Economic valuation of water-related forest ecosystem services

Assessment of water-related ecosystem services is an important step in enabling sustainable management of forests. A service is assessed for different purposes, and can variously be used to: (a) conduct a scoping or a situation analysis; (b) enhance environmental awareness or advocate for or against a policy option; (c) compare alternative policies, programmes and projects; (d) identify livelihoods, development and investment opportunities; (e) design environmental policy instruments and incentives; and (f ) tackle environmental confli ts (Berghöfer et al., 2016). It could also be used for assessing the impacts of policy changes.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Clean Water and Sanitation

Climate Action

Life on Land