The valuation of forest ecosystem services as a tool for management planning - A choice experiment.

Forest owners and managers deal with an increasing demand for forest ecosystem services (ES). In addition, a recent change can be observed from a governmental top-down approach to bottom-up initiatives, including efforts of the local population to have a say in forest management decisions. Matching supply and demand is seen as a basic condition for the sustainable utilization of forest ES. Against this background, we address the following research questions: (i) How can the preferences on the supply and demand side of forest ES be consistently determined? (ii) In how far do these preferences vary due to regional and societal differences? (iii) How can the supply and demand of forest ES be matched by forest management alternatives? We conducted a survey in Switzerland with foresters and the wider population to compare attitudes and preferences of the supply and demand side of forest ES. The core of the study is a choice experiment (CE) to elicit the population's willingness to pay (WTP) for specific forest management alternatives, and the respective willingness to accept (WTA) on the foresters' side. To address spatial and societal heterogeneity, we compare different geographic forest zones and settlement areas.

Invasive Alien Species in Switzerland: Awareness and Preferences of Experts and the Public.

Invasive alien species (IAS) can cause ecological and economic damages. To reduce or prevent these damages different management and prevention strategies aim to impede new establishments or a further spreading of IAS. However, for these measures to be successful, public knowledge of risks and threats of IAS as well as public support for eradication measures are important prerequisites. We conducted a survey to examine (i) public and experts' awareness and knowledge of IAS, (ii) their preferences for six invasive plant species and (iii) their preferences for and trade-offs among management alternatives in Switzerland. In addition, a choice experiment was applied to analyse preferences concerning the intensity, priority and costs of interventions. Both, the Swiss public and the experts have a preference for intervening against invasive alien species. However, the public and the experts differ in their priorities of combatting particular species, resulting in a different ranking of intervention necessities. Further, differences were found in the willingness to pay for interventions between the German-, French- and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. The results suggest that a higher problem awareness increases the willingness to pay for countermeasures. We conclude that education programs or information campaigns are promising instruments to raise public awareness and to avoid conflicts concerning the management of invasive alien species.

Stated preference data on the insurance value of forests in Switzerland.

We present stated preference data for improved forest management from seven Swiss municipalities in the Cantons of Grisons and Valais. The data was collected between October 2019 and February 2020 using an online questionnaire. We invited 10289 households to participate and received 939 responses. The online questionnaire consisted of two main parts - (1) an online choice experiment and (2) questions on the sociodemographic characteristics of the responding households. The choice experiment confronted households with twelve consecutive choice tasks. Each choice task consisted of three options with a varying degree of avalanche and rock fall risk reduction due to improved forest management. The options further differed with respect to the way the charges for the improved forest management are determined and assigned to the households. We additionally included a cost attribute to estimate the respondents' willingness to pay. At the end of the choice experiment we asked five de-briefing questions and eight attitudinal questions. Additionally, we asked the responding households to state their willingness to take risks. The sociodemographic characteristics collected in the second part of the questionnaire allowed us to analyse their impact on the choices we observed in the first part of the questionnaire. An analysis of the choice data and further interpretive insights are presented in the article "Determining the insurance value of ecosystems: A discrete choice study on natural hazard protection by forests".

The ecological and economic potential of carbon sequestration in forests: examples from South America.

Costs of reforestation projects determine their competitiveness with alternative measures to mitigate rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. We quantify carbon sequestration in above-ground biomass and soils of plantation forests and secondary forests in two countries in South America-Ecuador and Argentina-and calculate costs of temporary carbon sequestration. Costs per temporary certified emission reduction unit vary between 0.1 and 2.7 USD Mg(-1) CO2 and mainly depend on opportunity costs, site suitability, discount rates, and certification costs. In Ecuador, secondary forests are a feasible and cost-efficient alternative, whereas in Argentina reforestation on highly suitable land is relatively cheap. Our results can be used to design cost-effective sink projects and to negotiate fair carbon prices for landowners.