reviewed, including necessary links between models of forest vegetation dynamics and land use dynamics.