Non-market forest ecosystem services and decision support in Nordic countries

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Anna Filyushkina
  • Strange, Niels
  • Magnus Löf
  • Eugene E. Ezebilo
  • Mattias Boman

The need to integrate non-market ecosystem services into decision-making is widely acknowledged. Despite the exponentially growing body of literature, trade-offs between services are still poorly understood. We conducted a systematic review of published literature in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) on the integration of non-market forest ecosystem services into decision-making. The aim of the review was two-fold: (1) to provide an overview of coverage of biophysical and socio-economic assessments of non-market ecosystem services in relation to forest management; (2) to determine the extent of the integration of biophysical and socio-economic models of these services into decision support models. Our findings reveal the need for wider coverage of non-market ecosystem services and evidence-based modelling of how forest management regimes affect ecosystem services. Furthermore, temporal and spatial modelling of ecosystem impacts remains a challenge. We observed a few examples of multiple non-market services assessments. Integration of non-market services into decision support was performed with either biophysical or socio-economic models, often using proxies and composite indicators. The review reveals that there is scope for more comprehensive and integrated model development, including multiple ecosystem services and appropriate handling of forest management impacts.

Original languageEnglish
JournalScandinavian Journal of Forest Research
Volume31
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)99-110
Number of pages12
ISSN0282-7581
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Research areas

  • decision support, Ecosystem services, forest management, review, trade-offs, valuation

ID: 160101155