One for All, All for One: Collective Action of Forest Owners for Ecosystem Services Provision in Comelico Inner Area, Italy

The present thesis is on rural development policies, specifically on an Italian policy: The National Strategy for Inner Areas. Inner Areas are rural areas classified according to criteria of distance from main services, such as schools, hospitals and public transport. This Strategy identifies potential Inner Areas which in turn can develop a Local Strategy for development benefitting from funds provided from the National Strategy. This thesis focuses on a specific Inner Area in north eastern Italian Alps: Comelico Valley. According to the Local Strategy for Comelico Inner Area, there are several roads for the development of the area: improve the use of biomass from forest residues and develop the tourism sector by tailoring it to the characteristics of the area. The thesis focused on the possibility for collective actions to be implemented to improve provision of biomass for energy and forest recreation. The general objective of this thesis was to provide insights for policy recommendations on how to improve the National Strategy by providing examples on recommendations at local scale. Four specific objectives were developed: i) understanding facilitating and hindering factors for collective action for forest management, at global scale, ii) identifying demand and supply social and political barriers and drivers for the development of a local value chain of forest residues in Comelico Inner Area, iii) explore demand characteristics of forest for recreation in Comelico Inner Area according to the tourism sector operators, iv) explore the viewpoints of local forest owners in supplying forest recreation in Comelico Inner Area. The wide range of objectives was addressed through a mix of methodologies. The first objective was reached with a systematic literature review following the PRISMA protocol. The second objective was reached with a SWOT analysis, due to the more structured value chain compared to the other ecosystem service we analyzed, forest for recreation. The third objective was met with the Delphi Method, which allowed to develop forecasts, based on the area characteristics, on how to develop future nature-based tourism initiatives. Finally, the fourth objective was addressed with Q methodology, which slowed to identify relevant groups of forest owners based on their point of view on providing forest recreation. The results highlight how there is a general positive attitude in both contexts, biomass for energy and forest recreation, towards collective action to improve the provision of both ecosystem services. Common barriers in the two cases were the need to keep control over the resources and a general lack of knowledge on the possibilities to improve the provision of both services. A driver that could bring relevant local stakeholder together would be a clear economic advantage in improving the provision of either ecosystem service. In both cases, public support to both initiate the collective action process and support needed investments could facilitate collective actions for ecosystem services provision. This thesis was not a feasibility study on specific collective action processes, but it aimed to provide insights on conditions that facilitate and hinder the process at local level. As a case study, its contribution is to the theory rather than inferential, but it can support further studies on comparable areas and spark a discussion on how to direct policies to support ecosystem services provision on a local scale.