Ecosystem Service Valuation for Forest Landscape Resilience: Managing Fire Risk

Prevention and reduction of forest fires is a crucial challenge. Forest fires are constantly increasing at a global level, particularly in areas close to settlements due to the steadily growing interface between vegetated land and settlements resulting from sub-urbanization processes. Shortcomings in fire management have also contributed to this increase. Management shortcomings are even more alarming if we consider the multifunctionality of forest landscapes, that carry out essential functions from an environmental, socio-economic and cultural point of view, strongly affecting also urban areas. AF3 project (“Advanced Forest Fire Fighting”) aims at overcoming the current operational gaps in managing forest fires through the development of new technologies and methodologies. In the context of the overall AF3 project, this research aims at highlighting forest landscape values in the Sardinia Region, and at defining the potential damages caused by fires, in order to underpin a more complex and complete definition of forest fire risk, to sensitise social actors and institutions regarding  forest landscape values, and to foster the design of policy instruments that effectively address forest fire risk. To this aim, the concept of “Ecosystem Services” (ES) has been used as an analytical and operative key, defining a method for valuing  and mapping Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) from both a biophysical and economic point of view. The FES valuation method can act as a useful tool to foster an adaptive management and planning approach for resilience, since: (i) it supports community sensitisation, (ii) it promotes institutional learning, (iii) it allows a monitoring action of FES dynamics, fostering a “learn-by-doing” approach, and (iv) it strengthens compensation plans.