Ecosystem services: For society, forests are more than just raw material providers

The concept of ecosystem services³⁶ is used to describe the links between the natural environment, e.g., forests, economic activities, and society. Multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Natural Capital Coalition or industries such as the Kering Group in their Environmental Profit and Loss Accounting, and governments³⁷ promote the concept as a holistic view of these interdependencies.

Forests provide much more than just raw material for production. Apart from their beauty and recreational value, they fulfill a multitude of environmental functions and are essential for climate regulation. People benefit from ecosystem goods and services. Not all ecosystems’ benefits to people can be measured in monetary terms. It is therefore important to include other values as well, such as health, social or conservation values. For this and other reasons, a new term has recently been introduced to expand the concept of “ecosystem services” with “nature’s contribution to people”³⁸. As both terms are still used in this debate, and “ecosystem services” is better known to many stakeholders, and continues to be used in this publication.

The sustainable management of forests ensures that the different ecosystem services provided are maintained and protected together with the supply of material to allow the wood-based industry to cater to societal needs. Figure “Functions of forest ecosystems” provides an overview of the functions of forest ecosystems associated with the provisioning of wood.

Functions of forest ecosystems^a,b