Analyzing the effect of carbon prices on wood production and harvest scheduling in a managed forest in Turkey

Among terrestrial ecosystems, forests have the largest carbon deposits, and thus play an important role in global climate change. Forests of all ages and types have a significant capacity in sequestration or depositing carbon. Increasing their capacities from this aspect can only be possible through sustainably managed forests. Therefore, in order to increase the carbon stock in forests, carbon management concepts must be integrated into the forestry program. The purpose of this study is to understand how carbon sequestration can affect levels of wood production and harvest scheduling in a forest area operated mainly for wood production, by considering alternative ideas on the current conditions in the given area. Monetary revenue which will be achieved by a 100-year planning horizon with a mixed integer optimization model, the produced wood and the levels of carbon that was sequestrated from atmosphere were investigated under 5 different strategies. Strategies were formed according to the potential unit prices of carbon. In the basic strategy (STR1) carbon price is taken as zero (only wood production revenue), while other strategies, i.e., STR2, STR3, STR4, and STR5 is priced as €8, €35, €55, and €100 per ton, respectively. Regeneration periods of stands and amount of maintenance cuts, which will be extracted from the forest, differ according to the strategies. Results show that when sequestrated carbon unit price is low (STR2 and STR3) or even when carbon has no value (STR1) the management activities in these strategies are almost the same. However, if there is an increase in the value of carbon (STR4 and STR5), with the assessment of different options, it is understood that a much higher level of revenue can be accessible.