Measuring total social income of a stone pine afforestation in Huelva (Spain)

We estimate the total social income delivered by a simulated Stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) afforestation investment in Huelva province, Spain. We consider the following private and public products: timber, pinecones, forestry conservation services, landowner amenities, landscape conservation, public recreation and carbon sequestration services. We show how total income of each single product is distributed into the partial rewards to labor and to environmental and manufactured assets. Results demonstrate that private income accounts on average for 46% of the total social income over the entire afforestation cycle; public income comprises the remaining 54%. This distribution is subject to variations over the afforestation cycle according to the timber and pine cones harvesting profiles and scheduled conservationist forestry operations. Our results also indicate that the production of public non-market services offset the government compensations (payments) to support the Stone pine afforestation. Finally, our applied experimental agroforestry accounting system indicates that on average 93% of the total social income over the entire afforestation cycle would be omitted if the current national system of accounts for forestry were applied to our case study.