Page 135 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

better. Forests can also be symbols: a tree, for example, reminding us our youth
and creating a different relationship with nature. There is also a cultural fun-
ction and, often, in many countries also religious.

So this is a further important function of the forest. Having said that, we
can now ask the following question: “What is the economic value of forests”.
Well, from a point of view related to the GDP, we can estimate a value in the
region of one and a half billion Euro per year in the forestry economic sector.

However, if we had to include all the other services which forests provide,
such as the reduction of idrogeological risks, clean water sources for our basins,
fighting soil erosion and – as I mentioned earlier – the increase in carbon dio-
xide absorption, we could calculate an indirect added value which ranges from
1.2 to 2 billion.

I do not completely agree with the monetising of the services given by the
ecosystem as it may result reductive. However, I appreciate that if we have to
persuade politicians and Institutions we have to find a common language. So,
the thought that forests are there and keep on doing their work without asking
anybody for anything, is somehow something not correct.

We must invest in the conservation of forests and of their services. In
order to invest we must understand how much they produce in economic
terms. This also tells us that positive externalities are more than the traditional
forestry GDP. Now I would like to discuss another important point. Let’s take
into account one of these services, carbon dioxide.

Currently forests contribute to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
that have become a serious problem in the global warming. Nearly 32 billion
tonnes of carbon dioxide are produced by fossil fuels; nearly 9 billion tonnes
are released following the tropical deforestation proving that forests become
above all a source of carbon dioxide in these countries.

Nevertheless only 46% actually ends up in the atmosphere, since 28% is
reabsorbed by forests and 26% by the oceans. Therefore, the forest, in a silent
way, just as a machine which doesn’t require anything, is there producing a fun-
damental benefit for us.

For our country this is a benefit which has already had some real results
because, when we negotiated the Kyoto Protocol and introduced forests as an

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