The Journal of Forest Business Research (JFBR) is global in scope and publishes scientific articles and current perspectives about diverse forest and natural resource investments and management. Acceptance for publication is subject to a double-blind peer-review process. Its advantages include:
- Independence from large publishers
- Fee for reviewers to fairly reward their work
- High quality and quick speed of reviews (usually less than 2 weeks), partly thanks to the fees for reviewers
- Transparent and affordable page expenses (calculated per page)
- Articles published fast after acceptance
- Internationally recognized experts in the Scientific Board
- No additional cost for color graphics and tables
- Editing services included in the publication fee
- Digital and social media marketing of published articles
EDITORIAL TEAM
Editors:
Jacek Siry, PhD
Dr. Siry’s expertise includes international investments and finance, business management, and policy; wood products trade, availability, and costs; and forest management across the world’s leading wood supply regions. His research is focused on the global competitiveness of forest industries, international forest investments, timber market modelling, and forest management efficiency.
Currently, Dr. Siry is Stuckey Timberland Professor of Forest Economics and Taxation, The Harley Langdale Jr. Center for Forest Business, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, USA.
Frederick Cubbage, PhD
Fred Cubbage teaches, performs research, and serves the profession in natural resource policy and forest economics. He has worked at the University of Georgia, the USDA Forest Service, and North Carolina State University. He has authored or co-authored about 550 papers and articles, and 4 books, including a new book in 2022 on Natural Resource Leadership and Management published by Routledge Press.
Fred was the Department Head of Forestry and Environmental Resources at NC State for 10 years, and was the Founder and Co-Director of the Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium (SOFAC) for 25 years. Fred was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and Uruguay in 2004, and consulted for the World Bank and has cooperated with scientists in Latin America, Vietnam, Laos, and China for two decades. He was President of the Society of American Foresters in 2017.
Bin Mei, PhD
Bin Mei is Professor Of the Practice of Natural Resource Finance in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He has co-authored one book in forestland investment and more than 70 journal papers in timberland investments, nature-based climate solutions, and decision-making under uncertainty. He is the founder of Floria Consulting LLC. In addition to JFBR, he is on the editorial board of Canadian Journal of Forest Research.
Bin received his PhD from the University of Georgia, MS from Mississippi State University, and MS and BS from Beijing Forestry University.
Scientific Board Members:
Stella Schons, PhD
Dr. Stella Schons is a natural resources economist with a PhD in Forestry from Virginia Tech, a joint Master of Environmental Management and Master of Business Administration degree from Yale University and a Bachelor's in Economics from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Dr. Schons is currently an Assistant Professor of Forest Economics and Management at the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Economics at Virginia Tech. Dr. Schons' research is focused around understanding natural resources use behavior as well as conservation incentives at the landowner or household level. She is particularly interested in how these decisions change when subject to public and community policies, and the effects of these policies on human wellbeing (and consequent future resource use).
Dr. Schons has focused primarily on forest resources (both in deforestation and reforestation decisions) but also has experience working in fisheries and water resources management. She has worked in countries of the Amazon River Basin and in India, but currently her research projects are on forest management and carbon program engagement decisions and spillover effects in the US South. Recently, she has also investigated native seed production decisions and supply chains for ecosystem restoration and ESGs in Forestry.
Shashi Kant, PhD
Dr. Shashi Kant is a professor of forest resource economics and management and the founding director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program (MScSM) at the Institution of Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga. He specializes in forest resource economics and forest management systems with an emphasis on economics of sustainable management. His current research focus is on pro-sustainability behavior.
He has published five books and more than 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters. He is leading a Global Think Tank called New Frontiers of Forest Economics (NEFFE). He is editor-in-chief of a book series, Sustainability, Economics and Natural Resources, published by Springer. He has served on the editorial boards on Forest Policy and Economics, the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, the Journal of Forest Economics, and Forest Ecosystems. He is the Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Division 9.00.00 - Forest Policy and Economics. He is also the recipient of many awards: Order of Ontario (2017), Queen's Award for Forestry (2008), the Scientific Achievement Award of Canadian Institute of Forestry (2007), the Scientific Achievement Award of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) (2005), and the Ontario's Premier Research Excellence Award (2004).
