Abstract
This paper analyzes sustainable forest management in terms of the southeastern Alaskan timber production of the Alaska Native Corporations (founded under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: ANCSA) conducted in the 1980s. The study offers the findings below: Village corporations owned small areas of forestland (e.g., the Huna Totem Corporation owned 23,040 acres). Compensation, which was distributed under the provisions of the ANCSA, was insufficient for initial investments in timber production. Thus, Huna Totem had to borrow, using its land as collateral. On the other hand, the Sealaska regional corporation had extensive forestland (267,250 acres) and was highly compensated (at 93 million dollars), enabling Sealaska to foresee its sustainable forest management. In the 1980s, 12 Alaskan regional corporations suffered about 1.5 billion dollars in net operating losses (NOLs), mostly in timber production. However, the corporations also achieved a total of 426 million dollars in NOLs sales, allowing them to make up for the losses.
