Criterion 7. Legal, Institutional, and Economic Framework for Forest Conservation and
Sustainable Management
National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
Indicator 7.53.
Extent to Which the Institutional Framework Supports the Conservation and Sustainable
Management of Forests, Including the Capacity To Develop and Maintain Efficient Physical
Infrastructure To Facilitate the Supply of Forest Products and Services and To Support
Forest Management
What is the indicator and why is it important?
Capital resources of physical infrastructure (e.g., roads,
utilities, and processing facilities) are essential to the management of forests and ultimately to economic development and
quality of life in rural forested areas. Investments in public
infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, sewer and sanitation
systems, schools, parks, and other physical facilities, are
important government initiatives that complement the capital
investments of private firms. Together, these investments
constitute the capital basis for protecting forests and related
resources and for producing the goods and services that sustain
economies of forested areas. Some people have suggested that
forest ecosystems per se can be considered a form of green
infrastructure.
What does the indicator show?
The development and maintenance of adequate physical infrastructure to facilitate the supply of forest products and services
to support forest management is the responsibility of governments who own public lands, teach, or perform research, and
of private sector firms and forest owners who manage forests
or forest products manufacturing facilities. Provisions to meet
this responsibility are generally prescriptive for government
forest management, education, and research activities, and
largely performance or outcome based for private sector forest
managers.
Some informational and educational mechanisms are required
by law and could include technical assistance and research
to provide adequate facilities and forest infrastructure such
as roads, firebreaks, fire-fighting gear, and forest harvesting
equipment. Often such infrastructure is required in terms of the
process for developing adequate capacity for forestry activities.
Private sector firms develop physical infrastructure and provide
institutional capacity through private market, free enterprise
efforts. They develop internal firm or trade association rules,
processes, or outcome guidelines as necessary, with either
voluntary compliance or self-regulation, including through forest certification. Their ultimate success in developing efficient
infrastructure is measured by market performance and profits,
in the long run.
Direct government subsidies have seldom been employed in
developing private forestry infrastructure, but many parts of the
Federal tax code related to accelerated depreciation, tax deductions, and tax credits promote investments and manufacturing
plants and facilities and in-woods equipment.
Table 53-1. Policy and Governance Classification.
Mechanism
Nondiscretionary/mandatorya
Informational/educationalb
Discretionary/voluntaryc
Fiscal/economicd
Market basede
Scale:
National (N),
Regional (R),
State (S),
Local (L)
N, S, L
N, S
S, L
N, L
Approach
Prescriptive
L, R, G
T, R
B
Process or
Systems Based
Performance or
Outcome Based
Private
Enterprise
T, R, A
B
B
S
T
M, C
M
Laws (L), Regulations or Rules (R), International Agreements (I), Government Ownership or Production (G).
b
Education (E), Technical Assistance (T), Research (R), Protection (P), Analysis and Planning (A).
c
Best Management Practices (B), Self-regulation (S).
d
Incentives (I), Subsidies (S), Taxes (T), Payments for Environmental Service (P).
e
Free enterprise, private market allocation of forest resources (M), or market based instruments and payments, including forest certification (C) wetland banks (W), capand-trade (T), conservation easement or transfer of development rights (E).
a
Last Updated June 2011 1
National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
What has changed since 2003?
Due to more frequent large forest fires, the budget for national
forests has been increasingly dedicated to firefighting. This
shift in the allocation of resources has enhanced firefighting
capacity, but deleteriously affected funding for other maintenance and ongoing operations in the agency. The Federal
economic stimulus package in 2009 included substantial funds
Last Updated June 2011 for forestry infrastructure, with an allocation of $1.1 billion to
be spent on national forests, forest health projects, and related
State and private projects. There was a modest decline in tree
planting in the United States in the mid-2000s, but appears that
total tree planting has increased slightly in the past 2 years.
Most other changes in forestry infrastructure at the State or
private level have not been notable.
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