Economic and Social Perspective of Climate-Smart Forestry: Incentives for Behavioral Change to Climate-Smart Practices in the Long Term

Abstract

AbstractIn this volume, the concept of climate-smart forestry (CSF) has been introduced as adaptive forest management and governance to address climate change, fostering resilience and sustainable ecosystem service provision. Adaptive forest management and governance are seen as vital ways to mitigate the present and future impact of climate change on forest. Following this trajectory, we determine the ecosystem services approach as a potential adaptive tool to contribute to CSF. Ecosystem services as public or common goods face the traditional social dilemma of individual versus collective interests, which often generate conflicts, overuse, and resource depletion. This chapter focuses on the ecosystem servicegovernance approach, especially on incentive tools for behavioral change to CSF in the long term, which is a basic precondition for the sustainability of ecosystem integrity and functions, as well as ensuring the continuous delivery of ecosystem goods and services, as per the CSF definition. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are seen as innovative economic instruments when adding a social dimension by involving local communities and their values to ensure the long-term resilience and adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change. We argue that tackling climate changeadaptation requires the behavioral change of ecosystem service providers to a collaborative and integrated PES approach, as also emphasized by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030.