Completed thematic synthesis: Mainstreaming forest ecosystem services

Society’s demand for services provided by nature, such as forests is growing, and the transition to a sustainable economy is likely to further increase this demand. Forests provide a wide range of services for society, acting as areas for recreation, or carbon sinks, a source of timber and a source of protection against natural hazards. Such services are known as forest ecosystem services (FES). However, since forests cannot provide all services simultaneously, everywhere, and indefinitely, trade-offs have to be made.

The “Mainstreaming Forest Ecosystem Services” (MAFES, an amalgamation of three NRP 73 projects on the subject of forest) project team has concluded that such trade-offs can only be satisfactorily resolved if FES, their reciprocal effects and their effects on forest ecology are considered in full. This requires FES to be mainstreamed, which consists of three steps: Raising awareness, defining goals and further developing instruments. At the level of forest managers, decision-making tools for prioritising FES should therefore be further developed.

 

More information:

More information on the thematic synthesis

 

Policy Brief:

Thematic synthesis: Mainstreaming Forest Ecosystem Services

 

Contact:

Dr. Tobias Schulz
Environmental and Resource Economics, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
+41 44 739 24 77
tobias.schulz@wsl.ch