Payments for Ecosystem Services (Forests for Water)

The objective of the PESFOR-W COST Action is to synthesize knowledge, provide guidance, and foster collaboration to improve the ability to use Payments for Ecosystem Services in Europe so as to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive by incentivizing forest planting to reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants from agriculture to water.
Project outcomes are the following:

• The establishing and publishing of a spatial repository of forest areas that serve as “water payments for ecosystem services schemes” (https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/research/pesforw/casestudies/).

• The creation and publication of the PESFOR-W Handbook in several European languages (https://www.forestresearch. gov.uk/research/pesforw/user-manual/), leading the UK government to support the development of the Woodland Water Code as part of the England Tree Planting Action Plan 2021-2024, based on the participation of Action members from 40 countries.