SP5: Supply and demand of ecosystem services in mountain forests

Mountain forests primarily provide protection against natural hazards, but also habitat for rare animal and plant species and offer opportunities for recreation; the renewable resource of wood is often of secondary importance in mountainous regions. Protection against natural hazards constitutes, in a sense, the “key ecosystem service” in mountain forests. The capacity of such protective services, and thus their availability, can be measured using indicators developed by modern, Often, remote sensing-based information acquisition methods can be used to quantify the demand for protective or insurance services provided by forests (see SP4). In contrast, little is known about the public’s demand for protective or insurance services provided by forests; therefore, this demand will be determined using socioeconomic methods. For this purpose, a so-called choice experiment will be designed and conducted. In this experiment, specific forest attributes will be evaluated with regard to their protective function. The results can then be incorporated into spatial analyses (e.g., also in collaboration with SP3 and SP4). Once it is known where and how there is a particular demand for specific protective services, comparisons can be made with the current supply of protective services, and management measures can be designed to improve the spatial availability of these services. Furthermore, conflicts of interest with the protection of habitats for rare animal and plant species can be identified. For example, dense and shady permanent stands of trees, which are often associated with a high level of protection, displace open and species-rich vegetation, such as heath-pine forests. Based on the planned studies, landscape optimizations will then be carried out to improve the interplay of supply and demand for protective services, but also to help reduce conflicts of objectives with other ecosystem services.