Towards the economic valuation of ecosystem production from cork oak forests in Sardinia (Italy)

A spatially explicit approach for stand-scale economic valuation of current and future potential of cork forests with respect to ecosystem production is developed and presented. The approach, which relies in large part on the mensuration of stand top height and number of trees as main drivers, has been tested on the pure cork forests of Sardinia (Italy). The test was conducted to assess the effects of alternative silvicultural options on cork and fodder production, carbon sequestration, and water yield. Under current conditions, the surveyed pure cork oak forest stands in Sardinia are characterized, on average, by an annual economic production of 93 euro ha-1 yr-1 as concerns cork, 37 euro ha-1 yr-1 as concerns carbon sequestration and 261 euro ha-1 yr-1 as concerns water yield. The value of cork production on an 11-year cycle equals 1023 euro ha-1 on average. The total economic production values among the tested silvicultural alternatives have proven to be characterized by relatively small differences, due to the trade-offs among the considered goods and services. Therefore, at least under conditions similar to those surveyed, managers may safely rely on different stand density options, without any relevant detrimental effect on total economic production. The tested spatial visualization of the economic values of goods and services production can be useful in supporting forest management planning, e.g., to identify priority areas in order to maximize ecosystem production for local communities. The approach proposed here and tested to this end proves to be readily applicable to other cork contexts with similar characteristics under Mediterranean conditions.