Virginia Morales Olmos, PhD
Virginia Morales Olmos is an Adjunct Professor at the University of the Republic in the Departments of Economics in Tacuarembó (Uruguay). Her research covers economic impact analysis of forest sectors, timber investments, forest policy, renewable energies, and agroforestry, with a focus on Latin America. She teaches economics, natural resources economics, and forest economics. She is on the editorial board of the forestry journal Forest Science.
She worked for the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), for Weyerhaeuser, and in consultancies for the public and private sectors. She received an undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of the Republic in Uruguay, a Master of Science, and a PhD at the University of Georgia.
Austin Himes, PhD
Austin Himes is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University. Prior to his academic career, he worked for GreenWood Resources, Inc. conducting applied forestry research and managing hybrid-poplar plantations. His research interests are interdisciplinary and revolve around silviculture and management of forests for multiple ecosystem services and diverse values. He has authored peer-reviewed articles on many topics ranging from trade-offs between ecosystem services in plantation forests, the carbon benefits of building with wood, short-rotation wood crop systems and the different ways that people value nature.
Austin received his PhD in Forest Ecosystems and Society from Oregon State University in 2019 and holds a M.S. from the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. He is a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester.
Gregory Amacher, PhD
Gregory Amacher is the Julien N Cheatham Professor at Virginia Tech. He holds a PhD in natural resource economics, an A.M. in economics, an A.M. in statistics, an A.M. in forest economics from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in Forest Science from Pennsylvania State University. He has published over 150 journal articles and four books within the past thirty years, including one of the only recent graduate surveys of forest economics published by MIT Press. He has served as Editor and Associate Editor of Forest Science, Editorial Council for Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Associate Editor for Journal of Forest Economics, and as the forestry and wildlife editor for Natural Resource Modeling.
He has had visiting appointments at University of Helsinki, Helsinki Center for Economics Research, Gothenburg University, University of Peking, and Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been co-recipient of the Soren Wibe Prize in forest economics, and received with coauthors an award for the best paper published in Environmental and Resource Economics. His research has focused on public finance, regulation, econometrics, and international development aspects of forest and natural resource problems.
Matthew Pelkki, PhD
Dr. Matthew Pelkki is the Director of the Arkansas Center for Forest Business and the George H. Clippert Endowed Chair of Forestry at the College of Forestry, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (CFANR) at the University of Arkansas-Monticello (UAM). Dr. Pelkki joined the CFANR faculty in 2001 and teaches courses in economics, wood products, and forest management.
He has published more than 100 scientific articles and been part of research projects totalling more than 30 million dollars. His current research focuses on the link between healthy forests and healthy forest-based economies.
Bruno Kanieski da Silva, PhD
Bruno Kanieski da Silva is an Assistant Professor in Forest Finance at the University of Georgia. His research interest covers a large spectrum of the timber and non-timber product markets, from the timber supply chain, market competition, and timber price patterns to forest disturbances and the carbon market. He has over eight years of experience in the industry and academia, with a significant focus in the U.S. and Brazil.
Bruno holds a Ph.D. in Forest Economics from North Carolina State University in 2018 and received his M.S. from the University of São Paulo– Brazil.
Adriana Bussoni, PhD
Adriana Bussoni is a professor and researcher at Agricultural College – the University of the Republic in Uruguay. She works and teaches Forest Management. She has published on forest economics, economics on silvopastoral systems, and carbon sequestration.
Richard Yao, PhD
Dr. Richard T. Yao completed a PhD in Environmental Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics. Richard has worked at Scion (NZ Forest Research Institute) for fourteen years as a research economist on the assessment of the broader value of forests (e.g. timber, carbon sequestration, recreation, improved water quality, water flow regulation, avoided erosion and biodiversity conservation) and natural resource management. He has mainly applied his key areas of expertise in econometrics, forestry economics, environmental economics and investment assessment for environmental and land use management and biosecurity protection.
His research area includes assessing and accounting for both market (provisioning) and non-market (regulating, cultural) ecosystem service values in policy and investment decision making. Richard has published in international journals and participated in key discussions on how to systematically assess and account for ecosystem services values in policy.
Jaana Korhonen, PhD
Dr. Jaana Korhonen is an established scientist in the field of forest economics, who currently works as a fellow at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in the US. She has published over 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on sustainable forest-based bioeconomy development, sustainable innovation and competitiveness, price and market analysis. She has a special interest in the role of sustainability shaping the future of the forest sector. She currently serves on the editorial board of Forest Science.
