For each of the tools listed in Table 2, we evaluated its suitability for different decision contexts, ecosystem services capable of being analyzed, and outputs produced by the tool (Additional file 1).
RSM comprises of the following concepts: Service, Service Input, Service Output, Service Context and Service Logic, Service Provider, Service Client and Service Feedback.
Methods exist to characterize the value of these cultural services, but there are methodological challenges to obtaining this information and fitting it to a decision context, particularly when weighed against monetary costs and benefits.
JHPeer provides a basic implementation of context services, context provider and context listener.
Firstly, information about the decision context was analyzed.
These criteria include their ability to quantify the benefits of restoration activities and scenarios in a timely and cost-effective manner across different geographic locations and scales, ecosystem service types, decision contexts, and under varying levels of uncertainty.
The ecosystem service assessment tools included in the RESTS framework provide the ability to quantify the benefits of restoration activities and scenarios with differing levels of detail and costs across different geographic locations and scales, ecosystem service types, decision contexts, and under varying levels of uncertainty.
IHSD Template values have been calculated for remote area, non-remote area, and national average decision contexts, to account for regional differences in costs and service provision.
We designed the initial RESTS framework in a spreadsheet; IUCN plans to build it into a website that will allow an analyst to interactively navigate between different decision contexts and tools of potential use in assessing forest ecosystem services.
We describe two hypothetical FLR decision contexts to illustrate how RESTS would guide an analyst toward particular ecosystem service assessment tools under different situations, and conclude by considering best practices and next steps for using ecosystem service assessments in restoration decision making.
