There is growing interest in the economic benefits of healthy forest ecosystems, and the creation of mechanisms to offer additional opportunities for financing sustainable forest management (SFM).

However, unclear rights and obligations remain a major hurdle. For example, do landowners have a responsibility to protect forest environmental services or a right to be compensated for providing them? The net result is poor reflection of the economic values of the positive externality benefits of forests.

The objective of the session is to highlight the inconsistencies in the rights and obligations entailed in the production and maintenance of forest environmental services within and across countries and to promote a better understanding of how the related costs and benefits are currently shared in public policy.