Untapped Potential: Do Stakeholders Value Forests for Providing Clean Drinking Water?

Billions of people around the world rely on forests to filter and provide clean drinking water. The immense value of drinking water can be a strong rationale for conserving and sustainably managing forests, however, people are often unaware of this forest ecosystem service of providing clean drinking water which can lead to the service's degradation. Using a qualitative case-study approach we conducted semi-structured interviews in three watersheds in Michigan, USA to investigate the values and perceptions stakeholders have for forests and drinking water. Our results show that (1) stakeholders value forest's role enhancing water quality but do not connect this forest role to providing drinking water, (2) no stakeholder groups interviewed engage in actions or behavior that explicitly address the connection between forests and drinking water, and (3) that policy makers have a large influence on the functioning of the forest provision of drinking water while nonprofit organizations are best positioned to influence conservation strategies that include this forest role. While stakeholders may not explicitly value forests for the provision of clean drinking water, there is untapped potential for incorporating this ecosystem service in future conservation strategies.