Does Demand Equal Supply in Ecosystem Service Provision? – Evidence from Finland

In order to integrate ecosystem services (ES) in designing agri-environmental policy, we investigated both the demand for, and supply of, ES from agricultural environments in Finland. Using the discrete choice experiment method, we measured citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for four different ES and analysed farmers’ compensation request (WTA) for producing these services. Biodiversity and water quality gathered the highest WTA of farmers, but also highest WTP of citizens. Overall, the average WTA exceeded the WTP for almost all attributes and levels, but 20–27% of farmers were willing to produce the ES with the compensation lower than citizens’ WTP