The Employment and Output Effects of Changing Patterns of Afforestation in Scotland

Abstract

This paper considers the economy‐wide output and employment effects of the shift in forest expansion away from coniferous plantations towards broadleaf and native species. Four different woodland types are distinguished within a Scottish input‐output table and demand and supply multipliers estimated to show the total effects on the economy of a 100 hectare increase in the land area devoted to each type as well as a switch in land from agriculture. Results suggest that the output and employment effects of new native woodlands and farm woodlands are greater than those generated by planting additional coniferous woodlands of equivalent size. In addition, an increase in the area of these policy‐driven woodland types is likely to have positive effects, even when the expansion impinges onto agricultural land of average productivity. It is thus argued that the traditional economic objectives of forestry policy have not been compromised in the drive towards multi‐benefit woodlands.

The socio-economic evaluation of the impact of forestry on rural development: A regional level analysis

“…Most studies have looked at relatively large areas (e.g., Scotland as a whole) (Thomson and Psaltopoulos, 1994;Eiser and Roberts, 2002) rather than sub-regions, though the recent UFIRD study (Slee et al, 2003) looked at much smaller areas (e.g., Breckland). These studies track the impact of injections of money into local economies and explore the extent of linkage and leakage.…”

Optimizing the Wood Value Chain in Northern Norway Taking Into Account National and Regional Economic Trade-Offs

“…Psaltopoulos and Thomson [17] investigate the economic role of forestry in rural Scotland, finding, in general, limited backward linkages to other rural industries, with the exception of wood-processing industries. Scottish forestry is also in focus in Eiser and Roberts [18] who use disaggregated I-O tables to quantify economy-wide effects of planting strategies on industry output and employment. Rimmler et al [19] use I-O analysis to evaluate outcomes of five national forest policies in Finland, Teischinger [20] discusses several forest-based value chains and how to estimate the gross value added by the sector while Sikanen [21] describes value-adding processes in a forest-based bioenergy value chain.…”

“…To obtain I-O models for several production lines in a specific sector, the tables must be disaggregated, e.g., by using additional survey data. Eiser and Roberts [18] collected survey data on outputs and financial flows differentiated by woodland type. Bösch et al [22] show how to disaggregate physical forestry-based industry I-O data by tracking how forestry inputs are used in production processes and matching them with outputs.…”

“…Publicly available I-O tables often cover industry sectors in a rather aggregated way and do not distinguish between different production lines [18,19,47]. To add more detail, additional data are employed, e.g., by obtaining detailed I-O multipliers for each VC participant.…”

Economy-wide effects of forestry development scenarios in rural Scotland

“…Alternative strategies for forest expansion (in terms of both new planting area and species mix) should be assessed in terms of their ability to increase employment opportunities and diversify the economic base in rural areas (Crabtree, 1995;European Commission, 1997;Eiser and Roberts, 2002), especially in view of the wider exposure of these areas to market forces, which are 'led' by the recent and forthcoming CAP reforms and their effects in agricultural resource use (including jobs). Along these lines, the estimation of the implications of alternative forestry strategies for a number of issues-land use, timber production and processing, transfer of farmland, agricultural employment displaced by competition and forest employment created-surely provides valuable information for policy analysts and decision-makers in this field.…”