Forests provide various benefits such as regulation of global climate and ecosystems, provision of raw materials and wild foods for local communities, watershed protection for a region, and carbon sequestration. This implies that forests conservation is important. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between ecological, economic, and socio-cultural aspects.
The United Nation (UN)’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) list two aims for sustainable agriculture to eradicate hunger around the world. Together with SDGs number 15, the goal implies the aim to achieve healthy ecosystems. This provides vital services, from soil and water quality to genetic diversity and pollination. Agriculture is a key driver in the impact on ecosystems. If agriculture is not sustainable, it can result in deforestation and land degradation, causing a long-term threat to food security. This asks for a careful balance between producing food for all and conserving and restoring ecosystems.
Its balance is counted in international accounts of the UN Environment’s Inclusive Wealth Report such as UNESCO/UNU-IHDP and UNEP (2014) and Managi and Kumar (2018). Increase in forest or agricultural products or ecosystem service as a non-market value is counted as positive to sustainable development. Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) termed in The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) calls for recognizing the value of culture and diverse sources of knowledge, which can improve assessments.
This is essentially the same as the conventional norm of ecosystem service (see IPBES, 2018). This is part of natural capital in the inclusive wealth report.
