Forest of all values? – Methods for inventory and valuation of the forest’s various benefits

The forest is expected to deliver in a wide range of ways, from being a renewable resource and creating biodiversity to capturing carbon and promoting mental health. There is a perception that these benefits are incompatible to a large degree, and that we need to unilaterally choose benefits. This project aims to add nuance this perception.

The project aims to map and describe existing methods and develop adapted methods that can describe, quantify and value the forest’s many values. The project is a collaboration with researchers and forestry practitioners from different backgrounds and organizations.

Central to the project are openly available data as well as data from high-resolution inventories at the property and landscape level of economic, ecological, social and climate-related values. The developed methods are validated with support in field data.

By quantifying different values, forest owners are given a basis for decision-making to evaluate these and weigh any goal conflicts.