Navigating nature’s benefits to people: an examination of asymmetrical stakeholder preferences for local forest ecosystem services in South Korea

Abstract

Abstract Recent social and environmental changes complicate the management of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by local forests. Local ES management requires an understanding of the supply–demand dynamics of ES preferences among stakeholders. To examine the supply and demand characteristics of local forest ES in South Korea, we compared the preferences for ES between the ES suppliers and ES users of two local forests (Gariwangsan and Yeoninsan) that differ in jurisdiction, size, ecological properties and management challenges. We surveyed the forest administrators (n = 20) as ES suppliers and local community residents (n = 47) as well as the general public (n = 1000) as ES users. We applied a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to examine the priority rankings of 10 types of forest ES in order of importance in management perceived by forest administrators and local residents. The general public’s preferences were measured using the weighted sums of each type of ES ranked based on its perceived importance. We also interviewed the forest administrators and local residents to further explore how the local context of the examined forests might have affected their ES evaluation. The results show that forest administrators and the general public prioritize regulating services while the local community opts for cultural services. Moreover, local residents in close proximity to the forests prefer provisioning services while those farther away prefer regulating services. Considering these differences in stakeholder preferences for local forest ES, local forest management policies can benefit from inclusive decision-making processes to navigate the supply–demand asymmetry.