Using the Ecosystem Services assessment tool TESSA to balance the multiple landscape demands of increasing woodlands in a UK national park

• Published in: Ecosystem services 2024-08, Vol.68, p.101644, Article 101644
• Main Authors: Iversen, Sara V., MacDonald, Michael A., van der Velden, Naomi, van Soesbergen, Arnout, Convery, Ian, Mansfield, Lois, Holt, Claire D.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Afforestation; Ecosystem services; Landscape; Uplands; Woodland creation
• ISSN: 2212-0416; 2212-0416
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101644

•The uplands of the UK provide many ecosystem service benefits to society.•Site-specific ecosystem service assessment tool TESSA is beneficial for local stakeholder involvement and assessment.•Increasing woodlands in upland areas increase ecosystem service benefits to society.•Woodland creation scenario of 10% is the least divisive, but the scenario of 50% provides most ecosystem service benefits to society. To achive this, one cultural good, livestock production, would need to decrease•Local stakeholders have shown concerns for disadvantageous societal consequences of increasing woodlands. The findings of this study do not support this Upland regions in the UK are increasingly under consideration as potential areas for the creation of woodlands. This is driven by a combination of factors, including the aims of UK forestry policy to increase woodland cover, changes in current upland land-use and management, agri-environment schemes in national and international policy and an increasing public awareness of the ecosystem service benefits landscapes can deliver for society. Creating new woodlands in upland areas is challenging, partly due to concerns of potential impacts from a change in land use and stakeholder interests. This study considers a 250 km2 Cumbrian (England) upland landscape dominated by sheep grazing and, using an established ecosystem service assessment tool (TESSA), estimates the provision of ecosystem services under plausible alternative woodland creation scenarios. The assessment focuses on key ecosystem goods and services, which are identified by stakeholders to be of high importance to the study area, and the potential changes to those under the scenarios. The results indicate that, under lower woodland percentage scenarios (10 %), minor benefits are expected. However, a more complex outcome would be expected from the higher percentage woodland scenarios (75 %) with the woodland cover of 50 % identified as providing the highest overall benefit to society.