Forest ecosystem services: economic evaluation of carbon sequestration on a large scale|Servizi ecosistemici forestali: valutazione economica del sequestro di anidride carbonica su area vasta

The role of ecosystem services is a central issue in current debates concerning the environment, the climate emergency and the sustainable development strategies. Natural capital, an invaluable source of wellbeing for humankind, is suffering from continuous and unsustainable human exploitation. This leads to a significant transformation of ecosystems and a consequent loss of biodiversity across the planet. In recent years, increased environmental awareness has generated much attention to the activation of a financial instrument aimed at the conservation and enhancement of ecosystems: the Payment for Ecosystem Services. Although the main objective is the preservation of our territory and its resources, PES schemes can also contribute to reducing inequalities, reducing poverty, and improving livelihoods, particularly when embedded in effective sustainable development strategies. A prerequisite for the application of this instrument is the economic valuation of ecosystems and the services they provide, as the objects of transaction between its beneficiaries and providers. In doing so, this paper characterises a methodology for the mapping and economic valuation of one of the main ecosystem services: CO2 sequestration by forests. The latter, thanks to its capacity to absorb and store CO2in the atmosphere, plays a relevant role in combating climate change. The proposed methodology consists of four steps and includes: (i) the collection and processing of data concerning the forest categories of the area under analysis; (ii) the estimation of the annual removal and storage of organic carbon and (iii) its conversion into CO2, by forest category and hectare of soil; (iv) the estimation of the monetary value of the annually absorbed CO2 stock. The methodology is applied to the territory of the Campania Region and can be replicated in different contexts and at different scales. The perspective of the study is the development of a software that allows, through the perimeter of an area on a map, the automatic measurement of the quantity of CO2 annually absorbed by the forest stock and the monetary value of the corresponding ecosystem service.