Cost functions for harvest, transport, and milling in the timber industry of the Brazilian Amazon
Simone
Bausch, Virginia Tech, sbausch@vt.edu
(Presenting)
Gregory
Amacher, Virginia Tech, gamacher@vt.edu
Frank
Merry, Woods Hole Research Center, fmerry@whrc.org
Daniel
Curtis
Nepstad, Woods Hole Research Center, dnepstad@whrc.org
Economic information on forest management in the Amazon is urgently needed for decision-making by enterprises and policy makers; the existing information is based largely on descriptive statistics and is insufficient to make broad scale policy decisions accross the entire region. The results of previous work have been groundbreaking, but are difficult to replicate or are directed towards specific research objectives. In this research we attempt to provide the first empirical estimates of cost functions for timber harvest, log transport, and log processing. We use data from a survey of 527 sawmills spread throughout the region to estimate the results.