Forest Product Markets, Sustainability, and Societal Impacts

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Economics, Policy, and Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2023) | Viewed by 8771

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
Interests: natural resource ecology; natural resource economics; forestry spatial ecology; incident command system

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since time immemorial, forest products have been an integral part of human life. Serving as a heating source, supply of building material, source of fiber, and a photosynthesis-processing nexus, forests have sustained human life through the maintenance of environmental stability. Forestland management, multi-faced forest product development, and commercial expansion define how people, industries, and countries achieve their desired financial and cultural goals.

This Special Issue of Forests guides forestland managers and academicians through current research findings to assess forest product markets, their impacts on local, national, and global markets, and the influences on sustainability. Each manuscript will define markets and their geographic extent for (a) natural resource sources, (b) processing expertise, and (c) final product markets.

Forest products include physical products produced through wood harvest, processing, and market delivery, as well as natural processes and societal sustainability delivered by the management of forestlands. Manuscripts will include research in:

  1. Wood product markets;
  • Economic impacts;
  • Sustainability;
  • Cultural influences;
  1. Economics to articulate and measure achievements of desired ownership goals;
  2. New or previously underutilized forest product amenities with potential for expansion;
  3. Societal achievement through forestland management utilization;
  • Plant carbon sequestration monetized through marketing of the service;
  • Riparian zone sustainability through enhanced forest management strategies;
  • Forest aesthetic tactics enhancing societal acceptance with a willingness-to-pay determination.

Dr. William E. Schlosser
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest products
  • wood
  • lumber
  • logs
  • timber
  • carbon
  • econometrics
  • forest economics
  • markets

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 3012 KiB  
Article
COVID-19 and the Mystery of Lumber Price Movements
by Rebecca Zanello, Yin Shi, Atefeh Zeinolebadi and G. Cornelis van Kooten
Forests 2023, 14(1), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010152 - 13 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2596
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented changes in the U.S. price of softwood lumber by more than 300% between 2020 and 2022. The increased volatility of lumber prices after the COVID-19 outbreak remains unexplained. In this paper, we examine how a calibrated random [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented changes in the U.S. price of softwood lumber by more than 300% between 2020 and 2022. The increased volatility of lumber prices after the COVID-19 outbreak remains unexplained. In this paper, we examine how a calibrated random walk can induce similar price volatility through the development of a stochastic process. As a preferred approach, we employ an event model to estimate the impact of COVID-19 and other key events on the price of softwood lumber. The econometric model serves to provide evidence that the price volatility of softwood lumber is not completely random, and we can instead attribute part of the variation to recent regional and global events. We found that, while COVID-19 did result in a price jump, it was smaller than a rainfall event that restricted imports from Canada, while import duties and other trade actions had no discernible impact on U.S. lumber prices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Product Markets, Sustainability, and Societal Impacts)
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24 pages, 4381 KiB  
Article
Research on Sustainable Closed-Loop Supply Chain Synergy in Forest Industry Based on High-Quality Development: A Case Study in Northeast China
by Shuya Wang and Xinjia Tian
Forests 2022, 13(10), 1587; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101587 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3210
Abstract
Forestry construction is a fundamental issue related to sustainable economic and social development. However, the traditional development of forestry is currently facing the dilemma of insufficient resource supply, rising labor cost, and a low return on forestry investment, which needs to be transformed [...] Read more.
Forestry construction is a fundamental issue related to sustainable economic and social development. However, the traditional development of forestry is currently facing the dilemma of insufficient resource supply, rising labor cost, and a low return on forestry investment, which needs to be transformed into high-quality forestry development. The general view is that synergistic development is an important way to achieve high-quality development. Based on this, the strategic planning and behavioral choices of forestry enterprises under synergistic development are explored. With the objectives of minimizing cost and environmental impacts, and maximizing social benefits, a multi-objective sustainable closed-loop supply chain network planning model is developed to study a real case of a forestry supply chain in northeastern China. A robust optimization approach is used to deal with the relevant uncertain parameters, and a weighted generalized epsilon-constraint approach is applied to solve the multi-objective problem, based on which a GA genetic algorithm is used to solve it. Based on the synergistic development perspective, four different scenario assumptions and sensitivity analyses are made to examine the multi-objective calculation results in this closed-loop supply chain network, and then to analyze the strategic decisions and specific measures for forest industry enterprises to achieve high-quality development. The model results show that realizing supply chain synergy is an effective way to achieve efficient business development in the future. Managers should also establish an acceptable balance between sustainability dimensions while focusing on building a collaborative supply chain development model, where small economic benefits can be appropriately ignored to reduce the harmful effects of the production process on the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Product Markets, Sustainability, and Societal Impacts)
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14 pages, 2610 KiB  
Article
Web-Based Communication of Wooden Sport Equipment: An Analysis Based on Six Olympic Sports
by Francesco Negro, Simone Blanc, Stefano Bruzzese, Alberto Falaschi, Flavio Ruffinatto, Roberto Zanuttini and Filippo Brun
Forests 2022, 13(9), 1364; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13091364 - 27 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1876
Abstract
Wood has traditionally been used to make sports equipment and playing surfaces. While its use is outdated in several sports, in many others, wood remains well-established or even the material of choice, e.g., to make basketball floors or table tennis rackets. This study [...] Read more.
Wood has traditionally been used to make sports equipment and playing surfaces. While its use is outdated in several sports, in many others, wood remains well-established or even the material of choice, e.g., to make basketball floors or table tennis rackets. This study aims at evaluating the main drivers of web-based communication of wooden sport equipment. Six Olympic sports in which wood is still used were identified: baseball, skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, surfboarding, and table tennis. For each sport, five websites of manufacturers were selected based on their page rank. Five evaluators assessed each website, rating the degree to which their discussion of wood intersected with four dimensions (and the related sub-dimensions): environment and ethics, design, wood technology, and communication. Significant differences (p < 0.05) are found among the dimensions, where communication and wood technology scored the higher ratings. Several differences are found among sub-dimensions, for instance in terms of attention given to environmental and social sustainability. Among the various findings, environmental and social sustainability, based on a proper commitment, is a relevant target for the web-based communication of manufacturers of wooden sport equipment. We argue that this is both for ethical reasons, and for market and image purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Product Markets, Sustainability, and Societal Impacts)
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