Land Use Spatial Optimization for Sustainable Wood Utilization at the Regional Level: A Case Study from Vietnam

Forest landscape restoration is a widely accepted approach to sustainable forest management. In addition to revitalizing degraded sites, forest landscape restoration can increase the supply of sustainable timber and thereby reduce logging in natural forests. The current study presents a spatial land use optimization model and utilizes a linear programming algorithm that integrates timber production and timber processing chains to meet timber demand trade-offs and timber supply. The objective is to maximize yield and profit from forest plantations under volatile timber demands. The model was parameterized for a case study in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam, where most forest plantations grow Acacia mangium (A. mangium). Data were obtained from field surveys on tree growth, as well as from questionnaires to collect social-economic information and determine the timber demand of local wood processing mills. The integration of land use and wood utilization approaches reduces the amount of land needed to maintain a sustainable timber supply and simultaneously leads to higher yields and profits from forest plantations. This forest management solution combines economic and timber yield aspects and promotes measures focused on economic sustainability and land resource efficiency.