She holds a PhD in Forest economics and Marketing from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Master's degrees in Forestry and Environmental Resources Economics from North Carolina State University, USA and University of Helsinki. She has experience in working in the interphase of science, business and policy in Europe and North America, i.e. thought consulting international (N)GOs on forest sector data and land use, and by giving public presentations in high-level policy meetings and scientific conferences.
Greyson Z. Nyamoga, PhD
Dr. Greyson Zabron Nyamoga has more than 14 years of teaching experience in the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. He holds a PhD in Forest Economics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His PhD focused on the Aspects of Forest and Land Use Sustainability in Tanzania particularly on the current forest degradation, urban charcoal demand and the impacts of future firewood and charcoal consumption. Dr. Nyamoga also holds a Master of Science in Forest Economics from the Sokoine University of Agriculture, a Master of Arts in Sustainable Development Practices (MDP) from the University of Florida in the United States of America and a Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty Analysis from Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) – Tanzania and The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) - Netherlands.
Dr. Nyamoga is currently a Lecturer and the Head of the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism at the Sokoine University of Agriculture. He has supervised more than 20 undergraduate students and 10 Master's students in their research projects and currently, he is supervising 2 PhD Students. His research interests are Forest Economics, Natural Resources Management, Community Based Natural Resources Management, Community Forests, Livelihoods options from forest resources and Poverty alleviation.
Prakash Nepal, PhD
Dr. Nepal holds a PhD Degree in Forest Resources from Mississippi State University. He currently works as a Research Economist in the Statistics, Life Cycle Analysis, and Economics Research Unit at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to joining the USDA Forest Service, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
Dr. Nepal has published several papers investigating a range of economics, management and policy issues related to the US and the global forests and the wood products sector. His current research interests focus on forest products market and trade, economic analyses of forest-based climate change mitigation, and economic viability and environmental performances of new or improved wood products.
Andreas Stephan, PhD
Andreas Stephan is professor of Forest Industrial Economics at Linnaeus University, Sweden and has been a professor of Economics and Finance at Jönköping International Business School, Sweden. He graduated with an MSc in Industrial Engineering from Technical University in Berlin and earned a PhD in Economics at Humboldt University Berlin.
He previously held positions at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and at the European University Viadrina. He is a research affiliate with CESIS – Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Andreas Stephan's research interests are related to climate and forest policies, ESG and financial markets, and green investment and finance. He is an appointed associate editor for the journal Eurasian Economic Review and editorial board member for the journals Business Strategy and the Environment.
Mindy Crandall, PhD
Mindy Crandall is an Assistant Professor of Forest Policy in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management at Oregon State University. She holds a BS in Forest Management, an MSc in Ag & Resource Economics, and a PhD in Applied Economics and Forest Resources from Oregon State. She was an assistant professor of Forest Economics and Management at the University of Maine from 2014 until 2020, before joining the faculty in the College of Forestry at OSU.
Her research focuses on the interactions between forest and human systems, particularly through the forest products industry and labor markets. She has taught courses in Forest Economics, Forest Management, Forest Policy, and Policy Analysis.
Richard Vlosky, PhD
Richard Vlosky is Director of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center and Crosby Land and Resources Endowed Professor in Forest Sector Business Development at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge. His areas of research include: mass timber, wood-based bioenergy, domestic and international forest products marketing and business development, and certification & green marketing. He has authored or co-authored over 180 refereed publications, book chapters and books, and has made over 550 presentations in 34 countries. Dr. Vlosky is a Board Member of the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) and Past-President of the Forest Products Society.
Internationally, he is on the Advisory Board for the Center for Sustainability at the University of Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. For 10 years up until 2014, he was the Team Leader of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Team of Specialists on Sustainable Forest Products. He remains a U.S. delegate as well as being an Outside Expert on the (UNECE) Wood Energy Team. He is also Past-President of WoodEMA, the Association of Wood Processing and Furniture Manufacturing based in Zagreb, Croatia.
G. Cornelis van Kooten, PhD
Cornelis van Kooten is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Victoria, Adjunct Professor of Agricultural & Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, Scholar in Residence in the School of Business at Trinity Western University, and a recent Canada Research Chair holder in the area of Environmental Studies and Climate. He is also a former professor of Agricultural Economics and Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia, and Professor of Applied Economics and Statistics the University of Nevada, Reno. He has previously held positions at the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Groningen and Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.
