Criterion 7. Legal, Institutional, and Economic Framework for Forest Conservation and
Sustainable Management
National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
Indicator 7.60.
Capacity To Conduct and Apply Research and Development Aimed at Improving Forest Man­
agement and Delivery of Forest Goods and Services, Including Development of Scientific
Understanding of Forest Ecosystem Characteristics and Functions
What is the indicator and why is it important?
Research and development provide the scientific basis for
adaptive management of the Nation’s forests. Science improves
our understanding of ecological, social, and economic processes in forests, and is fundamental in ensuring that we can
meet social goals for those forests. This indicator is a measure
of the capacity to understand forest ecosystems processes and
components. This understanding is essential to the conservation
and sustainable management of forest ecosystems.
What does the indicator show?
Federal, State, and university research and development efforts
are authorized by relevant government programs and laws,
which prescribe that research programs must provide scientific
information for forest resource management and protection.
Development of research to improve scientific understanding
of forest ecosystem characteristics and functions is a blend of
national research and development performed by the Federal
Government, universities throughout the country, a few State
forestry and natural resource agencies, environmental nongovernmental organizations, and the forest industry and forest
landowning firms.
According to the 2003 National Capacity in Forestry Research
Report, as of 2002, the Forest Service research program had
723 scientist-years of personnel, with about 500 research
scientists, and a budget of $241 million. As of 1993, U.S.
universities had 1,459 full time employees, with about one-half
of those scientist years of effort being dedicated to research,
and the rest to teaching and extension. Forest industry reported
$72 million in research funding through its Sustainable Forestry
Initiative program efforts in 2001.
Other Federal agencies such as National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation, the
U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agri­culture probably spent $40 to $50 million on forest related
research in 2000. Environmental nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) also spent millions of dollars on forest related research
and development. More recent data are lacking, but in total, the
Last Updated June 2011 direct forestry expenditures and effort exceed 1,000 research
scientists and budgets of more than $500 million per year. Ob­servations suggest that these funds and personnel levels have
declined in recent years, at least in terms of real funding after
inflation, but current data are lacking. Other private sector
research and development for forestry equipment for land and
harvesting operations also contributes significantly to the total
expenditures on forestry research, but this amount is not known.
The scientific understanding is developed and disseminated
through educational, technical assistance, research, and planning efforts. The private sector also participates in these efforts.
Forest certification standards, particularly in the Sustainable
Forestry Initiative, require demonstration of forest research.
The National Research Council National Capacity in Forestry
Research report classified forestry research by MP C&I
criteria as well for all sectors as of 2001. The report found that
Biological Diversity (Criterion 1) and Productive Capacity
(Criterion 2) had the largest share of the U.S. research effort, at
19 and 24 percent, respectively. Ecosystem Health (Criterion
3, 16 percent), Socioeconomics (Criterion 6, 15 percent),
and Soil and Water (Criterion 4, 14 percent) were next. The
Institutional Framework Criterion 7, 5 percent) and Carbon
Cycles (Criterion 5, 7 percent) had the smallest shares of the
U.S. research. The Forest Service had proportionately more
ecological research; academic institutions somewhat more
social and institutional research; and industry more productive
capacity research.
What has changed since 2003?
Federal Forest Service forest resource funding has been stable
or declined somewhat in the past 6 years in real terms. A range
of Federal organizations and research disciplines continue to
examine forests in some fashion, however.
The U.S. vertically integrated forest products sector has
declined in size from about 40 million acres in 1980 to about
10 million acres in 2009, and its capacity in forest land
management research decreased as well, because the major
firms sold their lands and ceased research operations. Timber
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National Report on Sustainable Forests—2010
Table 60-1. 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, R, S
N, S
Approach
Prescriptive
Process or
Systems Based
Performance or
Outcome Based
Private
Enterprise
E, T, R, A
E, T, R, A
T, R
L, R, I, G
R, N, L
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
investment management organizations (TIMOs) and real estate
investment trusts (REITs) have maintained modest research
programs and many are members of university cooperative
research programs.
At least a few research branches of former forest products firms
have been spun off and started their own forestry research and
development organizations in areas such as in biotechnology
Last Updated June 2011 and management information systems. Despite the shifts in land
ownership, in 2008, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
certified companies spent or contributed $89 million to forest
research, which was slightly more than the amount reported
by large forest products firms as of 2001. Many environmental
NGOs also perform research and analysis efforts that contribute
scientific knowledge about to ecological, social, and economic
components of forest resources.
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