Feasibility of wood production according to productivity class and rotation criteria

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of forest rotation on the technical and economic feasibility of eucalyptus wood production for charcoal, in different productivity classes. Data came from Eucalyptus stands whose area was stratified into three classes of productivity: high, medium, and low. To each class, a different criterion of forest rotation was applied, as follows: age of maximum productivity, economic rotation age, single harvest age, and no technical parameter. Analyses of economic feasibility and production were performed for a 21-year planning horizon. For rotation without a technical parameter, a simulation by the Monte Carlo method was performed. For all rotation criteria, feasibility was observed for high- and medium-productivity classes, and unfeasibility for the low-productivity class. For rotation without a technical parameter, there is no chance for the project to be unfeasible. Wood production viability for charcoal under the studied conditions depends on the productivity class, for any rotation criterion adopted. Rotation criterion influences profitability, whose definition, according to productivity class, contributes to forest production maximization and to the economic return of the project, under the studied conditions.