The major theme of his research has revolved around the economics of natural resources and land use, mainly as it relates to farming, forestry and, perhaps surprisingly, wildlife conservation. He has published some 240 peer-reviewed articles and more than ten books. He regards his book with Erwin Bulte, The Economics of Nature (Blackwell, 2000), the most interesting from an author’s point of view (and it is available free from his website www.vkooten.net), although his books Applied Welfare Economics, Trade, and Agricultural Policy Analysis (U of T Press, 2021) and Land Economics and Sustainable Development (UBC Press 1993) come a close second.
Robert Grala, PhD
Robert Grala is George L. Switzer Professor of Forestry in the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University. He received a PhD degree in Forestry from Iowa State University, an MS degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the Central European University and the University of Manchester, and an MS degree in Forestry from Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW.
Robert teaches principles of forest resource economics, advanced forest resource economics, and computer applications for forest resources. He also serves as the lead faculty advisor for the forest business concentration in the undergraduate forestry program.
His research focuses on the monetary valuation of non-market ecosystem services, socioeconomic aspects of wildfires, utilization of woody biomass for bioenergy purposes, carbon sequestration, and forest business clustering. He has participated in 30 research projects totalling $3 million and resulting in 45 peer-reviewed publications and 121 oral and poster presentations.
Srijana Baral, PhD
Srijana Baral is an assistant professor of forest and natural resource economics in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. She holds an MS in Forestry and a PhD in Forest Business from the University of Georgia.
Her research focuses on the financial performance of timberland and farmland investments, impact of forest tax policies and conservation programs, contributions of forest in mitigating climate change issues, and impact of forest industries in creating a healthy and resilient forest. Sri teaches economics of the forest environment course to undergraduate and graduate students.
Han Zhang, PhD
Han Zhang is a professor of forest economics and management and Associate Dean at College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University. He received the Bachelor and Doctor’s degrees from Nanjing Forestry University in 2006, and 2012 in forest economics and management, respectively. He has been a visiting scholar in University of California, Berkeley and Auburn University in 2011 and 2017, respectively. He worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Science from 2013 to 2018 as a post-doctor.
His research interests are forest economics and management, especially on forest tenure reform, forest products trade, forestland owner behavior, climate change and forest carbon. He serves as the vice director of the Technical and Economic Committee of Chinese Forestry Economic Society and the member of the Chinese Association of Agricultural Economics.
Raju Pokharel, PhD
Raju Pokharel is an Assistant Professor of Forest Resource Economics in the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University. Raju holds a Ph.D. in forest resources from Mississippi State University in the USA, MBA from University of Sunderlandin the UK, and MS, and BS in Environmental Sciences from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. His research focuses on forest product supply chain and market models, feedstock availability, resource utilization, and forest carbon. His current work includes evaluating and developing market opportunities for mass timber, bioenergy, and biochar and assessing the economic tradeoff of timber products under different carbon management strategies. Raju also teaches Forest Resouce Economics and Forest Management Planning.
Publisher Board:
Rafał Chudy, PhD
Dr. Rafal Chudy is the CEO & Founder of Forests Business Analytics. He has over 15 years of professional experience in project management within natural resources, forest economics, and finances. During the last years, Dr. Chudy worked for private equity and consultancy companies from the United States, Australia, and Norway where he was responsible for ensuring that strong research and evidence-based insights underpin companies sustainable investment programs and services in real assets, mostly forestry & carbon, agriculture, or infrastructure. Dr. Chudy's research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at the international forest and natural resource economics conferences.
He holds a Master of Science (Forestry) degree from Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Master of Science (Forestry and Environmental Resources) from North Carolina State University, Master of Science (Forest Management) from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and a PhD in Forest Economics (specialising in Forest Sector Modelling) from Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Dr. Chudy also has a post-graduate diploma in Financial Controlling in Capital Markets Groups from Warsaw School of Economics.
Karolina Chudy, MBA
Karolina Chudy is the co-founder of the Forest Business Analytics (FBA), focusing on the supervision of the projects related to timberland investments and forest products markets. Karolina is also responsible for the implementation of comprehensive client service plans for existing and future clients. Before joining FBA, Karolina worked as a data visualization specialist at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre, where she analyzed massive data sets in Tableau software to provide strategic insights.
She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Analysis and Business Administration from the University of Lodz, a Bachelor's Degree in International Business from Østfold University College in Norway and a double International Master of Business Administration Degree (IMBA) at EAE Business School and University of Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain. Karolina also has accomplished the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments program organized by the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association.