Ecosystem services are a relatively new concept in forestry. While the current forestry practice still describes non-timber forest products as secondary, the concept of ecosystem services originating from FAO and researchers of ecosystem services equally emphasises the economic significance of non-timber products and services forest ecosystems provide as of those primary products – timber biomass. Forest ecosystem services are only a segment of the overall context of ecosystem services in which ecosystem services of pastures, meadows, steppes, swamps, deserts, coasts, seas, high mountain peaks etc. can be observed and evaluated separately.

At this moment, the most difficult task is to estimate the real economic significance of diversity of services and products forest ecosystems provide to people. In many countries, ecosystem services have been identified, systemically and socially recognised but their economic aspect (although not negligible) remains to be a great challenge for researchers in the area of forestry and economics in terms of the manner of their evaluation, protection, harmonisation of their collection at the level of forest administrations in the country.

There are many initiatives to define, profile forest ecosystem services and assess their advantages in the context of climate change worldwide. Evident climate change strongly affects the variability of forest ecosystems on the planet which additionally hinders the assessment of economic significance of forest ecosystem services everywhere. For this reason, their protection and preservation is an additional activity which needs to be born in mind when evaluating and exploiting forest ecosystem services and additional products.

For the first time, the concept of ecosystem services was explained in this paper from the aspect of forestry and national strategies of adaptation to climate change FAO as well as forms the aspect of some countries which integrated the importance of forest protection and rational use of their ecosystem services and products. In the end of the paper, the set of recommendations is provided for the reform of forest political practice in compliance with considered principles and examples of good practice of evaluating (forest) ecosystem services.