Assessing the priorities of stakeholders regarding forest ecosystem services in Japan

The urgency to conserve and restore forests for their multifaceted benefits is escalating. We spotlight Japan's new Forest Environment Tax, a novel fiscal measure crafted to finance public-beneficial ecosystem services through enhanced forest management. To convey the expert perceptions of the policy, we present the results of a survey targeting individuals immersed in Japan's forest policies, which aimed to assess attitudes toward the various benefits that forests provide. We classified forest functions into five core areas: wood production, soil and water conservation, mitigation of anthropogenic global warming, wildlife conservation and cultural utilities. We found that stakeholders closely involved in forest policies in Japan prioritize soil and water conservation as the paramount function over the mitigation of anthropogenic global warming. The results of the survey underscore the necessity of evaluating forest management practices and the importance of recognizing the multiple values that can be derived from forests. While there has been much attention to the carbon benefits of forests in the region and beyond, we emphasize the need to avoid an excessive focus on this single ecosystem service and to ensure that the other important multifunctional values of forests are not overlooked. Policy implications: We call for a more holistic approach that recognises the interdependence of the different functions of forests and the importance of valuing forests as natural capital in all their dimensions.