Il capitale naturale delle foreste di montagna : un caso studio nei Carpazi

Estimating non-market values of forest ecosystem services is very important for a sustainable forest management, so that productive and non-productive functions of forest may be compared with the same unit of measure. This contribution presents an economic valuation of several ecosystem services of the Zywiec Beskid forests, a case study located in southern Poland, within the Carpathians mountains. Data were collected on site and analyzed through different market and non-market techniques, each ecosystem service with the most suitable technique based on the available data. Results show that some of the nonmarket values of forest, in particular protection against natural hazards, carbon sequestration and recreation, are very high and should be kept into consideration while planning new development strategies