Financial analysis for sustainable management of private forests. Example of Aleppo pine

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a methodology for a financial and sustainable valuation of business forest management that also allows to improve the incentives to enhance public policies for prevention and conservation, with the case study of the Catalan Aleppo pine forests.

Every summer and more recently due to the long drought, the situation of Catalan forests is news, with criticism for the results of public policies and the abandonment or bad exploitation of forests because there is a low proportion of this 41% of the Catalan area planned or certified for both environmental and economic sustainability, despite its economic and political importance.

A paradigmatic case could be the Aleppo pine forests, one of the most representative of Catalonia, both for being a Mediterranean variety and for its extension, since it spreads easily through the open areas and its pyrophilic characteristic makes the fire also facilitates its "colonization". It is a type of forest that tends to be unmanaged and unexploited, despite its representativeness (almost 30% of the Catalan private forest area), although there are studies to help the sustainable management of these forests (Beltrán et al., 2011) and detected its potential benefit (Melo et al., 2017; and ICEA, 2019). However, the economic conclusions of these studies and the private maximization of public subsidies have led to a preference for non-exploitation, with perverse effects on fire prevention policies and protection and conservation of mature forests. However, with a broader view, especially from a financial analysis perspective (Ceballos and Perramon, 2021), it is possible to show both the economic viability of its business management, not only in contexts of very favorable prices, as well as the improvement of the effectiveness of public policies with stimuli is feasible if it is not based on the concept of immediate economic utility and other elements linked to sustainable finance are taken into account (Begemann, 2023). However, the results could be more ambitious in the recommendations of public instruments if there were a greater detail of the type of private forest owners in Catalonia as in other European cases (Ficko et al., 2019).

KEYWORDS: Sustainable finance, Forest management, Degenerate financial operation, Financial Analysis