Conference Agenda

In response to the decline in forest ecosystem services (FES) resulting from a lack of knowledge about their economic value, a growing number of market-based instruments, such as payments for environmental services (PES), are being developed to enhance the provision of non-marketed FES. Despite these developments, few studies have explicitly examined how potential buyers prioritise different FES.

In this paper, we use a choice experiment conducted in the Grand Est region of France, where a PES market platform is being actively developed, to assess the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of the general population for biodiversity and selected FES, namely timber provision, climate regulation through carbon sequestration, access to private forests for recreation, and water quality regulation.

Our mixed multinomial logit results suggest that WTP is highest for a large increase in biodiversity, followed by improved water quality, a moderate increase in biodiversity, stabilizing or largely increasing carbon storage, stabilizing biodiversity, and recreational access to private forests. In contrast, we find negative WTP for both a decrease in water quality and an increase in timber production, highlighting potential sources of opposition to certain forest management strategies. Preference heterogeneity is substantial for most attributes.

Furthermore, we show that this heterogeneity is strongly related to individuals’ environmental worldviews and their attitudes toward PES, with more ecocentric and pro-PES respondents exhibiting stronger and more differentiated preferences for forest ecosystem services, while preferences are weaker and less structured among other groups.

These findings provide direct insights for the design and targeting of PES schemes and market platforms, as well as for the prioritisation of forest ecosystem services in public decision-making.