Untapped Potential: Do Stakeholders Value Forests for Providing Clean Drinking Water?

Abstract Billions of people around the world rely on forests to filter and provide clean drinking water. The immense value water can be a strong rationale for conserving sustainably managing forests, however, are often unaware this forest ecosystem service providing which lead service’s degradation. Using qualitative case‐study approach we conducted semi‐structured interviews in three watersheds Michigan, USA investigate values perceptions stakeholders have Our results show that (1) forest’s role enhancing quality but do not connect water, (2) no stakeholder groups interviewed engage actions or behavior explicitly address connection between (3) policy makers large influence functioning provision while nonprofit organizations best positioned conservation strategies include role. While may there is untapped potential incorporating future strategies.