Duration
9h Th, 9h Pr
Number of credits
| Master in forests and natural areas engineering (120 ECTS) | 2 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
THEORY
Chapter 1: Principles for estimating the value of forests.
- Concepts of values
- Source of income and expenses
- Discounted cash flow principle
- Value/loss of future
- Funds and area
- Financial prejudice and compensation
- Computation of the forest expectation value and demonstration
- he case of planted even-aged high forest
- Case of naturally regenerated even-aged forest
- The case of the uneven-aged forest
- The case of irregular forest in transition
- Average and total production
- Return on investment
- Benefit-cost ratio
- net present value
- net present value of infinite cash flows
- Internal rate of return
- Comparison and critique of the different criteria
- Discount Rate
- Land expectation value
- Risks and uncertainties
- Optimal revolution
- Density and spacing
- Protection
- Silvicultural regime
- Methods of arbitrage between market and non-market services
- Illustration of multi-criteria valuation of ecosystem services
- Discussion on stakeholder involvement
- Discussion on the trade-off between different scenarios
- Discussion on the relevance of economic and social evaluation methods
Computer exercises to be done with a spreadsheet software (e.g. MS Excel) to estimate the value of a forest, the value of forest damages, different indicator of forest profitability (TIR, BAS, BASI ...) or to perform a contingent valuation of ecosystem services.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
At the end of this course, the student must master the basics of financial, economic and social evaluation of the management of a forest estate. More specifically, the student must be able to:
- Master (understand/use) the vocabulary used to assess the value or the profitability of a forest;
- Master the concept of discounting cash flows;
- Estimate the value of a forest or the amount of a loss based on cash flow;
- Calculate different profitability criteria (e.g. IRR, FEV, ...) to evaluate a forest investment;
- Evaluate and compare different forest investment projects, identify the most interesting investment and argue for this choice;
- To explain the assumptions used to calculate the value of a forest or profitability criteria; to put into perspective the importance of these assumptions on the result, for example by means of a sensitivity analysis;
- Describe the methods used to identify a multifunctional forest management scenario that is a good trade-off among the multiple goods and services provided by a forest;
- Criticize economic and social valuation methods.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Multifunctional management of forests
Forest products supply chain
Forest mensuration and forest inventory
Economics of natural ressources
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lecture:
- Presentation with a visual support
- Wooclap Polls
- Feedback from formative tests conducted online before the session
- Solving simple exercises
- Presentations by other speaker(s)
- Participatory Workshop
- Discussion
- Exercise resolution
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Lectures: 5 x 1h30 Practical works: 7 x 1h30
Recommended or required readings
Mandatory reading
- Presentation slides
- Hébert J. (2019) Economie du patrimoine forestier. Course notes
- Price, C. and Price, M. Cost-benefit analysis of continuous cover forestry, pp. 36-65.
- Price C. (1989) - The Theory and Application of Forest Economics
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( open-ended questions )
- Remote
written exam ( open-ended questions )
Written work / report
Continuous assessment
Additional information:
First Session Assessment:
Group work report (30%)
Practical exam on PC (70%)
The evaluation is done at the end of the course, in March, using an eCampus form. The evaluation is done in the computer rooms (yellow and orange codes). During the evaluation, the students do not have access to other materials than the one provided.
In case of code red, the evaluation is done remotely with an eCampus form.
Second session exam:
Classroom evaluation (yellow and orange codes): The evaluation is done in the computer rooms. During the evaluation, the students do not have access to other materials than the one provided. (100 %)
In case of code red, the students submit a report. (100 %)
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Contacts
LIGOT Gauthier
Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech
Passage des Déportés 2
5030 Gembloux
Belgique
+32 81 622320
gligot@uliege.be