Diverse ecosystem services as a source of income in forestry – a comparison of selected European state forest enterprises

Current environmental and climate policies and societal expectations, which may lead to restrictions on timber harvesting in forests, may affect the sustainable forest management model, which is primarily based on revenue from timber sales. This problem could also affect the State Forest Holding (PGLLP) in Poland, which derives almost 90% of its income from timber sales. The paper discusses the possibilities of diversifying income sources in selected European state forest enterprises (Poland vs Bavaria and Lower Saxony in Germany and Austria) based on the concept of ecosystem services and their sale. The analysis is based on financial data from the annual reports of the analysed enterprises. The solutions applied in some countries show that revenues from the sale of ecosystem services other than timber can constitute an important part of the income of forest enterprises, and their experience could be utilised for the development of future strategies in State Forests.