International O.R. Insights: Sustainable Forest Planning and Management
Meeting economic and environmental goals harmoniously: no need to sacrifice one for the other.
By Andrea Feunekes
The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable management, conservation and development of forest types. The declaration underscores the imperative action that nations, businesses and individuals need to take to conserve, protect and maintain the sustainability of the environment. To quote Rodney Taylor, director of forests at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International, “It is time the world recognized the true value and crucial role of forests as a cornerstone to building a future world where humanity is living within the Earth’s ecological limits and sharing its resources more equitably” [1].
The world’s forests and other major biomes are not just providers of the world’s species, oxygen and vegetation, the land is also home to potential sources of energy such as micro-hydro, geothermal and bio-energy, as well as major suppliers of fiber. Forests also help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and can make a significant positive impact on the rapidly increasing rate of global warming.
Forests are important – and will become increasingly more important in the future. They must be protected, but this obligation does not mean that the forest industries – which we depend on for paper, housing, energy and countless other goods and services – have to be sacrificed.
Sustainable forest planning and management is a complex task. Tight margins, countless environmental and regulatory constraints, spatial considerations and extremely long-term horizons – up to hundreds of years in length – are all part of the mix. This is where operations research (O.R.) and advanced analytics come into play in evaluating all the costly variables at stake and how economic and environmental goals can be balanced.
With O.R., advanced analytics and GIS technologies (specifically asset lifecycle optimization technology), businesses and governments are finding ways to make environmental conservation and the business of forestry agreeably coexist. Many examples demonstrate how commercial demand and environmental responsibility can be met simultaneously by taking a long-term, sustainable approach to managing the land. Following are a few case studies to illustrate this point:
Balancing timber harvesting, outdoor recreation and renewable energy across 500,000 acres
The Westervelt Company [2] is one of North America’s largest land resource management companies. With a variety of land based operations such as timber harvesting, outdoor recreation, renewable energy and mitigation banking built around the nearly 500,000 acres of land it owns, the company relies on optimization to help ensure it achieves the optimal balance to maximize the current and future value of its assets.
In addition to maximizing the value of the company’s assets and ensuring the choices it makes today do not reduce the long-term sustainability of the forest, the business used optimization to understand the best approach to harvesting small parcels of land. Previously, the company had a 30-acre minimum for harvesting; based on past experience, they believed that anything smaller wouldn’t be profitable. The team used linear programming (LP) capabilities to explore scenarios for harvesting ranging from a high of 40 acres to a low of one acre.
What they found surprised them – the 30-acre rule was a false basement. By not harvesting these smaller pieces of land on a regular basis through the years, the analysis showed that the company had missed significant potential profit. A small change in practice translates into millions of dollars in benefits – all while ensuring that it is harvesting no more of its timber today than what can be available tomorrow.
Meeting fiduciary obligations to stakeholders while maintaining a focus on conservation
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR, [3]) protects, conserves and manages more than five million acres of land. Unlike other environmental agencies, DNR carries additional responsibilities to “land trust” stakeholders and is responsible for meeting million-dollar fiduciary goals to the land beneficiaries.
Washington State was faced with conflicting responsibilities – to raise revenue from the lands via timber harvesting or commercial farming, while simultaneously protecting and conserving the land and its native species. Soon, the department realized it needed an analytics solution to help it review multiple scenarios for meeting both goals.
With advanced analytics, the department gained the ability to correlate commercial and environmental variables and model project decisions spatially. This enabled it to illustrate what would happen to a threatened species or a land-use profit margin if a harvesting practice on the land were changed.
As a result, the forestry operations were optimized in a way that enabled the department to demonstrate the benefits of selectively thinning the forest to create a slightly less dense forest, which is the preferred habitat for the threatened northern owl, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The new plan illustrated how the DNR was able to maintain long-term sustainability of its land and operations and protect priceless northern owl habitat areas.
Finding a balance between global commercial demand and environmental sustainability
The supply chain of Suzano [4], Brazil’s largest pulp and paper company, is incredibly complex. The company must manage all aspects of its production operations from seedling to the mill, as well as the activities of its contract partners.
With advanced analytics and asset lifecycle optimization technology, the company optimized its nursery operations and harvesting and planting schedules, resulting in denser trees and higher productivity from the same growth area. Ultimately, the company gained approximately a 5 percent to 10 percent increase in productivity, resulting in millions of dollars in additional revenue. From a sustainability perspective, the company’s plantations also capture 4.3 million tons of carbon each year, in comparison to the approximately one million tons of carbon it releases into the atmosphere.
With the right technology, commercial demand and responsibilities can be met without sacrificing our precious environment. With asset lifecycle optimization technology, businesses do not have to choose profit margins over sacrificing the environment and vice versa. It is possible to take a long-term approach to sustainability through analyzing and optimizing each asset. With advanced analytics and spatial modeling technology, shareholders and environmentalists can simultaneously and harmoniously achieve environmental and budget and/or production goals by implementing the right solutions and taking a long-term sustainable approach to forestry.
Andrea Feunekes is co-founder and co-CEO of Remsoft, Inc., a leading provider of asset lifecycle optimization solutions for land-based and infrastructure assets. Established in 1992 and based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, Remsoft serves clients in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
