Assessing the timber value: A case study in the Italian Alps

In the Piedmont region, in North-West Italy, the abundance of unmanaged woods has led to negative environmental and economic consequences, generating a decrease in the ecosystem services supplied and in the provision of low-value timber products. In this context, increased logging activities could create new development opportunities for the rural areas in which most of the abandoned stands are situated. This work analyses a forest harvest by creating a model to evaluate its timber value. The economic results were analysed to investigate the structural and logistic factors influencing the profitability of a harvest. The results obtained revealed that a small profit margin is achievable for small local logging companies, even if strongly influenced by the hourly costs of labourers. To quantify the influence of each factor of the model on the timber value, a sensitivity analysis was performed. Then, to test the robustness of the results a Monte Carlo simulation was carried out simultaneously varying the factors involved. Finally, a scenario analysis was performed, in which the standard conditions referring to the most common private forest company typologies were examined. Overall, these methods were found to be suitable for our aims and capable of supplying important results to analyse a forest harvest from an economic perspective.