Forest Standard · Calculator

Put your forest in and run the numbers

The more you fill in, the closer the result is to your situation; the fields marked required are enough to get an answer. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Inputs

Presets

Choosing a preset fills in reference values (ranges come from public sources). A reference value is not your measurement — overwrite it with your own.

Deliberately left blank in this library: (1) Korean pine growth and volume — public standards give only an 81-year rotation and the measured data sits behind a paywall; use your local management plan. (2) Oil tea and other economic plantations — their output is oil and fresh fruit, so this tool’s cubic-metre-per-mu basis does not apply; they need a separate yield model. (3) Timber prices for eucalyptus and poplar — eucalyptus trades by the tonne and no authoritative poplar log price was found, and there is no reliable conversion factor between RMB/tonne and RMB/m³. (4) Per-mu annual income for understory ventures (Polygonatum, Panax, beekeeping) — public sources are mostly promotional and quote gross output, not net. Leaving a figure blank beats inventing one.

The land Forest area mu Required. All per-mu figures are multiplied by this Current stand age years Required. Years to felling = rotation − current age Rotation age years Required. Masson pine is commonly 25 years Remaining lease term years Enter 0 if you own the land; otherwise the years left on the lease, used for rent payable

Timber Standing volume m³/mu Required. Use inventory or sample-plot data if you have no measurement Annual growth m³/mu·yr Required. The biological growth rate is this divided by standing volume Timber price (stumpage) RMB/m³ Required. Price of standing timber, not delivered-to-mill price Harvest and transport cost RMB/m³ Affects cash flow and IRR only, not the gross asset valuation

Multi-direction income Understory economy RMB/mu·yr Medicinal herbs, mushrooms, poultry. Our F07 floor standard is 500 Canopy economy RMB/mu·yr Pine needles, resin, fruit Spatial use RMB/mu·yr Study tours, wellness, camping — favour light assets Ecosystem services RMB/mu·yr Tradable carbon and similar; enter 0 if methodologies are not settled

Annual costs Tending cost RMB/mu·yr Thinning, weeding, fertilising Insurance RMB/mu·yr Actual forest insurance spend Taxes and fees RMB/mu·yr Enter your actual burden Administration RMB/mu·yr Management team cost

Funding and allocation Land rent RMB/mu·yr Enter 0 if you own the land. It is the top tier of the waterfall Annual debt service RMB/mu·yr Actual average annual repayment under the loan Tending and reinvestment RMB/mu·yr Spend that improves this forest — the source of real compounding Disaster and tending reserve RMB/mu·yr Ring-fenced for fire, pests, replanting Operator fee and performance RMB/mu·yr Tied to operating results Loan balance RMB/mu Counted on the liability side Restoration and fire-duty provision RMB/mu A future obligation, counted on the liability side

Valuation assumptions Discount rate decimal Used in the future-income method. 0.06 = 6%. Enter a decimal, not 6 Assumed annual timber price change decimal 0 = assume prices stay flat (conservative). It only affects the market-value growth metric Target annual return decimal Used by the exit calculation: 0.08 = 8%. It asks what price timber must reach for that return Planned holding period years Enter 0 to hold to felling. Enter 5 to model exiting after five years

Fields marked required are the core inputs; leave others at 0 if unknown.

Net operating cash flow

+410

RMB/mu·yr (excludes timber accrual)

Net forest equity

42,030,829

RMB (assets − liabilities)

Project operating IRR

17.5%

Forward return after acquiring at today’s market price

Annual cash flow

Cash and accrual are listed separately. The timber component is an accrual, not money received this year.

Understory economy	+500
Canopy economy	+80
Spatial use	+150
Ecosystem services	+50
Cash inflow, subtotal	+780
Timber biomass growth (accrual, not cash)	+180
Tending	−220
Insurance	−30
Taxes and fees	−40
Administration	−80
Cash outflow, subtotal	−370
Net operating cash flow	+410

Allocation waterfall

Paid down a contractual and statutory order of priority; only what remains after the first five tiers goes to investors.

Land rentLand owner 120
Debt serviceLenders 100
Tending and reinvestmentBack into this forest 70
Disaster and tending reserveRing-fenced reserve 40
Operator fee and performanceManagement team 30
Distributable investor cash flow 50

Forest balance sheet

Net equity = assets − liabilities. Note: a change in equity is not investor return.

Assets

Standing timber (volume × market price)24,000,000
Future timber growth (discounted future income)15,934,829
Multi-direction operating rights (discounted net cash flow)36,296,000
Cash and reserves400,000
Total assets76,630,829

Liabilities and future obligations

Bank loan balance10,000,000
Land rent payable (remaining term)24,000,000
Restoration and fire-duty provision600,000
Total liabilities34,600,000

Net forest equity42,030,829

The four metrics (not interchangeable)

Biological growth rate 7.50%

A physical metric: annual growth ÷ standing volume. It enters no monetary calculation.
Timber market value growth 0.00%

A market metric: driven by your price assumption, not by how fast the trees grow.
Project operating IRR 17.54%

An investment metric: fed only by operating cash flow and net felling revenue. ⚠️ The higher today’s timber price, the lower this number — because entry costs more.

Sensitivity: how much the answer moves

Each key assumption pushed once, to see how net forest equity responds. Relative change is more meaningful than absolute — every project has its own absolute figures.

Base case	42,030,829	—
Timber price −20%	34,043,864	−19.0%
Timber price +20%	50,017,795	+19.0%
Operating costs +15%	37,117,590	−11.7%
Discount rate +2 points	36,432,278	−13.3%

Exit test: what price must timber reach?

This is the question "why would the next holder pay that?" The basis matches the IRR: harvest and sell logs, with terminal net proceeds = volume × (price − harvest cost).

Holding period13

Volume at exit15.8

Current price300

Required timber price−25

Against today’s price−108%

The result follows from your inputs, it is not our forecast: you set the parameters; the numbers only carry them through.
Timber growth value before felling is an accrual; we do not count it as cash flow or as an annual return.
This page uses only the parameters you enter. Brand, processing capacity, subsidies and similar cannot be derived from them, so they are excluded.
All computation happens locally in your browser; nothing is uploaded or stored, and a refresh clears it.

The full explanation of this method and its legal boundaries (with a worked example) →

Put your forest in and run the numbers

Annual cash flow

Allocation waterfall

Forest balance sheet

The four metrics (not interchangeable)

Sensitivity: how much the answer moves

Exit test: what price must timber reach?

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