James E. Johnson

College of Forestry, 109E Richardson Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97731 USA. E-mail: jim.johnson@oregonstate.edu

The current Cooperative Extension System in the United States has in roots in two historic pieces of legislation. The first, the Morrill Act of 1862, created the land grant university system, in which a network of agricultural universities was established in each state, followed by agricultural research stations. In 1914 the U.S. Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, which created the Cooperative Extension System, a joint partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the state land grant universities, and local units of government in each state. This partnership has endured to the present day, and is often held up as a model for helping farmers, families, and individuals improve their lives and livelihoods. Today, most state Extension Services have statewide programs in the broad areas of agriculture; youth, families, and communities; and the environment and natural resources, including forestry. Hallmarks of extension education include a focus on problem solving, education based on research-based knowledge, education oriented toward client needs, an emphasis on partnerships (particularly at the local level), and an emphasis on evaluation of results. A typical extension model involves engaging stakeholders and partners to identify problems and potential solutions through education, designing educational materials and programs, conducting programs, and follow-up evaluations to determine outcomes in both the short and long terms. A typical example of such a program in Oregon is the Master Woodland Manager Program, which has been in operation for over 20 years. In 2008 this program won a national award for the best Forestry Extension program in the U.S. from the National Woodland Owners Association. Through this program forest owners receive 85 hours of training in 11 modules. They become very knowledgeable in subjects such as silviculture, reforestation, watershed management, and communications. Following completion of the program they become volunteers, assisting other forest owners and often leading them to practice much better management on their lands. Since the inception of the Master Woodland Manager Program, over 400 forest owners have completed the training, and provided over 30,000 hours of volunteer service.
Key words: Forest Extension, Cooperative Extension System, forest owners.

Heinrich Spiecker

Institute for Forest Growth, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg,
Germany. E-mail: instww@uni-freiburg.de

Ecological and economic considerations increased the interest in growing valuable tree species. Timber quality depends on the genetic characteristics of the individual tree, site conditions as well as on management. Applying an appropriate treatment trees can yield high quality timber within relatively short production times. Forest management has to find new ways to increase net revenue from timber sales by increasing wood quality while keeping production costs low. Through precise and aim oriented management efficiency can be improved. All activities have to be linked to the value producing trees, as those are the economically relevant trees. When dealing with fast growing broadleaves the number of final crop trees per ha is relatively small. This is due to the fact that valuable trees need to have a large diameter, and those trees can only be produced with a big crown. In order to reduce costs the number of trees to be planted can be limited to much less than was considered in the past.
Thinning is applied for controlling the quality of the wood production; in particular, it is used for favoring future crop trees, controlling their diameter growth and natural pruning. A two-phase management system is recommended: first phase emphasizing pruning, and second phase encouraging crown expansion and stimulating diameter growth. There is a close relation between crown expansion and diameter growth. An allometric model describing the relation between crown width and stem diameter is used to calculate the intensity of thinning in order to control diameter growth. The time of harvest is determined by the time of maximum average value production, the marked situation and other factors. The idea of fixed rotation may be abandoned as trees of the same age can grow in groups. Group selection cut may be preferred as larger gaps are needed to fulfil the light requirements of the new generation.
Key words: economically relevant trees, pruning, revenue, timber quality, valuable tree species.

Yahia Omar Adam^1,2 and Jurgen Pretzsch²

¹University of Khartoum, Faculty of Forestry, Dept. of Forest Management, Pox 32, Code 13314, Shambat, Sudan. E-mail: gumaa1973@hotmail.com
²Institute of International Forestry and Forest Products, Technical Universityof Dresden, Cotta Bau, Pienner Straße 7, 01737 Tharandt, Germany.

