<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

In the past few decades, ecological and environmental issues have dominated the forest industry worldwide, but economic aspects have been much less studied in this dynamic period. However, a sustainable and efficient forest biomass supply is critical for socio-economic development in many regions, particularly in rural areas. Nature protection efforts have contributed to reduced harvesting quotas, which have resulted in an imbalance of the environmental functions of the forests and forest management, particularly wood supply.
Considering the size and distribution of forest production management units and the forest stands that compose those units, there is a clear need for improved decision-making tools that help forest managers in planning harvest sequences. The optimization of harvest scheduling should consider economic and spatial factors, which may reduce production costs by increasing the logistic efficiency. Moreover, incorporating maximum harvesting opening size constraints into planning can help preserve biodiversity.
This article presents a new spatial harvest scheduling model based on the integer programming method; it was developed using real data from a forest production unit located in the northern part of the southeast region of Brazil. The goal of the proposed scheduling approach is to maximize the net present value and concentrate the harvesting locations in each period. In spite of the fact that the object of the study is plantation forest under management different to common conditions in Europe or North America, the model is flexible and can be used in management of forest in Central Europe.
</abstract>

In the past few decades, ecological and environmental issues have dominated the forest industry worldwide, but economic aspects have been much less studied in this dynamic period. However, a sustainable and efficient forest biomass supply is critical for socio-economic development in many regions, particularly in rural areas. Nature protection efforts have contributed to reduced harvesting quotas, which have resulted in an imbalance of the environmental functions of the forests and forest management, particularly wood supply.
Considering the size and distribution of forest production management units and the forest stands that compose those units, there is a clear need for improved decision-making tools that help forest managers in planning harvest sequences. The optimization of harvest scheduling should consider economic and spatial factors, which may reduce production costs by increasing the logistic efficiency. Moreover, incorporating maximum harvesting opening size constraints into planning can help preserve biodiversity.
This article presents a new spatial harvest scheduling model based on the integer programming method; it was developed using real data from a forest production unit located in the northern part of the southeast region of Brazil. The goal of the proposed scheduling approach is to maximize the net present value and concentrate the harvesting locations in each period. In spite of the fact that the object of the study is plantation forest under management different to common conditions in Europe or North America, the model is flexible and can be used in management of forest in Central Europe.

Spatial considerations of an area restriction model for identifying harvest blocks at commercial forest plantations

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Kamýcká 129, CZ – 165 21 Prague 6 – Suchdol,

Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Rua dos Funcionários, 1540, Juvevê – Curitiba – Paraná,

University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto-Douro, 5001-801, Vila Real and INESC TEC,

Central European Forestry Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In the past few decades, ecological and environmental issues have dominated the forest industry worldwide, but economic aspects have been much less studied in...

Spatial considerations of an area restriction model for identifying harvest blocks at commercial forest plantations

Published Online: Dec 08, 2016

Page range: 146 - 151

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/forj-2016-0017

Keywords
Eucalyptus, plantation management, spatial harvest scheduling, harvest-flow constraints

© 2016 Jan Kašpar et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Spatial considerations of an area restriction model for identifying harvest blocks at commercial forest plantations

Published Online: Dec 08, 2016

Page range: 146 - 151

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/forj-2016-0017

KeywordsEucalyptus, plantation management, spatial harvest scheduling, harvest-flow constraints

© 2016 Jan Kašpar et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Eucalyptus, plantation management, spatial harvest scheduling, harvest-flow constraints