Realizing Forest Ecosystem Service Value Through Natural Resource Asset Portfolio Supply: A Multi-Case Study from China

Addressing the issues of forest resource fragmentation and difficulties in value realization caused by traditional development models, China has explored the Natural Resource Asset Portfolio Supply Model (PSM), offering a new pathway for realizing Forest Ecosystem Service Value (FESV). However, existing studies are mostly descriptive case summaries and have yet to reveal the process mechanisms through which PSM drives forest value enhancement. Accordingly, this study selects five typical cases released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and employs multi-case research and grounded theory to deeply analyze their evolutionary pathways. The findings show that PSM promotes forest value enhancement through a gradient evolutionary pathway of “asset aggregation, functional coupling, and property rights conversion”. Asset aggregation addresses fragmentation through resource integration; functional coupling generates synergies through element combination; and property rights conversion transforms ecosystem services into transferable value carriers through institutional innovation, completing the transition from physical assets to capital. The study further identifies two roles of forest resources in composite asset packages, namely dominant resources and background resources, along with their distinct value enhancement pathways, and reveals how institutional innovation in property rights releases ecosystem services from physical constraints into transferable value carriers. The gradient evolutionary pathway constructed in this paper provides a novel process explanation for theoretical research on ecosystem service value realization, and its cross-context applicability offers a theoretical reference for natural resource management in similar global contexts. Practically, it provides managers with actionable value enhancement pathway choices and institutional design references, while also offering a viable analytical tool for policy optimization of PSM.