Support a sustainable living in industrialized societies? Trends and Future of Sustainable Development Tampere, Finland, 9-10 June 2011 How and how much can forest ecosystems Support a sustainable living in industrialized societies? Silvio Viglia, Pier Paolo Franzese, Amalia Zucaro, Andrzej Nienartowicz, Mieczysław Kunz and Sergio Ulgiati silvio.viglia@uniparthenope.it

Research questions A) How to measure the natural capital and how to compare it with the human-built capital; b) How to measure environmental services; c) How to measure social, economic and environmental returns on investments; D) Is it worth to invest into environmental protection.

Bory Tucholskie National Park Case study: Bory Tucholskie National Park Located in the northern Poland, Pomerania region, is the main core area of the Biosphere Reserve Tuchola Forest.

Main objective The implementation of a biophysical accounting system able to explore both natural and economic resources within an integrated framework. To study the energy metabolism of a natural Park, with particular reference to the evaluation of natural capital and ecosystem services. To calculate indicators of environmental performance and sustainability for the main activities, products and services generated by the investigated system. To assess the sustainable use of A natural Park resources, in order to understand their potential in support of a sustainable economy (ecotourism , agro-industrial production, etc.).

Bory Tucholskie National Park Total area: 4613 ha 85% forests 11.5% lakes

Provisioning services: Wood Forage

Provisioning services: Fishing Hunting

Cultural services: Educational activities Tourism

Upstream Methods Material Flow Accounting Accounts for the materials directly and indirectly supplied to a process, and diverted from their natural pattern. TMR has been suggested as a measure of environmental disturbance, so-called “environmental backpack”. (Hinterberger and Stiller, 1998) Embodied Energy Analysis Accounts for the total commercial energy directly and indirectly used up over the production chain of a product. It is also a proxy for a process contribution to the depletion of fossil fuels. (Herendeen, 1998) Emergy Synthesis Emergy is the total amount of available energy of one kind (usually solar) that is directly or indirectly required to make a given product or to support a given flow. Due to its reference to solar energy, it is also used as a measure of environmental support. (Odum, 1996)

Downstream Methods CML 2 (baseline 2000) Method Withdrawals and emissions are assigned to ecological impact categories. Environmental impacts associated to airborne, liquid and solid emissions by a process are evaluated and described by means of appropriate indicators. Indicators are based on equivalency factors to reference compounds, the contribution of which to the relative impact category is well known. (Centre of Environmental Science of Leiden University, NL, 2001) Eco-indicator 99 method. Withdrawals and emissions are assigned to three main impact categories (Human health, Ecosystem Integrity and Resource depletion). Indicators are based on impact factors from previous ecological, ecotoxicological and resource availability studies.

SUMMA: how it works 6.Trends and Procedures for multiple optimization Identification of the problem and design of a system diagram 2. Data collection (on field, statistical, GIS) 7. Assessing complexity and dynamics of the system. Suggesting optimization patterns 3. Calculation Procedures and Tables 4. Results and Indicators Energy Material Flows Emergy Emissions

The system diagram:

RESULTS: Embodied Energy

RESULTS: Embodied matter

RESULTS: Emergy (Embodied environmental support and time)

RESULTS: Breakdown into environmental support categories

RESULTS: Emergy-based Performance indicators

RESULTS: Airborne emissions

CONCLUSIONS: Monitoring energy and material costs over time would allow to ascertain to what extent the Park management is resource-efficient The Bory Tucholskie National Park showed a good environmental performance but a problem arises when the focus is placed on the economic self-sufficiency. Nevertheless assessing the benefits of a park only in terms of economic return prevents a proper understanding of the complexity of ecosystem services If the emergy equivalent value of the investment from Government, is compared with the emergy value of the business generated (fishery, hunting, forestry and tourism) as well as the emergy values of the ecosystem services, and biomass standing storage, it comes out that business, ecosystem services and biomass storage are respectively 3.7, 2.4 and 91 times the governmental investment. This result confirms the advantage and benefits of investing into natural capital conservation.

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION! silvio.viglia@uniparthenope.it