Diputacion Foral de Bizkaia (DFB)

Spain

The main objective of this Innovation Action is to create a new legal framework for forest and forestry that will improve how the provision, valuation and monitoring of ecosystem services is addressed and that will bridge current market failures through innovative mechanisms. The intended impact is to make forest activity more profitable in order to maintain such activity and the correct management of forests in Bizkaia.
It is crucial to change views about Forest Ecosystem Services and to value them. If we fail to value the services that forests provide, we run the risk of not having them in the future. In our territory, 75% of the land is private, and we depend on the decision of 20,000 forest owners to guarantee the sustainability of the whole territory.
The main stakeholders involved in our Innovation Action are the Forest Owner Association, the USSE (foresters of the South of Europe), and Baskegur, an organisation of industries related to wood transformation.