Trade-offs between forest ecosystem services

We are writing to comment on the article by Vihervaara et al. (2012) and the subsequent reply by Paruelo recently published on Forest Policy and Economics. Forests have long been recognized as the main ecological construction and restoration means for their multiple ecosystem services. But forests usually cannot simultaneously produce these multiple services due to the trade-offs among competing functions. These services have different spatial-temporal scale characteristics and corresponding different stakeholders. Rational management decisions depend on local conditions, needs, and underpinning ecosystem processes. The geographic differences could mask the true role of forests for the partitioning of rainfall into runoff and ET, producing different effects in arid and humid areas. Large-scale afforestation in the arid areas will undoubtedly result in water consumption, reducing the availability of runoff water. Therefore, this needs to be considered very cautiously. Pricing strategies are not sufficient for forest-water related issues, and inappropriate incentives will result in wasted water resources. It is necessary to integrate administration and human-values guidance for the sustainable management of forest ecosystem services. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.