0672-B4

Fast Growing Species and Economic Analyses for Plantations in Turkey

Dr. Nesat ERKAN ¹

1. Introduction

The importance of non-wood products is getting more importance due to the environmental role of forests. In fact, forests have many functions like carbon sequestration, O2 production, recreation, aesthetic etc. that are sometimes more important then wood for the industrialized world. Because of that, in the last years more natural forest area has been allocated to the other aspects of forest. As a result of this, a wood deficit will be inevitable in the future. To meet this deficit, wood production has to be increased in plantations by more growth per unit area with fast growing species.

Turkey can use either exotic or native fast growing species in plantations to produce more wood production.

In this paper some important exotic and native fast growing trees, which can be considered and used to meet the deficit in wood demand in Turkey, were presented. Additionally, economic analyses for Turkish Red Pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) which can be considered the most important native fast growing species for Turkey were evaluated.

2. Material and Method

Study covered the exotic and indigenous fast growing tree species in Turkey. Growth performance of these species in plantations was studied using their yield tables in good site conditions. Therefore generally good sites are used for plantation aimed wood production. Additionally economic feasibility for T. Red Pine plantations was evaluated using the Net Present Value, Benefit/Cost Ratio and Internal Rate of Return criteria.

2.1. Exotic Species

2.1.1. Radiata Pine (Pinus Radiata D. Don)

Radiata Pine is distributed naturally California State in America. But it is used in different country owing to its high growth performance. In Turkey also plantation on large areas has been established with Radiata Pine since early 1970's.

The Government of Turkey, assisted by the FAO and the UNDP, initiated a project entitled "Industrial Forestry Plantations" in April 1972. The purpose of the project was to assist the government in obtaining technical and economic information needed for acceleration of the government's program on the establishment of industrial forest plantations(Gaddas, 1976, p.1). Radiata Pine was also used as fast growing species in this project. But a few years later it was attacked by the insect named Evetria buoliana which damaged the terminal shoot of trees. In most cases, the trees can not grow up to a normal height because of the insect attack.

There is not yield table for Radiata Pine in Turkey. Nevertheless, there are some measurements, up to 20 years old, by Birler from experimental areas. He indicate that, for good site, the mean annual increment (MAI) reaches 22,4 m ³ /ha/year at that age(Birler 1981).

2.1.2. Cluster Pine (Pinus Pinaster Aiton)

Cluster Pine is distributed in naturally in South-West Europe and North Africa. It was introduced to Turkey first in 1938(Akalp, 1982, p.231), but the studies about fast growing plantations was started by Forestry Faculty in early 1950's (Asan, 1989, p.86). Up to now, some experimental plantations have been established in different places in North-West Region of Turkey.

Yield of Cluster Pine plantations in Turkey was studied by Ozcan. With his study he prepared an empirical yield table (Table 1). Table shows the growth performance of Cluster Pine in good sites (Ozcan, 2002, p.93). As can be seen from Table 1, in good site, MAI reaches at 22,4 m3/ha/year at the age of 27.

Establishment of Cluster Pine plantations were stopped because of some insect, snow and wind damages seen in the years of 1977-1982(Akalp 1982).

Table 1. Empirical yield table for Cluster Pine plantations (OZCAN, 2002) (Site Class : I (Good Sites))

2.1.3. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn.)

The first Eucalyptus plantation, which was based on a plan, was established in Tarsus-Karabucak in 1939. Public and private sector have been continued to establish Eucalyptus plantations since then. Now, there have been over 20.000 ha eucalyptus plantations in Turkey.

A yield study was carried out for Eucalyptus by Birler and his friends (Birler et all., 1995). According to this study, mean annual volume increment has reached a maximum at earlier age classes in good site and by closer spacing. As regards different site conditions and various spacing, maximum mean annual increment values for stand volume varied between 3,219 to 35,316 m ³ /ha/year. Reduction in the number of trees observed was more pronounced in the early ages of plantations and the rate of reduction increased in good sites and in closure spacing. Table 2 shows the yield values for good conditions (site classes I) and 3x3 spacing.

Table 2. Ampirical yield table for Eucallptus plantations (Birler et al. 1995) (Good Site, Spacing: 3 m x 3 m)

2.1.4. Hybrid Poplar (Populus x.euroamericana (Dode) Guinier cv. "I-214")

Hybrid Poplar clone was introduced in late 1960's to Turkey and started to plant in different parts of country. It was established mainly on agricultural lands and in various spacing. Hybrid Poplar is an important exotic species for Turkey.

The yield of Hybrid Poplar was studied by Birler. He investigated growth and yield relations in poplar plantations and constructed yield tables depending on site classes and spacing. Table 3 shows the yield values of Hybrid Poplar for good sites and 4,0 m x 4,0 m spacing.

