Wood is far from being only forest function provided to their owners. Hunting, wild forest product harvesting, exercise, nature watching, relaxation and many other similar functions can be bundled within the concept of cultural ecosystem services. Their presence in European forests as seen by land owners is studied in a new publication led by Mario Torralba (University of Kassel) within the frame of the SINCERE project, and with Marko Lovric, Jeanne-Lazya Roux and Georg Winkel as co-authors from EFI. The study is the outcome of a collaborative effort with the European Landowners’ Organisation and is based on a survey conducted with 1182 forest landowners from 25 European countries participating. The results show that there is high degree of synergy between these services, and the paper identifies four differentiated types of forest owners based on their attitudes and management in relation to these services.
Reference
Torralba, M., M. Lovrić, J.-L. Roux, M.-A. Budniok, A.-S. Mulier, G. Winkel, and T. Plieninger. 2020. Examining the relevance of cultural ecosystem services in forest management in Europe. Ecology and Society 25(3):2. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11587-250302