Factors affecting nonindustrial private forest landowners' willingness to supply woody biomass for bioenergy
Introduction
In the United States, bio-fuels generation from biomass has taken center stage in recent years with rapidly depleting domestic oil supply and increasing dependence on politically unstable foreign oil suppliers [1]. Forest and agriculture are the two largest potential sources of biomass in the United States with capacities of producing 368 and 998 million tons of biomass respectively [2]. The forest-based biomass can be obtained from different woody residues that are produced during timber harvesting and other silvicultural operations, the fuelwood collected from forests, urban wood waste, the residues from mill operations,[2] woody and perennial herbaceous crops and agricultural residues [3].
Several environmental and socio–economic benefits such as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through renewable and carbon-neutral energy, contribution to nation’s energy supply, enhancement of forest health, and generation of income and employment for rural communities [4], [5], [6] are some of the reasons behind the recent interest in renewable energy sources in the United States.
About 48% of the forestland in the United States and 71% in the South are owned by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) or family forest landowners [7]. NIPF growing stocks, from softwoods and hardwoods in the year 2002, were 491,800 million cubic feet and 364,357 million cubic feet, respectively [7]. Since NIPF owners control a large part of the nation’s forest resources, their forest management decisions are critical for the supply of timber and other forest products in the United States [8].
Though most of the current bio-fuel production in the United States involves agricultural inputs, continuous use of food for ethanol and biodiesel production may have an adverse effect on sustainable food supply in the long run [9], [10]. Conversion of 30% of the current corn productions to ethanol shows a competition between feed and bio-fuel, which indicates that an ambitious goal of energy security cannot be achieved without utilizing other types of biomass such as woody materials [11]. Thus, use of woody biomass can help meet the energy demands of the nation without compromising food demands of both people and domestic animals [11]. Annual availability of 36.2 million dry tonnes of recoverable logging residues for electricity production and CO2 displacement [5] further justify that woody biomass is a viable option for sustainable production of alternative source of energy in United States.
In the southern United States, acreage of pine plantation has increased considerably in the past few years [12]. Now, many of these plantations are near maturity with declining pulpwood markets [1]. Given the limited markets for small diameter wood, large quantities of unthinned small diameter trees, and damaged timber from natural disaster and pest outbreaks have increased the risk of wildfire hazards and negatively impacted forest health [4], [12]. On the other hand, demand for southern stumpage has declined considerably in the last decade [12]. In the South, bioenergy can be produced from a variety of woody materials including those obtained as a byproduct of silvicultural operations and do not have other attractive economic use [1]. Therefore, bioenergy brings more economic opportunities in comparison to conventional timber harvesting as silvicultural byproducts become additional source of income in bioenergy markets [1]. Past studies have shown that timber harvesting decisions of landowners are mostly dependent upon market price, landowner type, bequest motives, size of forest tract, parcelization, environmental preferences, management objectives, and a number of demographic and forest management characteristics etc [13], [14], [15], [16]. Given the environmental and socio–economic benefits associated with wood-based energy, it is possible that influence of these factors on landowners’ decisions to harvest woody biomass for bioenergy may be different than conventional timber harvesting decisions. Similarly, the feedstock for bioenergy can be obtained from the forest without necessarily conflicting with the wildlife management or recreational objectives of the landowners. Therefore, these studies cannot be generalized for understanding landowners' willingness for supplying wood-based biomass for bioenergy industry. This study aims to understand different biophysical and forest management characteristics like size of forest parcels, length of ownership, size, structure and composition of tree species, forest management objectives, mode of harvest and demographic characteristics (like age, education, income) which may be instrumental in predicting landowners' willingness to supply woody biomass for bioenergy production.
Section snippets
Landowner decision on timber harvesting
Willingness of forest landowners to harvest or supply wood fiber from their land has been the focus of a number of studies. Stordal et al. applied two step sample selection estimation procedure to analyze the factors affecting landowner decisions and level of harvesting [17]. The result showed that the interest in harvesting and harvesting levels was influenced by factors such as forest management plan, size and location of property, education and income from agriculture [17]. Similarly, Favada
Data
The study area includes three southern states namely Arkansas, Florida and Virginia. The list of nonindustrial private forestland owners in Arkansas was obtained from the Arkansas Forestry Commission and a commercial vendor. Similarly, the lists of nonindustrial private forest landowners of Florida and Virginia were obtained from the respective county tax assessor’s offices. Sixteen hundred landowners from each state were randomly selected for the final survey. Landowners that owned less than
Descriptive statistics
Among three age groups (<45, 45–65, >65), the largest percentage of respondents (About 57% of the landowners in Arkansas, 61% in Florida and 50% in Virginia) belonged to the group of 45–65 years. Similarly, 26% of respondents in Arkansas, 20% in Florida and 31% in Virginia were above 65 years of age, whereas the smallest percentage of respondents in each state (17% in Arkansas, 19% in Florida and 18% in Virginia) were less than 45 years old. Among three categories of education levels (did not
Conclusions
Sustainable development of bioenergy and bio-based production system requires a reliable biomass supply at a reasonable cost which to a large extent depends upon landowner decisions on whether or not to supply woody biomass. This study showed that the majority of the landowners in the study area regarded nation’s dependence on imported fuel as critical for both national security and healthy economy. Such opinions of the landowners reflect their concern about energy security. However,
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