ENSURING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF FORESTS WITH THE EMPHASIS ON THEIR PRODUCTION FUNCTION

Forests are one of the important elements of the concept of sustainable development. They represent an important component for rural development, a place for rest, recreation and regeneration. At the same time, forests are the basis for wood production. They fulfil ecological, environmental and production functions important from the point of view of providing ecosystem services. The main aim of this paper is to describe and classify forest ecosystem services based on available literature resources. Additionally, it describes their impact on the production and consumption of goods that cause costs and revenues in the form of externalities. A detail attention is paid to the issue of ensuring the production function of forests (production of wood as a material, biomass for energy production) under the conditions of regulatory (legislative) and voluntary tools of forest policy in Slovakia.