Estimation of the value of forest ecosystem services to develop conservational strategy management (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)

Abstract

Forests ecosystems provide several undisputable benefits which policy-makers blink since these values do not record in conventional markets or are difficult to measure. This paper indicates that the annual value of the ecosystem services such as water conservation, soil protection, carbon fixation, nutrient cycling, water purification, air pollution absorption and recreation provided by forests is not only worth millions of dollars, but also in per hectare terms much more than hitherto known. After estimating the value of ecosystem services, results are available to policy-makers and experts at a brainstorming and by using SWOT, conservational strategies for long-term management based on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats were developed. Ecosystem services value for the Mazandaran Forest Reserve ranged from 14.2 to 14.8 million USD or about 6,676.9–6,785.6 USD·ha<sup>–1</sup>. Given these results, raising the society awareness of the negative impact of forest land use changes based on the functional value were proposed as conservational strategies to prevent the forest land use change. If these are accounted for, then governments and societies faced with the development versus conservation dilemma can create more understanding decisions and policies that will assist to conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, and thereby promulgate human well-being and sustainable development.