Understanding forest owners’ propensity to the provision of ecosystem services: a survey in the Veneto Region of Italy.

Similar to other industrialised countries, Italian forests deliver, besides wood products, several ecosystem services (ES), mostly provided as public goods. The ES provision has been an important aspect in the Italian Legislative Framework since the early 1920s. However, up to now, the overall effect of the forest policies has been a slow and constant land abandonment, while a new demand of ES provision by forests has arisen. The paper presents the results of a survey undertaken in Veneto region (northeast Italy) to understand forest owners’ (FO) propensity to participate in active forest management for ES supply. The survey covers 30% of the forestland; about 200 FOs were interviewed. The characteristics of the forest estates, the FOs’ features and the forest management practices in place are examined together to the causal-effect relationships between forest management and ES provision. Few ES provision contracts were recorded and limited inclination towards ES supply was stated by FOs. Main reasons for this are the low awareness of ES potentials and the small size of forest estates. The paper also frames these results in the broader context of regional forest governance and suggests the implementation of ‘network contracts’ amongst FOs, as innovative tool for fostering ES provision.