Forest use suitability: Towards decision-making-oriented sustainable management of forest ecosystem services

Management of forest lands considering multi-functional approaches is the basis to sustain or enhance the provision of specific benefits, while minimizing negative impacts to the environment. Defining a desired management itinerary to a forest depends on a variety of factors, including the forest type, its ecological characteristics, and the social and economic needs of local communities. A strategic assessment of the forest use suitability (FUS) (namely productive, protective, conservation-oriented, social and multi-functional) at regional level, based on the provision of forest ecosystem services and trade-offs between FUS alternatives, can be used to develop management strategies that are tailored to the specific needs and conditions of the forest. The present study assesses the provision of multiple forest ecosystem services and employs a decision model to identify the FUS that supports the most present and productive ecosystem services in each stand in Catalonia. For this purpose, we apply the latest version of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system, a spatially oriented decision support system that provides accurate results for multi-criteria management. We evaluate 32 metrics and 12 associated ecosystem services indicators to represent the spatial reality of the region. According to the results, the dominant primary use suitability is social, followed by protective and productive. Nevertheless, final assignment of uses is not straightforward and requires an exhaustive analysis of trade-offs between all alternative options, in many cases identifying flexible outcomes, and increasing the representativeness of multi-functional use. The assignment of forest use suitability aims to significantly improve the definition of the most adequate management strategy to be applied.