Public goods in Bulgaria provided by agriculture and forestry importance and tendency

Dimitre Nikolov, Ivan Boevsky, Petar Borisov, Teodor Radev

Abstract: The main result of agriculture is the production of raw materials for the processing industry and food but it also forms public goods as a secondary effect. The most important public goods which are linked to agriculture are: agricultural landscapes, biodiversity, water availability and water quality, functionality of soil, climate change, air quality, resilience to flooding, fires and erosion vitality of territory, security food. The aim of the study is to identify the main public goods in the region and trends in their developments. The most important public goods/bads in the region are Climate change mitigation, Water Quality, Air Quality, Rural vitality. The public goods Landscape, Food Security, Pollination are increasing in the region. Air Quality, Water Quality, Water availability are stable. But most of the identified public goods Climate change mitigation, Soil Conservation and soil functionality, Rural vitality, Biodiversity, Resilience to Flooding, Resilience to Fire are under decline. Another main point from discussion on public goods is that the concept of public goods is not popular and almost all stakeholders are unaware of it.

Keywords: agriculture; air quality; climate change mitigation; public goods; rural vitality; water quality

Date published: 2017-09-13