Oak trees and woodlands providing ecosystem services in Southern Spain

Abstract

The concept of ecosystem services, meaning the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, has gained widespread acceptance among scientists, managers and politicians since its use in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005). Trees, woods and forests provide direct provisioning services (timber, fuel, food, meat), indirect regulating services (air and water quality, mitigation of climate change, soil protection), and cultural services (recreation, aesthetic, landscape, historic and cultural values) all of them contributing to human well-being. The analysis and evaluation of the variety of ecosystem services provided by trees and woods make people aware of how dependent we are, in so many ways – food, economy, culture, psychology – of this natural capital. The study of the trends of ecosystem services and the drivers promoting their changes can be used as a valuable tool for a better management of trees and woods avoiding their degradation. The research on ecosystem services has increased during the last decade impelled by diffusion of the MEA report (Vihervaara et al., 2010). For example, in 2010 up to 148 papers were published in indexed journals, with the keywords “ecosystem services” and “forest” representing about 20% of the total number of papers on ecosystem services. In this work we present an overview of the main ecosystem services provided by oak trees, woodlands and forests in southern Spain, and the main conclusions obtained from the evaluation of their trends and drivers of change (see Marañón et al., 2012).