Both the concepts of ecosystem services and social enterprise have gained popularity as means of addressing social and environmental issues in recent years. But while research on ecosystem services has focused on non-governmental organisation and local community-led approaches, the role of social enterprises has received less attention. In Scotland, social enterprises play an important role in delivering social and environmental justice, as well as reaping economic benefits through forest-based practices. These practices are often small-scale and attract participants from local communities. But despite this prominence their motivations and the challenges they face remain largely unexplored. This research attempts to integrate both concepts mainly using field observations and interviews, and to reinforce the findings with the existing literature. It explores the motivations and challenges of social enterprises in sustaining forest ecosystem services through a case study, and discusses their potential within the context of current policy. The research suggests that social enterprises are equipped to tackle a range of social and environmental issues. The enterprise under investigation aims to improve participants’ wellbeing and employability, as well as to provide public education and promote environmental awareness. But these efforts are often hindered by the difficulties of high requirements of the manager and staff members in balancing multiple objectives and most importantly, of managing financial risks. The research concludes that a practical method of assessing cultural ecosystem services as well as the use of innovative funding norms may resolve these challenges, allowing social enterprises to fill the current policy gap and create synergies in the fields of ecosystem services and social enterprise.

近年来，生态系统服务和社会企业的概念都作为解决社会和环境问题的手段而受到欢迎。但是，尽管对生态系统服务的研究集中在非政府组织和当地社区主导的方法上，但社会企业的作用却很少受到关注。在苏格兰，社会企业在实现社会和环境正义以及通过基于森林的实践中获得经济利益方面发挥着重要作用。这些做法通常规模不大，吸引了当地社区的参与者。但是尽管如此，他们的动力和面临的挑战仍未得到充分发掘。这项研究试图主要通过实地观察和访谈来整合这两个概念，并以现有文献来加强研究结果。它通过案例研究探索了社会企业在维持森林生态系统服务方面的动力和挑战，并在当前政策的背景下讨论了它们的潜力。研究表明，社会企业有能力解决一系列社会和环境问题。被调查的企业旨在改善参与者的福祉和就业能力，并提供公众教育和提高环境意识。但是，在平衡多个目标以及最重要的是管理财务风险方面，经理和工作人员的高要求困难常常阻碍了这些努力。该研究得出的结论是，评估文化生态系统服务的实用方法以及采用创新的资助准则可能会解决这些挑战，