Integrated forest products from former sugarcane plantations in Hawaii

To help landowners and land-use planners evaluate potential forest product ventures on former sugarcane lands in Hawaii, a short-rotation forestry decision support system was developed. An application to estimate annual net returns of hypothetical integrated forest product operations established at two former sugarcane plantations is featured. From a variety of plantation management and wood processing options, linear programming results indicate that the optimal profit opportunity exists for the production of medium density fibreboard and plywood from Eucalyptus saligna plantations, with annual net return estimates of approximately 3.5 million/year (8970/ha/year) from three commercial thinnings (at 5, 10, and 15 years of age) and one harvest at rotation age (20 years) of trees on the Hamakua plantation on the island of Hawaii and 2.2 million/year (4880/ha/year) from two commercial thinnings (at 4 and 10 years of age) and one harvest at rotation age (15 years) of trees on the Waialua plantation on Oahu.