Over the last decades the concept of Ecosystem Services has become more and more important as they contribute to human wellbeing thanks to the interactions among biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystems. For this reason, there is growing interest in identifying quantitative indicators and evaluation methods to inform decision-makers and stressing the importance of ESs for long-term sustainability. Agriculture is a major driver of land use change and of degradation of Ecosystem Services. Organic farming relies on natural capital and on Ecosystem Services to achieve sustainable production. The present research identified, quantified and evaluated eleven ESs - among provisioning, regulating and cultural one - delivered by six farms located in Puglia region (Southern Italy) under different management systems, i.e. organic and conventional.
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By considering only the structure of the farms, their size and the applied specific agricultural practices did not affect our results. Results showed that the value of ESs from organic farms is equal to 6,078.35 euro/ha while the value of ESs from conventional farms is equal to 13,759.19 euro/ha although organic farms performed better in some regulating services such as Pollination, Air Quality regulation and Water purification.