Table 3. Ampirical yield table for Hybrid Poplar plantations (Birler 1986) (Site Class: I (Good Site), Spacing : 4,0 m x 4, m)

2.2. Native Species

26% of surface is covered by forests in Turkey. Depending on the ecological diversity, there are different type of vegetation and many kind of native tree species. Even though growth rate is not high (MAI is approximately 2-3 m3/ha/year), there are some fast growing species among them. Some of them are given below.

2.2.1. Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia Wahl. subsp. oxycarpa Bieb. Ex Willd.)

Ach is distributed mainly in South-East Europe, Turkey, Iran, Asia and Turkmenistan. In Turkey, North-West Anatolian Region is its optimum growing area and it is a native fast growing tree in Turkey.

Yavuz (2002) studied the yield of Ash and constructed an empirical growth model for Ash plantations, which included three site classes (Good, Medium and Poor). The results, which are obtained by his study, indicate that Ash is a fast growing tree species. The MAI at base age of 30, for good site, is 20.7 m ³ .

2.2.2. Alder(Alnus glutinosa Geartn. subsp. barbata(C.A.Mey) Yalt)

Alder is another native fast growing species in Turkey and it is distributed mainly in North-East Anatolian Region covering 43 853 ha pure and 63 694 ha mixed stands with the other species.

Yield study of Alder was carried out by Batu and Kapucu(1995) and an empirical yield table was constructed for its natural stands. It was found out that its MAI can reaches 21,0 m ³ /ha/year at 20 years in good sites(Batu and Kapucu 1995).

2.2.3. Turkish Red Pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) 

T. Red Pine is naturally distributed mainly on the coastal areas of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. In the Mediterranean Region, it is distributed over Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, Greek and Italy. In the Black Sea Region, it is distributed partially in Turkey, Caucasians and Crimea. But it makes the largest distribution in Turkey, in Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea Regions. That is why it was called as Turkish Red Pine.

Research studies show that T. Red Pine is soil and site tolerant and, especially it has drought tolerance. It occurs over the vast areas and it has ability to withstand extreme conditions such as summer drought, high soil alkalinity and soil infertility. The characteristics of its distribution areas also confirm this information. As a result of this tolerance, growth variation was found to be high. That means that if the site condition is poor, it can still grow but growth rate is low. On the other hand, if the site condition is good, growth rate is high.

The history of plantations with T. Red Pine goes back to early 1960's in Turkey. But there is not reliable information about the total amount of T. Red Pine plantations. However USTA estimated and reported it as 200 000 - 250 000 ha by 1991(Usta, 1991, p.10).

Yield study for T. Red Pine plantations was carried out by Usta(1991). He studied relationships between various tree characteristics and estimated mean height, mean diameter, basal area and volume growth by potential growing space and site class using multiple regression equations and constructed yield table for different densities. This yield table is given below in Table 4 for 1 m x 2 m spacing and good site class. Table shows that its mean annual increment can reach 15,4 m ³ /ha/year at the age of 27.

Table 4. Yield table for T. Red Pine plantations(Usta 1991) (Site Class I, Good Sites, Potential growing space:2 m ²

2.3. Cost Benefit Analyses for T. Red Pine Plantations

Cost benefit analyses is one of many techniques that can be used to check the economic feasibility of a project or prioritize projects. Such a process is important as there are generally limited funds and we want to make sure that we can get the most value from those funds by selecting those projects that give the best return.

Industrial plantations established for wood production are also economic investments. Before establishment, the investor needs to know the economic feasibility of the project or to choose the best within projects. It is more important if the investor is not government but private sector.

Cost - benefit analyses for plantations are done for a long time in the countries where private sector involved in the forestry. In Turkey, most of the forests (natural and planted) belong to government and these analyses have not been done for investments in forestry. But in recent years some studies were done on the economic evaluation of plantations. One of them is "Economic Analyses for Pinus brutia Ten. Plantations" completed by Erkan(2002). He developed a package named "PLANTEK" to evaluate plantations for economic feasibility. PLANTEK consider all the activities starting from the investment of a plantation to the market and carries out the cost - benefit analyses using the Net Present Value, Benefit/Cost Ratio and Internal Rate of Return criteria.

A case study was done using PLANTEK for Kursunlu T. Red Pine plantation area, close to Antalya. Some characteristics of this area are given below:

• Site index: 19,93 (top height at the age of 30), (range of site index for T. Red Pine plantations is 7.0 -23.0)
• Distance to market : 26 km.
• Planting spacing : 2.0 m. x 2.5 m.

Main components based on for analyses were cost and benefits of project during one rotation. Costs were consisting of mainly; establishment (land clearing, soil preparation and planting), management (administration, conservation, silvicultural treatments) and harvesting.

Benefit was merely wood produced from the plantation. Prices of wood were used as the average value of the last 10 years to avoid the effect of fluctuation of prices in years. Discount rate for Net Present Value and Benefit/Cost Ratio are entered to PLANTEK by the user. But if user doesn't have any idea about this rate he/she can check the template box. Template value of discount rate is 5%. Results of cost-benefit analyses obtained from PLANTEK for Kursunlu area for different rotation period length were as in Table 5.

