An analysis of potential investment returns of planted forests in South China

Financial returns of forest plantations are an important concern around the world. In this research, we focused on South China’s timber investments, collected data from the Pingxiang, Guangxi Province, China, which is the demonstration zone of Fast-growing and High-yielding Timber Plantation Base Construction Program and National Timber Strategic Storage and Production Bases Construction Program, and used capital budgeting analysis method and sensitivity analysis to compare different scenarios of planted forest management. The results showed that excluding land costs, (1) the financial returns of Eucalyptus forest managed by small business were excellent, having an IRR of 28% per year and a LEV of $7555 per ha, but it had a high risk with fluctuations of cost, timber price and timber yield; (2) the results for the Experimental Center of Tropical Forests indicate that the Eucalyptus forest and Castanopsis hystrix forest returns were greater than those for Cunninghamia lanceolata forest and Pinus massoniana forest, with having IRRs of 24%, 21%, 13% and 10% per year respectively. The mixed planted forest of Castanopsis hystrix × Eucalyptus and Castanopsis hystrix × Pinus massoniana had the features of high profits and low risks; (3) the forest farmers had lower levels of returns for Eucalyptus forest management in South China, but were still in the middle rank of global comparisons. This study gave a view of China’s timber investment and provided more options of improving the economic returns of planted forest management to both small businesses and forest farmers in South China.