A systematic review of markets for forest ecosystem services at an international level

Abstract

Markets for ecosystem services (MES) can play a key role in the protection of natural capital and the remuneration of sustainable management practices. This study aims to present the state of the art on forestry MES at the international level through a systematic review. The main objectives are (i) to analyse the distribution of actual or potential markets for forest ecosystem services (FES) that exist internationally today, (ii) to identify the spatial scale at which market-based instruments (MBIs) are applied and the respective measures of economic value used to assess FES, and (iii) to identify the actors and their involvement in the implementation of forestry MES. The study collected 304 peer-reviewed publications using the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol was used to guide the systematic process and select the 52 articles analysed in the review. The results show that Europe is the most representative continent in terms of geographical areas involved ( n = 8) by forestry MES, followed by America ( n = 6), Asia ( n = 5), and Africa ( n = 1). The main scale of application of MBIs for forestry MES is local, i.e., at the level of forest stand, municipality, or province ( n = 31), followed by subnational ( n = 10), national ( n = 9), and international ( n = 2). The main pattern of social composition in forestry MES is buyers, sellers, and intermediaries ( n = 25), followed by buyers and sellers only ( n = 12), buyers, sellers, intermediaries, and knowledge providers ( n = 5), and buyers, sellers, and knowledge providers ( n = 3). In terms of the measure of economic value, most studies use willingness to accept ( n = 30), as opposed to willingness to pay ( n = 17), and only 5 studies used both. Future research on forestry MES should be directed towards a better understanding of the process leading to their creation, implementation, effectiveness, governance, and level of satisfaction in economic terms of the actors involved.