Ecosystem Service Tradeoffs, Landowner Incentives, and Optimal Policy Design to Promote Sustainable Longleaf Pine Agroecosystems

This project fills a critical need for policy instruments that support management of working longleaf pine (LLP) forests – those managed for timber – in the Southeastern US. LLP forests play a pivotal role in supporting rural livelihoods and providing critical ecosystem services, and are among the most productive terrestrial ecosystems in the US. They are also generally more resilient to natural disturbances than other forest types. Today, only ~3% of LLP area remains. Given the extent of private forest land in the Southeastern US, meaningful increases to LLP would have to involve private landowners. Efforts to increase LLP on private lands face a significant challenge: economic tradeoffs of planting and managing LLP remain largely unknown, presenting a barrier to landowner adoption of LLP and policymakers’ effective design of LLP incentive programs. We address this critical need by economically modelling key LLP based ecosystem services (timber production, carbon sequestration, water yield, and wildlife diversity) for the Southeastern US. Our analyses will include an economic model with empirical inputs to inform optimal LLP planting and management; analysis of economic efficiency and tradeoffs; assessment of public and forest landowner preferences for LLP ecosystem services, including estimates of demand (willingness to pay) and supply (willingness to accept); identification of economically feasible LLP plantation sites; and assessment of optimal policy design. Project outputs contribute to the USDA’s goals of increasing long-term sustainability and competitiveness of US agriculture, while supporting critical ecosystem services.