Valuing verified ecosystem services in FSC-ES forest certification: evidence from a DCE and BWS study of consumer preferences in Japan

In 2018, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) introduced its Ecosystem Services extension (FSC-ES) to create market incentives for verified carbon storage and biodiversity benefits. This study employs a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine how the FSC-ES extension influences Japanese consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for Indonesian-sourced wooden desks and uses best–worst scaling (BWS) to rank both certification attributes and purchase criteria. We found that the FSC-ES attribute provides an additional 4.9%–21.3% premium over non-certified wooden desks, and that gender, age, income, and involvement in the wood industry drive heterogeneity in WTP. The BWS confirms that the combined FSC-ES label is the most valued sustainability attribute, but shows that comfort, price, and design overwhelmingly drive purchase decisions. However, a niche consumer segment remains willing to pay extra for FSC-ES certification, provided its design and comfort attributes remain competitive. These findings provide insights for strengthening forest certification schemes and market strategies that promote sustainable forest management and verified ecosystem services.