Forest ecosystem services: a systematic analysis of the concept, contemporary criticism and assessment approaches

Forest ecosystems are a critically important component of global natural capital, providing a wide range of vital regulatory, provisioning, and cultural benefits. However, the dominance of a narrowly economic approach focused on raw material rent leads to a systematic underestimation of the true worth of forests and their degradation. The concept of ecosystem services has become a key tool for addressing this issue, but its widespread application in scientific and political practice has revealed a number of methodological contradictions and ethical challenges that require integrated analysis. The aim of the research is to systematically analyze the concept of forest ecosystem services, including its theoretical foundations, existing classifications, modern critiques, and the methodological apparatus for economic evaluation, with a focus on the specifics of Russian scientific discourse and management practice. The interdisciplinary approach is applied in the research, which synthesized methods of systematic review and content analysis of scientific literature, regulatory legal acts, and reporting data. Comparative analysis methods were used to compare classification systems (MEA, CICES, NCP) and economic evaluation methodologies (market price methods, cost methods, methods of identified and expressed preferences). The analysis of Russian specifics is based on data from meta-reviews of contemporary publications. Key theoretical and practical limitations of the ecosystem services concept have been identified: anthropocentric reduction of nature's value; terminological confusion and conceptual gap between paradigms in Russian science; significant variability in economic valuation results; and weak operationalization of research results into management decisions. The main factors influencing the variability of assessments in the Russian Federation (method selection, socio-economic context, forest characteristics) have been identified. The arsenal of economic valuation methods, their advantages and limitations, has been systematized. Development prospects are linked to overcoming narrow utilitarianism through the integration of value pluralism (the NCP approach), shifting focus to managing ecosystem functions, and developing specific institutional mechanisms. These include voluntary forest certification (FSC), which confirms the positive impact on ecosystem services, and new natural capital accounting tools (the "Nature Units" concept), capable of translating environmental value into the language of economic and management decisions for transitioning to a sustainable forest management model.