Guidance on the Development of Public and Private Payment Schemes for Forest Ecosystem Services

Payment schemes for forest ecosystem services are a tool to provide financial incentives to forest owners and managers to provide forest ecosystem services other than the provision of wood (through forest protection, restoration and sustainable forest management) and to increase the resilience of their forests (through the adoption of more climate and biodiversity friendly forest management practices, such as increasing the diversity of tree species, structural diversity, un-even aged silviculture).

In the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030, the Commission made a commitment to provide advice and technical guidance on the development of payment schemes for forest ecosystem services in order to support Member States. This guidance is now fulfilling that commitment. It builds on the virtual workshop on public and private payments for forest ecosystem services 13 (organised by the Commission on 31 March 2022; see report of the workshop in Annex I) and publicly available information. The workshop was attended by over 150 participants from the Commission, Member States, potential beneficiaries (forest owners and managers), forestry and ecology research and policy institutes and non-governmental organisations active in the field of forest and forestry. They discussed the design and implementation of public and private payment schemes, focusing on key challenges and possible solutions. The guidance in this document is intended to be voluntary and not prescriptive. It aims to be a useful source of information and advice - in a user-friendly document - to help public and private entities and forest owners and managers develop and implement payment schemes for forest ecosystem services. It complements any national guidelines that may exist.