Biodiversity Day: Official Delivery of Ecosystem Services Certificates
Arouca City Council, FSC Portugal and 2BForest held the Ceremony to Award the First FSC® Ecosystem Services Certificates on May 22nd at 2:30 pm in Senhora da Mó, Arouca.
The purpose of this ceremony was to celebrate the first certification in Portugal for forest ecosystem services in the municipality of Arouca, obtained on March 19, 2021. Arouca is thus the first region in Portugal to recognize and quantify the benefits that forests bring to society, and the 24th region in the world to obtain this certification.
Portugal's forestry sector is highly competitive, contributing positively to the balance of the country's external accounts. The forestry sector, directly and indirectly, supports world-leading companies and has played a pivotal role in shaping our country's external image.
Furthermore, it is a very important sector for job creation, especially in sparsely populated areas, and today the importance of forested areas in combating climate change and providing environmental services to society is unquestionable.
In this sense, the project “FSC Certification of Ecosystem Services in Certified Management Areas” aims to value the environmental services provided by forest areas, enabling the owner to earn an income from these areas and thus reward/guarantee the good management of forest conservation areas in Portugal, in line with the objectives of the Millennium Ecosystems Assessments 2015 and the National Strategy for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity.
The certification of ecosystem services was obtained in accordance with the FSC-PRO-30-006 Ecosystem Services Procedure, through the 2BForest Forest Certification group, in which a total of almost 145ha in the municipality of Arouca, belonging to 3 forest owners, were certified.
This regularly audited mechanism aims to ensure that these services generate an economic return, contributing to improving the conservation status of the natural and cultural heritage of the region in which they are located, and that investors can participate in a transparent and credible process of promoting sustainability.
Obtaining this certification provides a unique opportunity to promote more sustainable development models that generate wealth within a framework of balance and territorial cohesion, which we celebrated on BIODIVERSITY DAY.
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