Forests provide a multitude of ecosystem services to society. However, not all such services are being reflected in market prices and that leads to underestimation of their economic values and suboptimal management schemes. Therefore, non-market valuation is required to provide complementary information for better forest management that underpins the concept of total economic values. In this thesis, the non-market ecosystem services of forests are evaluated with a focus on showing the impact of forest management. The thesis consists of four papers that address three main research questions: 1) Which forest structural characteristics and features affect recreational preferences? 2) Does childhood forest experience determine forest visiting habit in adulthood? And 3) How does environmental attitude influence individuals’ willingness to pay for forest management initiatives designed to enhance ecosystem service provision?
The first paper is undertaken using choice experiment (CE) data about people's preferences for forest characteristics in their future recreational visits. The variation between stands increases the recreational value of forests; and in some instances, may outweigh the contribution of variation within a stand. In the second paper, we investigate the factors that influence the choice of forest site for recreation using the survey data in which respondents were asked to indicate last visited forest sites using map tools. Relevant attributes are identified by using spatial data analysis. The factors that significantly influence choice of forest site include: forest area, tree species composition, forest density, availability of historical sites, terrain difference, state ownership, and distance. The third paper investigates the impact of past experience, in this case childhood forest experience, on forest visit frequency in adulthood based on survey data collected from nine European countries. Childhood experience is found to positively influence forest recreation practices. The frequency of visit is also significantly determined by current residential location and distance (to nearest forest). In the fourth paper, we examine the role of environmental attitude on people’s WTP for forest ecosystem services. The variation in willingness to pay for ecosystem services is illustrated using different modelling approaches and people with an ecocentric attitude are found to have higher willingness to pay compared to those with anthropocentric