Relationship between biodiversity indicators and its economic value – case study

Background and Purpose:Within the framework ofmulti-purpose forest management, biodiversity is usually considered as one of forest functions along with production, recreation and other functions of forests, while according to biodiversity definition and its partial components, these functions are integral elements of biodiversity. Forest inventory is an objective method for collecting information about biodiversity and forest functions. Materials and Methods: In the presented study, the data from forest inventory of the University Forest Enterprise Kostelec based on stratification sampling design (1,188 sample plots in 86 strata) were used for the analysis of the relationship between biodiversity indicators and its economic value. The area of the enterprise is characterised by heterogeneous site and landscape conditions. From the inventory data we quantified 171 partial diversity indicators. On the base of ANOVA andmultiple linear regression analysis, we selected the most suitable indicators most closely correlated to the sum of the values of individual social and economic forest functions. Results and Conclusion: We found that the relationship between the economic value of biodiversity and selected indicators is significant. Nevertheless, the derived models could explain not more than 25% of the total variability of the analysed relationship. Future research should search for objective indicators of biodiversity, and should aim at improving economic valuation of biodiversity