To promote the growth of nature based tourism in privately owned forest areas, new policy instruments, e.g. Payments for Ecosystem Services, are needed. They could engage private forest owners and nature-based tourism companies to cooperate and support the growth of the sector.

This article studied the entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards the importance of environmental amenities and assessments of possible improvements in forest landscapes for their business in the framework of proposed Payments for Ecosystem Services mechanism, called Landscape and Recreation Value Trade. The analyses compared the assessments of two groups of companies: core nature-based tourism companies that produce most services for tourists, and general service companies that produce services for both tourists and local people.

For the policy makers of regions where nature tourism has potential, the following suggestions are given: As attractive landscape is identified as being an important factor for the nature-based tourism business, new types of mechanisms are needed to secure a good quality of this basic resource and the positive development of this sector. As the level of interest in participating in funding and agreements related to Payments for Ecosystem Services can be rather low among entrepreneurs, an incentive mechanism for companies should also be launched. In addition, a collaborative deliberation and communication process is needed for implementing the mechanism.

Mäntymaa, E., Tyrväinen, L., Juutinen, A. and Kurttila, M., 2021. Importance of forest landscape quality for companies operating in nature tourism areas. Land Use Policy, 107, p.104095.