| Summary: | Ecosystem services (ES) have become one of the most popular concepts in environmental research over the last decades. Nevertheless, the concept is quite new for the Turkish forestry sector. The number of national ES studies is very limited, and they have been conducted in recent years. Moreover, the term ES is often confused with forest functions (FF) in the literature. Such confusion may yield deceptive results stemming from inaccurate scientific assessments, including classification, digitizing, and mapping schemes. In this case, policy- and decision-makers will be misinformed in the future. This study aims to differentiate the ES and FF concepts explicitly and introduce the ES concept’s opportunities to Turkish forestry. To this end, the ES and FF terms were separately identified, forestry applications using these concepts were thoroughly examined, and the two concepts were compared with each other from a forest management point of view. Furthermore, the ES cascade model was adapted to forest ecosystems, and thus, the cause-and-effect relationship between ES and FF was indicated with real-world examples from the sector. Finally, the ES of Turkey’s forests were systematically documented based on the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) for the first time. The results showed that the ES concept was more useful than the FF for multiple-use forestry. Specifically, the ecosystem-based multifunctional forest management planning (ETFOP&ETÇAP) system can greatly benefit from adopting the concept. However, the ES is a relatively novel research area in Turkey, and thus, researchers have a long way ahead. They may begin the work by developing ecological indicators for unquantified ES or monetarizing the intangible ES, such as thermal comfort, and cultural heritage. Thus, the contribution of Turkey’s forests to the natural capital will be able to unveil in time.
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