Elena Górriz Mifsud

Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) | CTFC · Bioeconomy and governance

Wild mushroom picking is a growing recreational and commercial activity. In Spain, wild mushrooms legally belong to the landowner, who seldom benefits from trade in mushrooms or from their recreational value. Cultural aspects (tradition, picker-related harms) and economic aspects (costly forestry works, income opportunities) constitute elements of...

This study assesses the feasibility of a mechanism of payment for ecosystem services to improve the provision of ecosystem services by private forest owners. The range of the potential payment is defined by the opportunity costs of a change in forest management as the lower boundary, and by the willingness to pay of society for the improved supply...

The concept of social capital within the forest governance field encompasses networks, norms and values of local communities that determine cooperation and contribute to their development. Interlinkages among community characteristics affecting the implementation of governance arrangements, forest policy instruments or traditional social norms are...

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have recently attracted attention as a means for aligning the interests of landowners and society by remunerating forest owners for the goods and services their forests produce. As PES schemes are being extensively adopted around the world, questions related to their institutional dimensions, as well as the rol...

Aim of study: The local ecological knowledge shared in rural communities shapes their norms for using their nearby open-access natural resources. We suggest a method to analyse this form of cognitive social capital with an application to a mushroom picking permit. Area of study: Poblet forest in Catalonia (NE Spain). Material and methods: we applie...

In Europe, Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are important for forest recreation, rural income, cultural heritage, and as industrial commodities. Although widely collected and consumed across the continent, national statistical and scientific data are limited. Combined with short and underexplored value-chains, the cross-sectoral nature of the leg...

https://efi.int/publications-bank/mediterranean-forest-research-agenda-2030 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The first Mediterranean Forest Research Agenda 2010-2020 (MFRA 2020) (Palahi et al., 2009) was written over a decade ago now. Since then, accelerating climate, ecological, socioeconomic and political changes have been transforming the compl...

It is often seen how a distinctive feature of a territory is used as a brand to create an image that attracts tourists to the region. This is so-called “territorial marketing”, and together with this brand, connected products and services, usually related to recreation, gastronomy and well-being, are offered. Non-wood forest products (NWFPs), such...

In Spain, 55% of land area is covered by forests and other woodlands. Broadleaves occupy a predominant position (56%), followed by conifers (37%) and mixed stands (7%). Forest are distributed among the Atlantic (northwestern Iberian rim), Mediterranean (rest of the peninsula including the Balearic Islands) and Macaronesian (Canary Islands) climate...

Social innovations are grassroots processes aiming to achieve impacts beyond an individual level and towards a broader societal good. The environmental dimension of impacts refers to any direct change to the environment resulting from social innovation activities, products, or services, which are not addressed by pre-existing systems. In this paper...

Algunas características específicas del sector forestal conllevan retos para articular la demanda y provisión de servicios ecosistémicos. Principalmente debido a la gran fragmentación de la propiedad, pero también a las prácticas dispersas de recolección de frutos silvestres, o las externalidades de adyacencia derivadas de los trabajos silvícolas....

El Pacto Verde Europeo aspira a convertir la Unión Europea en un territorio neutro de emisiones para 2050, así como proteger el capital natural de Europa para las personas y la salud. En este contexto, surge la necesidad de prevenir y prepararse para afrontar eventos de incendios extremos que están por venir en el territorio europeo. El proyecto FI...

Mediterranean territories have co-evolved and been shaped by fire throughout history. However, global environmental change conditions are increasing the size, intensity and severity of wildfires, which have gone from a regular natural disturbance to a serious threat for civil protection, surpassing firefighting capacities. Therefore, building resil...

The EU H2020 FIRE-RES project aims to provide Europe with the necessary capacity to avoid collapsing in front of Extreme Wildfire Events (EWE), projected to increase as the result of a harsher climate. An integrated management approach to the Fire Management Cycle phases (Prevention and Preparedness; Detection & Response; Restoration and Adaptatio...

Social innovation (SI) impacts are long-term changes that affect different dimensions of territorial capital (i.e., economy, society, environment, governance) for the territory in which SI occurs. Yet, systematic empirical evidence and theoretically sound assessments of the impacts of SI are scarce. This paper aims to fill the gap and assess the di...

Social innovations can tackle various challenges related to gender equity in rural areas, especially when such innovations are initiated and developed by women themselves. We examine cases located in rural areas of Canada, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, and Serbia, where women are mar-ginalized by gender roles, patriarchal values, male dominated economy...

