| With the worldwide decline in timber exports, there has been recognition that Taiwan will eventually have to increase its own timber production, which currently supplies less than 1% of its total timber need. To prepare for this coming change, there is a need for Taiwan to estimate the potential level of timber production from its national forests as a base for the development of a plan to increase local timber supply. Instead of using the conventional approach to timber-production estimation in Taiwan (i.e., identifying the forestland suitable for timber harvest, then using forest-inventory data and volume-control methods to make the estimation), this study develops a planning system capitalizing on the strength of the LP-based forest-planning models to accomplish the task. It not only identifies the timberlands for harvesting but also directly portrays the preferred forest land-use layout as a long-term land-use management strategy, under which a timber-harvest program and potential level of timber production are determined. This planning system was applied to a case study on Hui-Sun, an experimental forest-station located in central Taiwan. Finally, it discusses whether this type of planning system can be readily applied throughout Taiwan, focusing on a more organizational aspect of the issues. |
