Beyond Timber: New Economic Opportunities for Southern U.S. Forests

image courtesy by WRI

Incentives that can help forest owners in the southern U.S. keep their land.

Stretching more than 200 million acres from Texas to Virginia and from Kentucky to Florida, the forests of the southern United States provide billions of dollars worth of timber and other forest products each year as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs in the region. Though they comprise just two percent of the planet’s forest cover, they generate more pulp for paper by volume than any nation outside the United States. They also control erosion, ensure clean supplies of freshwater, and offer numerous hunting, hiking, and other recreational opportunities.

However, 31 million acres of these forests are expected to be lost to development between 1992 and 2040—an area the size of North Carolina. What strategies can halt this loss?

This month, the World Resources Institute (WRI), supported by Toyota, launched the first in a new series of issue briefs that explore incentives for ensuring that southern U.S. forests continue to supply the timber, water, recreation, and other benefits—known as “ecosystem services”—that people depend upon. The first brief, Keeping Forest as Forest, overviews a range of economic opportunities that are available to southern landowners

“We have a short window of opportunity to increase the conservation and sustainable management of large tracts of southern forests,” explains Todd Gartner, Senior Associate of Conservation Incentives and Markets at WRI. “In many ways, the next 20-30 years will shape the fate of these forests. There is a large generational transfer of ownership among families on the horizon, as well as a likely return of housing pressure.”

Yet there is hope. As Keeping Forest as Forest profiles, there are a variety of incentives for maintaining southern forests while addressing the threats they face, including:

     Market incentives such as markets for sustainable timber, payments for watershed protection, and recreational user fees;

     Fiscal incentives such as cost-share programs and tax deductions that help finance the expenses associated with reforestation, conservation, and sustainable forest management on private lands;

     Liability limitations that reduce liability risk to landowners for taking voluntary, proactive steps to protect or restore forests via prescribed burns, endangered species protection, and other actions;

     Land use instruments such as conservation easements, working forest easements, and transferable development rights; and

     Education and capacity building programs that ensure landowners have access to information about best forest management practices.

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