Forest and natural resources economics

Duration

9h Th, 9h Pr

Number of credits

Lecturer

Gauthier Ligot

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

THEORY
Chapter 1: Principles for estimating the value of forests.

• Concepts of values
• Source of income and expenses
• Discounted cash flow principle
• Value/loss of future
• Funds and area
• Financial prejudice and compensation

• Computation of the forest expectation value and demonstration
• he case of planted even-aged high forest
• Case of naturally regenerated even-aged forest
• The case of the uneven-aged forest
• The case of irregular forest in transition

• Average and total production
• Return on investment
• Benefit-cost ratio
• net present value
• net present value of infinite cash flows
• Internal rate of return
• Comparison and critique of the different criteria

• Discount Rate
• Land expectation value
• Risks and uncertainties

• Optimal revolution
• Density and spacing
• Protection
• Silvicultural regime

• Methods of arbitrage between market and non-market services
• Illustration of multi-criteria valuation of ecosystem services
• Discussion on stakeholder involvement
• Discussion on the trade-off between different scenarios
• Discussion on the relevance of economic and social evaluation methods

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of this course, the student must master the basics of financial, economic and social evaluation of the management of a forest estate. More specifically, the student must be able to:
- Master (understand/use) the vocabulary used to assess the value or the profitability of a forest;
- Master the concept of discounting cash flows;
- Estimate the value of a forest or the amount of a loss based on cash flow;
- Calculate different profitability criteria (e.g. IRR, FEV, ...) to evaluate a forest investment;
- Evaluate and compare different forest investment projects, identify the most interesting investment and argue for this choice;
- To explain the assumptions used to calculate the value of a forest or profitability criteria; to put into perspective the importance of these assumptions on the result, for example by means of a sensitivity analysis;
- Describe the methods used to identify a multifunctional forest management scenario that is a good trade-off among the multiple goods and services provided by a forest;
- Criticize economic and social valuation methods.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Multifunctional management of forests
Forest products supply chain
Forest mensuration and forest inventory
Economics of natural ressources

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Lecture:

• Presentation with a visual support
• Wooclap Polls
• Feedback from formative tests conducted online before the session
• Solving simple exercises
• Presentations by other speaker(s)
• Participatory Workshop
• Discussion

• Exercise resolution

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Lectures: 5 x 1h30 Practical works: 7 x 1h30

Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

If the sanitary situation of the coronavirus crisus is characterized by a yellow or orange code :
The content of the theory sessions will be presented in videos that will be made available to students on eCampus.
Videoconferences will be organized for each scheduled session. These sessions will be an opportunity to answer students' questions, perform quick exercises and polls in order to keep the teaching interractive.
Practical work will be done in the computer rooms. These sessions will be simultaneously broadcasted by videoconference.

Recommended or required readings

Mandatory reading

• Presentation slides

• Hébert J. (2019) Economie du patrimoine forestier. Course notes
• Price, C. and Price, M. Cost-benefit analysis of continuous cover forestry, pp. 36-65.

• Price C. (1989) - The Theory and Application of Forest Economics

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

written exam ( open-ended questions )

- Remote

written exam ( open-ended questions ) AND written work

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred remote


Additional information:

First session examination
Practical examination with PC (100%)
The evaluation will be carried out using an eCampus form, preferably in the computer rooms of the faculty (code yellow and orange) and otherwise remotely (code red).
Ongoing assessment (no examination in June)
 
Second session examination
Writing a report

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

LIGOT Gauthier
Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech Passage des Déportés 2 5030 Gembloux Belgique
+32 81 622320 gligot@uliege.be