Roadmap to develop a stress test for forest ecosystem services supply

Forests play a key role in a bio-based economy by providing renewable materials, mitigating climate change, and accommodating biodiversity. However, forests experience massive increases in stresses in their ecological and socioeconomic environments, threatening forest ecosystem services supply. Alleviating those stresses is hampered by conflicting and disconnected governance arrangements, competing interests and claims, and rapid changes in technology and social demands. Identifying which stresses threaten forest ecosystem services supply and which factors hamper their alleviation requires stakeholders' perceptions. Stakeholder-oriented stress tests for the supply of forest ecosystem services are therefore necessary but are not yet available. This perspective presents a roadmap to develop a stress test tailored to multiple stakeholders' needs and demands across spatial scales. We provide the Cascade and Resilience Rosetta, with accompanying performance- and resilience indicators, as tools to facilitate development of the stress test. The application of the stress test will facilitate the transition toward a bio-based economy in which healthy and diverse forests provide sustainable and resilient ecosystem services.

Automated summary

This article presents a roadmap for developing a stress test for forest ecosystem services tailored to the needs and demands of multiple stakeholders. The authors provide the Cascade and Resilience Rosetta, along with performance and resilience indicators, as tools to facilitate the development of this stress test. The application of this test will aid in the transition towards a bio-based economy where healthy and diverse forests provide sustainable and resilient ecosystem services.