El paper dels boscos de Catalunya en el nou context del Pacte Verd europeu i el Pla europeu de Recuperació post-COVID-19 Oportunitat per posicionar el potencial del sector forestal en el canvi de model social i econòmic cap a la neutralitat d'emissions en carboni, la gestió sostenible del territori i la conservació de la biodiversitat C ada cop són...

In the last two decades, attention on forests and ownership rights has increased in different domains of international policy, particularly in relation to achieving the global sustainable development goals. This paper looks at the changes in forest-specific legislation applicable to regular productive forests, across 28 European countries. We compa...

This report presents the lessons learnt from the local workshops held by the seven social innovation actions on grassroots initiatives across Europe and the Mediterranean basin. In total 11 workshops held and have attracted more than 170 participants from across the range of relevant backgrounds and responsibilities in policy, business, civic socie...

Innovation actions within European Horizon 2020 (H2020) projects aim at testing research results in practice. When supporting social innovations in rural areas, such testing requires the alignment of several rural actors in order to entail behavioral changes beyond the individual level. Recently, social innovation has been recognized as an importan...

This report presents analyses of the experiences of the seven Social Innovation Actions undertaken in the SIMRA project. The aim of the report is to pool the knowledge gained in the practical implementation of Social Innovations in marginalised rural areas. As a result of the analysis, several elements have emerged as crucial for Social Innovation...

In this paper, we explore demands for forest ecosystem services at a local level, in the Ukraine's Carpathians, as well as institutional capabilities and practical issues of the contribution of non-wood forest products and services (NWFP&S) to the well-being of rural communities. In our research, we applied participatory techniques (based on stakeh...

The settlement Vlkolinec (Slovakia), thanks to its isolated location (Fig. 1), preserved the historical character of a small rural settlement, and unique cultural and natural heritage with a significance extending beyond Slovakia (Fig., 2, 3 and 4). It attracts more than 70,000 visitors per year. Vlkolinec was declared as Reserve of Folk Architectu...

In fire-prone areas such the Mediterranean basin, wildfire risk means a societal challenge. Governments in modern welfare states have generally addressed it through a “zero fire policy”, focusing on suppression and professionalization. Such approach provides security to local populations, who in turn may detach from the socio-ecologic phenomenon of...

In this report we present results of evaluation of 11 Social Innovation Case Studies. The assessments of the Social Innovations were based upon three main blocks. The first step of the evaluation of the social innovation initiative focuses on five evaluation criteria: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impacts and Sustainability (REEIS). This wa...

Mushroom picking is a growing recreational activity in Europe. Since the institutional environment moves towards regulating mycological resources, estimating the value of this ecosystem service becomes a key tool for policy-makers and rural entrepreneurs. This paper applies the Travel Cost (TC) method to estimate the value of mushroom picking in th...

Resumen En áreas propensas a los incendios forestales, como son las mediterráneas, los gobiernos en estados de bienestar modernos han gestionado dicho riesgo generalmente a través de "políticas de cero incendios", enfocadas en la extinción y profesionalización. Dicho enfoque proporciona seguridad a las poblaciones locales, que por otra parte pueden...

Palabras clave: Gobernanza, sistemas de pagos por servicios ambientales, incendios forestales, ganadería extensiva. RESUMEN Una gobernanza que incorpore la complejidad inherente a la gestión de recursos naturales en el Mediterráneo puede ejercer un papel fundamental en la resiliencia de los sistemas socioecológi-cos a los incendios forestales. Los...

Las Agrupaciones de Defensa Forestal (ADF) son entidades sin ánimo de lucro que se constituyen con la finalidad de realizar actuaciones dirigidas a la vigilancia, prevención de incendios forestales, intervención inmediata y apoyo a la extinción de incendios. Constituidas en forma de asociación, están formadas por ayuntamientos, propietarios foresta...

The importance of forest ecosystems to human well-being cannot be overstated. But forest management strategies do not necessarily seek to enhance the value of all forest goods and services, whether locally, nationally or internationally. In most cases, management considers a limited portfolio of ecosystem services, mainly limited to those goods and...

Wildfires are one of the most prominent risks for Mediterranean forests, reducing the flow of ecosystem services and representing a hazard for infrastructure and human lives. Several wildfire prevention programs in southern Europe are currently incorporating extensive livestock grazers in fire prevention activities to reduce the high costs of mecha...

Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep...

Small forest patches embedded in agricultural (and peri-urban) landscapes in Western Europe play a key role for biodiversity conservation with a recognized capacity of delivering a wide suite of ecosystem services. Measures aimed to preserve these patches should be both socially desirable and ecologically effective. This study presents a joint ecol...

Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep...

In a context of highly fragmented woodlands' ownership, joint forest management implies a reduction of transaction costs for its members and improves the coherence of forestry actions at the landscape scale. Increasing the size of the management unit improves market positioning, permits a more technical management, and improves environmental sustai...

La recogida de setas es una actividad muy arraigada en la sociedad catalana. Ello supone oportunidades pero también amenazas, algunas de las cuales podría canalizarse o abordarse desde la intervención política. El análisis de variables socio-económicas proporciona al decisor información tanto de la parte de la oferta (el titular o gestor forestal),...

The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe’s water bodies to “good ecological status” by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% o...

Els boscos i el conjunt del sector forestal poden jugar un paper molt important en el canvi que es pretén fer a escala europea per fomentar una economia innovadora, eficient en el consum de recursos i basada en productes d'origen biològic (bioeconomia)

In diffuse forest uses, like non-timber forest products' harvesting, the behavioural alignment of pickers is crucial for avoiding a " tragedy of the commons ". Moreover, the introduction of policy tools such as a permit system may help in keeping the activity under control if it strictly interconnected with pickers' engagement. Besides traditional...

Many excellent results are obtained in agricultural and forestry research projects, but their practical adoption is often limited. The aim of the European project VALERIE is to increase the transfer and application of innovations produced by research in agriculture and forestry, by facilitating their integration into management practices. The proje...

Wild mushrooms are among the most valuable non-wood forest products in the world, and mushroom picking activities are well developed in many countries. Recent studies have demonstrated important links between forest management options and the productivity of mushrooms. Furthermore, there is evidence that the optimal forest management oriented at ma...

In Europe, like in many temperate lowlands worldwide, forest has a long history of fragmentation and land use change. In many places, forest landscapes consist of patches of different quality, age, size and isolation, embedded in a more or less intensively managed agricultural matrix. As potential biodiversity islets, small forest patches (SFP) may...

El valor que supone la recogida de setas silvestres queda reflejado en la economía que generan directamente a través de los mercados de setas e indirectamente con actividades vinculadas al micoturismo, pero también por el incremento de la demanda en su vertiente de actividad recreativa. El desarrollo de la micosilvicultura permitiría gestionar los...

The report provides an overview of the research activities of the overall COOL project. The research project was divided into three work packages. The goals and methodologies of the particular work packages are described in chapter 2. Chapter 3 summarises European policies for forest-based bioenergy and is based on a Technical Report (Ferranti, 201...

Background In the last decade, the demand for and supply of energy wood from forests has increased, and experts expect a further increase in the future due to political and societal changes. The objective of this paper was to provide a qualitative analysis of stakeholders’ perceptions of current and future trade-offs as well as of synergies betwee...

The present study investigates private forest owners’ perceptions of mushroom picking in Catalonia and develops a model of preferred policy intervention (introducing a regulation, a payment or keeping the status quo). The results allow the modelling of forest owners’ preferences regarding policy interventions based on two factors: their perception...

A la luz de lo anterior, enmarcado en el proyecto COOL (2012-2014), in-vestigadores de cinco países euro-peos (Alemania, Eslovenia, España, Finlandia y Noruega): • Han comparado las políticas nacionales y europeas relativas a bosques y las es-trategias de gestión forestal con respec-to a la producción y consumo de energía procedente de biomasa leño...

Paleo-ecological studies show that forest fires are natural phenomena in the Mediterranean. Large wildfires are acknowledged to be more likely to occur when there is a high accumulation and continuity of biomass in the landscape. This is the result of a rural exodus and the abandonment of traditional agrarian practices and forest management due to...

This articles compiles examples of PES across the Mediterrenean: the Moroccan system for shepherds compensation for forest regeneration, the Forest Fund of Portugal based on petrol tax, Spanish examples for mushroom picking permits reveting in forestry, the Croatian forest tax, a wildfire prevention system funded by a water agency in Mediterranean...

COOL project. More fodder for the oven? Dealing with forest related conflicts arising from the production and use of energy wood in europe: national stakeholder perspectives