Forest services should be given greater consideration in political, economic and social decisions

The economy is supposed to become more sustainable and more resource-efficient. This will also increase the demands on forests - for example as a carbon storage or energy wood supplier. For this reason, four researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL have examined the possible future for forestry in the National Research Programme "Sustainable Economy" (NRP 73), which was concluded today.

As part of the research programme "Sustainable Economy" (NRP 73), four WSL researchers have investigated possible solutions for forest management. WSL environmental economist Roland Olschewski wanted to find out whether beneficiaries of improved protective services provided by the forest would be willing to pay something for them. A survey of the population in mountain areas revealed in some cases a high willingness to pay for additional forest management that increases natural hazard protection - beyond what is required by law. This shows that such "insurance products" could certainly create new sources of income for forest owners. The key challenge here is to bring together a sufficiently large group of agents to participate in the permanent provision and financing of such additional protection services.

Tamaki Ohmura and Tobias Schulz of the Environmental and Resource Economics Research Group explored which compensation services forest owners would provide in return for payment, such as nature conservation measures in the forest, that are implemented instead of reforestation after forest clearance. This is particularly attractive for owners of large forests (for example communes); private owners of small parcels tended to reject this type of compensation. Forest management for carbon storage also tends to be met with scepticism, compared to climate protection measures that can substitute fossil materials (construction timber, energy wood). The two WSL researchers conclude from this that forest owners are only prepared to a limited extent to meet compensation claims from other sectors, especially not at the expense of wood production.

Esther Thürig, head of the WSL Resource Analysis Group, worked on a practical solution for forest managers: she developed a prototype of a decision support tool that simulates the need for forest services and corresponding conflicts for different management practices. This makes it possible to demonstrate impacts on forest services even before harvesting and to facilitate the prioritisation of different services. Among other things, the model shows that in most cases there tend to be fewer forest services without management than with it.