Mapping the monetary value of forest-based recreation: a case study in the Italian Carnic Prealps

In the last decades, ecosystem services are increasingly of interest to the scientific community and policy makers, due to their ability to improve people’s physical and mental well-being. To better target forest management interventions, it is important to assign a spatially explicit monetary value to ecosystem services provided by forests. This study aims to defined a procedure to assess and map the monetary values of outdoor recreational in a case study in the north-east of Italy (Cansiglio Orientale forest). For that purpose, a zonal Travel Cost Method and a spatial analysis were implemented in order to map the outdoor recreation value in different forest areas. During the summer 2023, 118 questionnaires were collected through face-to-face administration on the site. The results showed an annual consumer surplus of 13,961,789 € that corresponds to 15.36 € per visit per person. According to the spatial analysis, accommodation facilities, points of interest, and roads and paths network are the elements that most affect the distribution of the outdoor recreation value.