Analysis on Potential Benefits of Ecosystem Services for Individuals and Society

Case in a Semi-Mountain Forest, Japan

Abstract

Forests provide various ecosystem services (ESs). This study focuses on analyzing spatial distributions of forest ES and its importance map as proxies for potential ES benefit distributions. Fourteen ESs were studied for a semi-mountain area of Toyota City, Japan, as a case study. The ES importance maps were generated using a questionnaire survey. The ES importance maps differed among the ESs. In addition, the ES importance maps for society is different from that for individuals. This approach gives a rational reason for the development of a payment for ecosystem service (PES) policy that reflects the spatial structure of potential ES benefit distributions.