A database of the recreational value of European forests : design and implementation from recreational valuation studies

In addition to the supply of wood, forests provide many services to humans in terms of climate regulation (e.g. carbon sequestration), air purification, recreation and tourism, fresh water supply, soil protection, habitat for biodiversity and many others. Options for recreation is one of the cultural services provided by forest ecosystems. Cultural forest services include the non-material outputs of forest ecosystems. These services are regarded as the physical settings, locations or situations that produce benefits in the physical, intellectual or spiritual state of people. Nevertheless, valuing non-market services, such as forest for recreation, is challenging without baseline robust and harmonised data. This study aims at designing and developing a database of studies on the recreational value of European forests for value transfer. The database will be populated by a literature review. This study was implemented as part of the traineeship 2014-IPR-H-000-2973 Recreational Value of Forests awarded to Paula Nieto Quintano.