Biomass harvest and ash recycling : impacts on Forest Ecosystem Services values

PI : Jens Abildtrup (Laboratoire d’Économie Forestière — LEF)

Co-applicants :  Laurent Saint-André (Biogéochimie des Écosystèmes Forestièrs — BEF)

Collaboration :

• Bureau d’Economie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA), Strasbourg
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
• Bo J. Thorsen, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen

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Context — The increased use of wood fuel, to meet renewable energy targets, generates several environmental issues, including the export of nutrients which may influence long-term forest productivity negatively. Ash-recycling has been suggested a sustainable remedy for the loss of nutrients. However, there is currently no assessment of how ash recycling will influence forest owners’ management and the associated changes in the supply of the multiple ecosystem services. Furthermore, knowledge about the general population’s acceptability of ash-recycling is almost non-existing.

Objectives —

1. To develop an integrated framework linking biophysical models and forest owners’ decision processes which allows assessing the impact of ash recycling on provision of ecosystem services. In particular, we will analyse to which degree the adoption of ash recycling by private forest owners will influence other forest management decisions.
2. Assessment of the acceptability ash-recycling and biomass harvesting by the general population and estimation of the economic value of associated changes in the provision of ecosystem services.

Approach — An integrated framework is developed based on existing biophysical models, on data from experimental plots and the literature, and on econometric analysis of data obtained from a survey of forest owners in Sweden. The assessment of the general populations’ acceptability of ash recycling and estimation of the economic value of the related changes in provision of ecosystem services will be based on surveys and choice experiments in Denmark, France, and Sweden.

Expected results and impacts — Understanding the impact of ash recycling on forest management and ecosystem service provision provide a solid foundation for an integrated assessment of the (changes) in the regulation of biomass harvest and ash recycling. An economic valuation of changes in the provision of ecosystem services represents important information for carrying a cost benefit analysis.