As shown in Table 5, Net Present Value, Input/Output Ratio and Internal Rate of Return change by age and reach the maximum values at the ages of 26, 27 and 20 respectively.

Table 5: Results of cost-benefit analyses, using PLANTEK for Kursunlu Plantation Area, for different rotation lengths.

3. RESULTS

Turkey is managing almost all the natural forests to meet national wood demand. On the other hand, beside the wood production, there are many other functions that society is waiting from forests, like aesthetic, recreational, environmental, water production, soil protection, carbon fixation etc. Most of developed countries separate the natural forest, which are allocated mostly for the other function from wood production, from plantations established and managed for wood production.

Turkey also should separate plantation and natural forests and wood demand of population should be meet mainly from plantations. In fact Turkey has shown the first attempt of this policy in early years of 1970's establishing plantations with exotic fast growing species. But at the present it can not be said that this policy is adopted completely.

To meet the wood demand of population from plantations, Turkey can use exotic and native fast growing tree species. But as mentioned before, there are some insect and snow damage in Radiata and Cluster Pine plantation. Hybrid Poplar is used successively to produce wood production by state and private sector. As come to the native ones, T. Red Pine is the most important species because of its wide natural growing area (approximately 3,8 million hectare). So it has big potential for plantation.

Genetic improvement and tree breeding studies are also important for getting more quantity and quality production from plantations. Turkey is at the beginning of these studies, but national tree breeding and seed production program started. It is clear that the production from per unit area will considerably be increased by tree breeding studies, because the wide genetic base of T. Red Pine gives an indication of the improvement potential.

Economic feasibility is important when a plantation is established to get wood production, like industrial plantation. The owner will want to learn the revenue from the investment. As seen from the Tables 1,2,3,4 Turkish Red pine has wide variation in growth depending on site quality. Good site provides feasible results in economic point of view.

REFERENCES

Akalp, T., 1982. Orman Hasilati ve Biyometri Kursusu'nce hizli gelisen turler uzerine yurutulmus arastirmalar, in the book of "Tur. Hizli Gelisen Turler Agaclandirma Sempzyum Bildiriler", p. 231-237

Akalp, T., 2002. Devamli deneme alanlari yontemi ile mescerede artim ve buyumenin tayini(Sahil Cami ornegi), Orman amenajmaninda kavramsal acilimlar ve yeni hedefler sempozyum kitapcigi, s.256-265, Istanbul, Turkey

Asan, U., 1989. Duglas(Pseudotsuga duglasii Car Varidis)'in Ayancik-Cangal Yoresinde 37 yillik hasilati, I.U. Orman Fak. Der. Seri A, Sayi 2, s.86-107, Istanbul

Batu, F. and F. Kapucu, 1995. Doğu Karadeniz Bölgesi kızılagac mescerelerinde bonitet endeks ve hasilat tablosunun duzenlenmesi, I. Ulusal Ormancilik Karadeniz Kongresi kitapcigi, s.348-363, Trabzon, Turkey

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Birler, A.S., 1986. "I-214" melez kavagi plantasyonlarinda hasilat arastirmalari, Kavak ve Hizli Gelisen Yabanci Tur Orman Agaclari Arastirma Enstitusu yayini 138 s., Izmit, Turkey

Birler, A.S., E. Avcioglu, A. Diner, M.K. Gurses, A.G. Gulbaba, 1995. Ocaliptus agaclandirmalarinda hacim ve kuru madde agirligi hasilati(Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn.), Kavak ve Yabanci Tur Orman Agaclari Arastirma Enstitusu Teknik Bulten No:171, Izmit, Turkey

Erkan, N., 2002. Odun uretim amacli kizilcam (Pinus brutia Ten.) agaclandirmalarinda ekonomik analizler, Bati Akdeniz Or. Ar. Enst. Teknik Bul. No:17, Antalya

Gaddas, R.R., 1976. Selection and evaluation of sites for mechanized industrial plantations in Turkey, Report, FO:DP/TUR/71/521, Working document no. 25, Rome, Italy

Ozcan, B.G., 2002. Growth and yield of Pinus pinaster, in IUFRO meeting proceedings: Management of fast growing plantations, p. 84-95, Izmit, Turkey

Usta, H.Z., 1991. Kizilcam(Pinus brutia Ten.) agaclandirmalarinda hasilat arastirmalari, OAE Teknik Bulten No: 219, Ankara

Yavuz, H., N. Misir, 2002. An empirical growth model for Ach plantations in Suleymaniye Forest, in IUFRO meeting proceedings: Management of fast growing plantations, p. 52-60, Izmit, Turkey

¹ Southwest Anatolia Forest Research Institute
PB. 264 07002 Antalya - Turkey
Tel: (242) 345 04 38 Fax: (242) 345 04 42
e-mail: [email protected]
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