Victor Fidelis Sentosa / WWF Indonesia
Protecting Ecosystem Services Makes Business Sense
Biodiversity | Carbon | Water | Soil | Recreation | Culture | Air Quality
The forests have superpowers – the ecosystem services – which benefit businesses and communities everyday !
FSC offers a scalable solution to quantify 7 ecosystem services proving the positive impact of responsible forest management, including -
- enabling data-driven stories
- attracting financial and non-financial benefits
- aligning with international sustainability frameworks
The Market Solution
Capture high-quality nature data from FSC-certified forests and clearly demonstrate your positive impact by -
- Strengthening the integrity of your forest operations
- Accessing sustainability-focused markets
- Aligning and reporting with international sustainability frameworks and standards
- Gaining local community and government trust, contributing to the region’s forests.
Curious? Explore the ES showroom.
Is This Right For You ?
If you’re a forest manager – then YES ! | If you want to collaborate with forest managers – then YES ! |
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Develop the ES Report
step
01
Select the ecosystem service(s)
Select the ecosystem service you want to demonstrate a positive impact for - the Ecosystem Service Procedure can be applied with one or all of the 7 categories.
- Biodiversity
- Carbon
- Water
- Soil
- Recreational services
- Culture
- Air quality
step
02
Describe the selected ecosystem service(s)
Give a description of your project including current and past condition of the selected ecosystem service, its direct beneficiaries, engagement with local stakeholders.
step
03
Develop a theory of change & a risk management plan
For Theory of Change:
- Choose the specific impact from Annex B of the Ecosystem Services Procedure and connect it to your management activity to explain how your activities are expected to achieve the impact.
For Risk Management Plan:
- Describe a plan which shows the identified threats and their proposed mitigation measures, covering at least 5 years.
step
04
Select outcome indicators
Outcome indicators are the data metrics which you need to measure to demonstrate your selected impact. See suggestions in Annex B of the Ecosystem Services Procedure.
Tip: Think about which outcomes do you need to measure to indicate maintenance, conservation, restoration or enhancement of the ecosystem services? E.g. natural forest cover, forest carbon stocks, water quality, soil erosion, etc.
step
05
Choose methodologies
Select a methodology. See suggestions in FSC-GUI-30-006, including the FSC Forest Carbon Monitoring Tool (more information below).
step
06
Measure the indicators
Measure and determine what comparison you need to use for your measurement. Compare with previous values, reference site or credible description of natural condition.
step
07
State the results
Draw a conclusion based on your measurement and the comparison to see whether you successfully demonstrated a positive impact.
YES? Congratulations, once the certification body verifies your impact, you can use ecosystem services claims.
NO? Go back to Step 3 and reconsider your theory of change, you may need to change your management activities.
Submit & Publish on the ES Registry
After these 7 steps are completed, the information is written in the 'Ecosystem Services Report' and sent to an FSC accredited certification body (CB) for audit. This step is now digitised in the ES Registry - an online platform where forest managers, sponsors, and the certification bodies can interact together in the ES verification process.
Contact your CB for access to the ES Registry.
Promotion & Use
Evidence-based Claims
Make confident claims about your forest impacts, and obtain sponsorships. Browse the guidance on market use and communications (coming soon), and the Brand Hub to find guidelines and inspiration.
Reporting & Disclosures
Explore the ES-PRO benchmarking tool to align your ES Report with sustainability frameworks including TNFD, GRI, CDP, and SBTN. Measure the tons of carbon stored in their forest using FSC Forest Carbon Monitoring...
Optimise Value Chains
Optimise your supply chain for sustainability - by investing in forests in your sourcing regions. Find forest projects in the ES Registry (coming soon) or contact your local FSC office.
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Forestal Arauco S. A. offering recreational services in Chile
Between 2011 and 2018, the surface of the park designated for tourism grew three-fold (from 754 ha to 2,481 ha), and the number of visitors was boosted from around 12 to over 18 thousand. Meanwhile, tourist infractions, accidents and non-permitted activities in the area decreased through the promotion of public awareness activities, and tourism infrastructure was expanded. Sightings of certain key species have also increased, such as the Puma Concolor and the Great Andean Fox. Arauco is further tackling threats such as invasive species and fires.
Using the FSC Ecosystem Services Procedure, Arauco successfully demonstrated the positive impacts of their efforts on: maintenance/conservation of areas of importance for recreation and/or ecotourism (ES5.1) and maintenance/conservation of populations of species of interest for nature-based tourism (ES5.3).
Juan Andrés Anzieta, Head of Environmental Management and Community Engagement at Arauco, sums up the experience in one sentence: “Thanks to FSC’s Ecosystem Service Procedure we now have the tools to measure, verify and communicate about the positive impacts of our management practices to protect this unique forest and its biodiversity, while inviting visitors to enjoy its beauty.”
News
Apply for a working group to expand the cultural ecosystem services in the Ecosystem Services Procedure (June 25, 2025)
The revised Ecosystem Services Procedure V2-0 is published (Jan 2, 2025)
Conserving Ecuador’s Ecosystems: A look at sustainable forest management in plantation forests (May 29, 2024)
Training & Resources
For Forest Managers
For Sponsors
Explore how your journey will unfold - as a forest manager. Learn more about the details and methodologies for on-ground implementation of the ES Procedure:
FSC Online Training on FSC-PRO-30-006 V2 - for forest managers and project developers
FSC Online Training on FSC-PRO-30-006 V2 - for certification bodies
Guidance for Demonstrating Ecosystem Services Impacts (FSC-GUI-30-006a)
Explore how your journey will unfold - as a company or sponsor. Learn how Verified Impact projects are being used around the world -
to sponsor biodiversity in forests of France and Spain
to improve forest value chain by applying mitigation hierarchy
The ES Procedure [FSC-PRO-30-006]
ES Guidance [FSC-GUI-30-006a and FSC-GUI30-006b]
Version 2
The ES Registry, and its user manuals
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