• Key message A recent paper by Ceccherini et al.(2020a) reported an abrupt increase of 30% in the French harvested forest area in 2016–2018 compared to 2004–2015. A re-analysis of their data rather led us to conclude that, when accounting for the singular effect of storm Klaus, the rate of change in harvested area depended on the change year used to separate the two periods to compare. Moreover, the comparison with data on harvested volumes from different sources brought contrasted results depending on the source. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that wood harvest increased in France in 2016–2018 compared to 2004–2015. The discrepancy between Ceccherini et al.’s data and other data on harvested volumes points out the difficulty of reconciling different approaches to estimate wood harvest at a country level.

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criteria that characterise a capital, productivity criteria that concern the annual output of this capital, efficiency criteria that compare this output to other investment possibilities. As for variables, they are either a quantity (volume), or a revenue, or even a profit resulting from a finite or infinite period. The major consequences of these criteria on optimal forest management are described in the case of an even-aged stand. Figures 1-4 show, in a simplified case and for the output as a function of age, differences obtained from these criteria in the determination of the best rotation age. Figure 5 shows the same kind of result for the output rate of growth as a function of age. Two examples are presented for maritime pine in the south west of France, and for Norway spruce in the north east of France. When it is theoretically studied, the financial market is generally taken as perfect whereas, in reality, it is surely imperfect. Figure 8 shows the difference between these two cases as regards the consumer situation. One conclusion is that the theory can be adapted easily to the real world by using the rate used to borrow or lend money as discount rate according to the situation of borrower or lender of the forest owner under consideration. (© Inra/Elsevier, Paris) forest planning / forest economics / rotation, maturity / discounting

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