Abstract

We study the optimal harvesting of a renewable resource that cannot be continuously exploited, i.e. after the harvest the released space cannot be immediately reallocated to the resource. In the meantime, this space can be given an alternative use of positive utility. We consider a discrete time model over an infinite horizon with discounting, and characterize the optimality of two myopic policies, the greedy and the sustainable ones. We then show that the optimal strategy consists in applying one of these policies after a finite number of time steps. Value function and optimal feedback are explicitly determined. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.