Resource description:
Europe’s forests supply a wide range of forest ecosystem services (FES) with material benefits such as timber, and non-material benefits such as biodiversity conservation. This broad suite of FES underpins the multifunctional character of forests (Winkel et al., 2022) and highlights their importance within EU climate and
biodiversity strategies. Contributing not only through carbon sequestration and (long-term) storage but also by supplying renewable raw materials that can substitute more carbon-intensive products, forests have become a central component of the EU Circular Economy Act (European Commission, 2025a). At the same time,
forests deliver a wide range of FES, including recreation, habitat provisioning, water regulation, and cultural values, which are increasingly being recognised in policy frameworks such as the EU Biodiversity strategy (European Commission, 2025b) and the EU Forest Strategy for 2030 (European Commission, 2023). This
multifunctionality, however, also introduces complex trade-offs between production, conservation, and societal demand, which must be understood to design socially acceptable and effective forest-based policy solutions. In this context, the current deliverable presents the results of two discrete choice experiments (DCEs) used to empirically estimate preferences and demand for FES and long-lived wood products across Europe.
Author/Contact:
Kato Van Ruymbeke, Delia Moens de Hase, Liesbet Vranken, KU Leuven
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