Ecological characterization
The pilot demonstration Cerdanya, is in the Pyrenees area (county of Cerdanya, Catalonia region) in the Northeast of Spain. The study area is dominated by Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata, Abies alba. We can find some mixed forests of previous species, also we can find some scattered riparian forests, Quercus humilis forests and other broadleaves. The landscape is classified in stands. Therefore it allows for spatially explicit management models.
Forest Ecosystem Services
Pyrenees area, and Cerdanya in particular, has a long tradition of forest management and forest harvesting and at same time is one of the most visited areas in North Spain due to its biodiversity and recreation interest. Cerdanya covers around 25,000 ha, most of them owned by the municipalities (70% of the surface). These municipalities are used to make their management plans and with active management. In addition, forest owners in this area area also actively managing their forests. We select one municipality as representative of municipal forests. The demonstrator sets a model that might be followed by the rest of the municipalities in the region (covering 70% of the area) to get payments for ecosystem services they provide and thus increase the profitability of the forest investments. For that purpose, we plan to use multiple-criteria decision-making methods (Pareto frontier methods), that have been already tested in other countries (e.g. Portugal) to help forest owners analyse trade-offs between ecosystem services and select alternative plans with different baskets of ecosystem to auction.. It is assumed that both, municipalities and forest owners are willing to accept to change their portfolios and provide the new baskets as long as payments are made that may compensate eventual opportunity costs associated with following the corresponding plans. We also plan to use a web-based platform to support a crowd-funding scheme to provide bids to each basket on sale. Consumers to be targeted by the auction may include both local and non-local residents and institutions. We also do have experiences in developing either LP models or MIP models to develop management plans. We plan to use multiple-criteria decision making methods (Pareto frontier methods) to check trade-offs, to define targets for the provision of ecosystem services and baskets to auction with the forest owners. Pines and fir forests provide multiple ecosystem services in the area:
- saw logs,
- biomass for energy,
- carbon storage,
- biodiversity,
- habitat for animals,
- soil protection,
- water regulation,
- recreation, etc.
Stakeholders
Forest service, Municipalities, Association of forest Municipalities of Pyrenees, Conservation agency, Conservation organizations, Local population Tourism organizations
Ownership
Forests in Cerdanya covers around 25,000 ha, most of them owned by the municipalities (70% of the surface). More than the 50 % of those forests have forest management plans with information about forest stand characteristics, management goals, constrains to forest management and management guidelines. The medium size of those forests is around 1,500 ha. We select a municipality as a demonstrator study case.
Business Model
- Providers: Municipality (owner)
- Stakeholders: The Forest Service of the Catalan Government, the Association of forest municipalities of the Pyrenees.
- Consumers: Local and non-local residents and institutions Facilitator(s): Web platform
- Facilitator(s): Web platform
- Payments: Voluntary
Ecosystem Model
Available empirical and process-based growth and yield models for pines and fir.
Simulators that encapsulate them to generate prescriptions. And the management model.
The models are used to compute the ES as timber, carbon stocks, water fluxes, biodiversity indicators, (landscape beauty and recreation can be derived), We also do have wildfire occurrence and damage models to estimate wildfire risk, biodiversity models.