Financial Assessment of the First Revision Plan in District One at Dr. Bahramnia Educational and Research Forest

Forests as a part of renewable natural resources play an important role in national economic growth. In order to consume this national treasure, exploitation of these resources is allocated to forestry operators on the basis of forestry plans. The Ex-post analysis of these plans is necessary. The purpose of this study is to assess the first revision plan of Dr. Bahramnia Educational and Research Forest (Shastkalate, Gorgan). This was done with considering real expenses and revenues and machinery value at the beginning (1997) and the end (2006) of forestry period. The assessment was done by using net value of project to ex-post evaluation and deriving the internal rate of return (IRR) of the project. Findings show that more than 99 percent of all revenues are for wood products due to its sales. Costs and revenues show, with a fluctuation during the decade, a rising trend. The highest and the lowest percentage of all costs are as follows: labor 36.5%, taxes and owner's share 24.1%, preparation and transportation 19.1%, and the rest for road building, machinery, administration, etc. 54.7 percent of total sale was related to the industrial wood that was due to an increase in the price of wood unit. Based on the results of financial analysis of this the project, it is estimated that the internal rate of return is 41.12 percent. Therefore, it is concluded that this project is a profitable project because of the access of this rate from common banking interest rates. Finally, some strategies are suggested to decrease costs and increase revenues in order to improve the present situation.