The role of forest certification for the conservation of biodiversity and sustainability of cork oak woodlands

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - UL

Sustainable forest management is crucial for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Forest certification (FC) is a market-based conservation tool based on third-party auditing of compliance with environmental and socio-economic sustainable management standards. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is a major certification scheme covering 183 million hectares of forests worldwide. However, there is a dearth of quantitative data on the effects of FSC certification on forest conservation. In this thesis the effects of FSC certification on the conservation cork oak (Quercus suber) woodlands of southern Portugal were evaluated. Specifically it was analyzed 1) if, at the regional level, certified cork oak woodlands overlap with areas with high biodiversity value (birds, reptiles and amphibians); 2) the effects of certification on the ecological condition of Mediterranean streams crossing cork oak woodlands and 3) the effects of FSC conservation zones on the abundance of cork oak regeneration and on the diversity of the shrubland understorey. Finally, 4) the FSC concept of “High Conservation Value Areas” and Pareto optimality were used to study the existence of areas with high biodiversity value (threatened bird and reptile species) that also provide ecosystems services (carbon storage and aquifer recharge). Results suggest that FSC certification 1) started in cork oak woodlands whose biodiversity value is not significantly greater than that of non-certified areas; 2) the ecological condition of Mediterranean streams crossing certified cork oak woodlands is significantly higher than that of streams crossing non-certified cork oak woodlands; 3) establishing FSC conservation zones promotes cork oak regeneration and diversity of understory shrublands and 4) there are large areas of cork oak woodlands with high biodiversity value that also provide ecosystems services