Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services: a financial-economic evaluation for Tuscany forests

Abstract

The monetary evaluation of ecosystem services is a topic of great interest for environmental planning and
forestry. However, economic measurements of forest externalities and the implementation of decision support
tools able to guide decision-makers in forest assessment, are difficult tasks. In this framework, the aims of the
work were: i) to define economic and financial indicators, related to appraisal of different silvicultural intervention in Tuscany forest and ii) to design a flexible economic decision support model for the guidance of stakeholders in forest management. From methodological viewpoint a short period financial analysis was developed. This analysis permits to compute stumpage value of forest harvesting. The innovative component of the work is the ability to integrate the analysis with an assessment of economic aspect of the process. As matter of fact, multifunctionality parameters and, consequently, total economic value of forest was introduced. Main results emphasize the flexibility of the implemented model and the potential application in different areas.