Optimized forest planning: allocation of log storage yards in the Amazonian sustainable forest management area

In Amazonian native forest management, forest road infrastructures, such as log storage yards and skid trails, are the most expensive attributes and are responsible for the significant environmental impacts with selective tree felling. Road optimization is crucial for reducing environmental impacts and production costs and is strongly linked to the optimal location of storage yards, which are essential to forest road planning. Considering the present problem and the current solutions available, this case study aimed to evaluate the efficiency and eventual gains of optimized forest planning (OFP), as compared to traditional forest planning (TFP). The TFP method is currently used most frequently by forest companies in the Amazon region. The study area of 126.41 ha belongs to the National Forest (NAFO) Saraca-Taquera, Forest Management Unit II (FMU-II), Annual Production Unit (APU) 04/2018, and Work Unit (WU) 2. For the analysis, two areas were defined for exploration: the first was explored using the OFP mathematical model (57.75 ha) and the second followed the TFP plan of the company (68.66 ha). Plans and executions for both areas were compared. The OFP model significantly reduced the Euclidean distances between tree and yards, with only 0.23 km difference in the amount of planned forest roads, when compared to TFP. Additionally, OFP demonstrated a higher productivity (trees.h(-1) and m(3).h(-1)), a reduction of skid distance (by an average of 17.16%), and reduced the cost of log skidding (m(3) by 25.76%). Thus, this study proved that OFP is a viable solution that can be adopted by companies to increase productivity.