MULTIRES è un’azienda agricola e silvicolturale orientata alla produzione di servizi ecosistemici.
OUR ACTIVITIES AND OUR STAKEHOLDERS
MULTIRES’ main activities currently involve the production of extra-virgin olive oil, the controlled extraction of some woodland resources, including truffles, fruit and firewood for the company’s own consumption, and the cultivation of vegetables: all for domestic use, with the exception of the olive oil, which is on sale from 2022; in addition, alfalfa has been sown on about 2.5 hectares in order to both enrich the soil with additional nutrients and to provide a zero-kilometre feed for the cattle of a neighbouring BIO farm; finally, a medicinal lavender plant has been created with around 850 plants, which in the coming years will be a primary and lasting source of nectar to produce high-quality honey.
One of the long-term objectives of MULTIRES is to increase the value of regulation and maintenance services, and to make the forest ecosystem an attractive location for ecotourism. The quantification and monitoring of the ‘physical’ value of the services generated as a result of several interventions, which is assumed to increase over time, will be carried out within the framework of the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certification programme, which has been achieved in 2023. The FSC® membership® will enable MULTIRES to define, quantify and track its own ecosystem services, making it a full part of the world of natural capital adoption: through the Wownature platform operated by ETIFOR, MULTIRES’ Bosco Cinque Querce project is seeking sponsorship. Anyone can support the project. But the main contribution is expected from public or private organisations willing to invest in concrete renaturation, restoration, and biodiversity protection projects. By investing in MULTIRES, those actors will be able to communicate and make clear to the general public their sensitivity to the challenge of nature and resource conservation, or even initiate procedures to mitigate the impact on the environment associated with their own production processes or services provision.
The acquisition of those resources represents an important first step for the company’s project to valorise and sustainably manage its natural capital, initiating the virtuous circuit of self-production-consumption and exchange of surplus products that is the driving force behind the entire MULTIRES initiative.
MULTIRES focuses on a wide audience of stakeholders
On one hand, provisioning services already largely represent market products with a recognised economic value, which can be conventionally marketed as products of an organic farming. On the other hand, the market for cultural services and the market for regulation and maintenance services are subject to different, much less binding rules, which are undoubtedly open to opportunities and benefits not only of an economic nature. To facilitate the provision of those services, MULTIRES is planning genuine environmental improvements (some of which are already underway), such as the reopening of several kilometres of forest paths, the planting of a ‘food forest’ on abandoned land, and the reorganisation of water run-off in some inaccessible areas of the forest. It has been observed that in those areas, which are particularly prone to dryness and soil erosion, plants grow more slowly and consequently absorb less carbon. Through the restoration and constant monitoring of the area, envisaged within the FSC® management plan, it will be possible to develop in the coming years a real business linked to sustainable agro-forestry operations.
