Forest management transitions in Europe – Importance of local context for policy and payment for ecosystem services

This brief synthesizes important research by the Climb-Forest team at KU Leuven: Report on managers' and owners' willingness to adopt management scenarios and feasibility of a mechanism of payment for forest ecosystem services. It is a collaboration with Delia Moens de Hase, Dr. Kato Van Ruymbeke and Prof. Dr. Ir. Liesbet Vranken.

The research uses data from six European countries, and identifies economic, institutional, social and environmental barriers when transitioning towards less intensive forest management that  forest owners and managers face. This is compounded by limited cross-scale policy coordination and non-existing markets for non-timber FES. 

A key finding is that the feasibility of instruments such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes is heavily dependent on local conditions, suggesting that policy must be tailored to regional contexts rather than a one-size-fits-all, Europe-wide approach. 

Delia Moens de Hase, Kato Van Ruymbeke, Liesbet Vranken.