High monetary valuation of regulating forest ecosystem services in Japan: integrating the best-worst scaling and contingent valuation methods

Effective forest management requires an understanding of socially prioritized forest ecosystem services and their integration into forest management design. Approximately 70% of Japan, our study area, is covered by forests. Therefore, prioritization-based resource allocation play a fundamental role in forest management in Japan. However, there is a lack of clarity regarding which forest ecosystem services the public evaluate the most. Thus, this study evaluates the social priority of 13 forest ecosystem services based on public preferences by employing the best-worst scaling (BWS) technique. Our study also assesses the value of such services by integrating a contingent valuation method with BWS. The survey was conducted using an online questionnaire for Japanese citizens enrolled in a survey company as representatives of the Japanese public in January 2017; 720 responses were analyzed. The BWS results revealed that the freshwater stock was the most valued forest ecosystem service, followed by carbon storage. However, citizens considered cultural ecosystem services to be of lower importance. The mean willingness to pay (WTP) for freshwater stock was approximately USD 23.77, while the mean WTP for inspiration for culture and art was lower at USD 1.13. Our findings indicate that the values of cultural and provisioning services are lower than Japanese taxes for forest management and suggest that forest management should prioritize regulating ecosystem services.