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Abstract
Forests produce a wide array of goods, both private and public. The demand
for forest ecosystem services is increasing in many European countries, yet there is still
a scarcity of data on values at regional scale for Alpine areas. A Choice Experiment survey
has been conducted in order to explore preferences, uses and the willingness of the
Veneto population to pay for ecosystem services produced by regional mountain forests.
The results show that willingness to pay is significant for recreation and C-sequestration
but not for biodiversity conservation, landscape and other ecosystem services. These
findings question the feasibility of developing market-based mechanisms in Veneto at
present and cast light on the possible role of public institutions in promoting policy
actions to increase the general awareness of forest-related ecosystem services.