Local trade in tree fruits has offered an important source of cash income and employment to trading households for generations in the drier areas of Sudan. Yet, it is contribution to the rural households is not acknowledged. The study investigates the extent to which the local trade contributes to rural household economy with special emphasis on cash income and employment; and identifies the factors influence the level of cash income earned from the local business. Data were collected from 70 households purposely selected using interviews and direct observation in 2008/2009 season. The results indicated that fruits local trade was generated the highest annual average cash income (US$ 202.73) fallowed by agriculture (US$ 71.57), remittances (US$ 49.81), wage labor (US$ 30.10), and livestock (US$ 20.40). Also, the most of the employment (30%) was generated by local trade fallowed by agriculture (25%). There are significant variations in cash income earnings. These variations are attributed to household personal characteristics and market variables. The study concluded that tree fruits local trade is the most important source of cash income and employment. Microfinance and local sellers' organization are recommended to sustain and increase the economic returns from the local business in the fruits much beyond what currently contribute today.
Key words: cash income, employment, rural economy, Sudan, tree fruits.

Alessandro Paletto¹, Isabella De Meo¹, and Fabrizio Ferretti²

¹Agricultural Research Council - Forest Monitoring and Planning ResearchUnit (CRA-MPF), P.za Nicolini 6, 38100 Villazzano, Trento, Italy. E-mail: alessandro.paletto@entecra.it, isabella.demeo@entecra.it
²Agricultural Research Council - Apennines Silviculture and Management Research Unit (CRA-SFA), Via Bellini 8, 86170 Isernia, Italy. E-mail: fabrizio.ferretti@entecra.it

Social capital is defined as what is existing in the structures of interactions between individuals and groups (collective and individual social actors) which are said to develop trust and social rules and to strengthen cooperation and reciprocity. On the other hand social capital depends on the quality and quantity of interactions and it can facilitate coordination and cooperation in decision making process. Considering that networks are a crucial part of the social capital, the present paper analyses the potentiality of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to support the forest landscape management planning. The authors have applied, in Arci-Grighine forestry district (Sardinia - Italy), the assessment of institutional social capital. The method used to evaluate institutional social capital considers three phases: i) the mapping of stakeholders, ii) the analysis of voluntary associations with particular reference to the environmental and forestry sector, iii) the analysis of social network considering type and force of ties (weak and strong ties). The authors present and discuss the utility of these tools to support collaborative forest planning, in particular to take into account the needs of stakeholders and the necessity of limiting the conflicts.
Key words: social capital, decision making, social network analysis, forest planning.

Matthias Dieter

Johann Heinrich von Thunen-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries. Leuschnerstr. 91, 21031 Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany. E-mail: matthias.dieter@vti.bund.de

Forests are experiencing a new situation in many highly industrialized countries: their goods and services are much more in demand than they were a couple of decades ago. The development of forest-based industry; the use of wood for energy production as a contribution to climate protection and to the security of energy supplies; and initiatives to tackle the loss of biodiversity, are doubtless some of the most prominent sources of growing demand for forest goods and services. This new situation increases the competition between consumers of the respective private and public goods and services, and hence, necessitates a revision of forest allocation decisions. Using the example of Germany, a simple forecast of supply and demand to the year 2020 shows that supply and demand will probably not match. To close this gap, demand must either be adjusted, e.g., through the improvement of material and energy efficiency, and/or supply must be enhanced through, e.g., reduction of high accumulated forest stock, use of small wood and short rotation coppices or imports. Since valuation results for non-market forest services are still limited to some rather general examples, opportunity costs are calculated to support policy decisions with regard to forest allocation. For this purpose, a partly closed input-output model was used to calculate added value in the use of wood. The results were applied to a current proposal to protect biodiversity. A decision to refrain from harvesting timber on 460,000 ha old beech stands yields an overall of added value loss of 2.3 billion E, which is equivalent to 41,600 full-time employees in Germany., About 880 million E‚ taxes are included within the loss of added value. However, in order to find 'optimal' solutions for forest allocation, opportunity costs only mark a minimum threshold, which benefits must exceed.