Multiple-Use and Ecosystem Services of Forests—3rd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

As we face the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing societal demands for natural resources, forest ecosystem management is becoming a cornerstone for sustainable development. This Special Issue—now in its third edition—invites contributions that explore and advance the science and practice of multiple-use forest management, with a particular focus on integration, optimization, and assessment of forest ecosystem services.

Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, from provisioning services such as timber and non-wood products, to regulating services like carbon storage and water regulation, supporting services such as soil conservation, biodiversity habitat, and cultural services including esthetics, recreation, and spiritual values. Managing these services in a synergistic, landscape-level, and participatory manner remains a pressing research and policy challenge.

Addressing the design and regulation of multiple ecosystem services via decision-support systems based on participatory approaches is a challenging research endeavor. Vast amounts of research have been devoted to understanding the economic, ecological, and sociocultural dimensions of forest ecosystems, contributing to the creation of socio-economic opportunities in order to foster rural development, mitigate climate change impacts, soil and biodiversity conservation, and promote carbon-neutral societies. Despite this progress, ample opportunities exist to unlock the full potential of multiple ecosystem services, creating new knowledge and tools to improve the sustainable provision and profitability of ecosystem services. This includes fostering scientific background, legislative and participatory conditions for the integrated management of multiple ecosystem services.

Therefore, we encourage contributions of original research, reviews and case studies that develop and apply innovative models, methods, participatory processes, decision-support tools, to address relevant themes such as inventory, planning, modeling, mapping, governance, certification schemes, and market mechanisms. Our goal is to foster to interdisciplinary approaches into ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies for this “Special Issue”, ultimately enhancing forest sustainability and community resilience. Such an initiative will also enrich the ecosystem service knowledge base, inform practical implementation, and strengthen future research strategies and policy agendas to support a full encapsulation of integrated management of multiple ecosystem services

Submitted papers for publication in this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure the timely and wide dissemination of research fundings, results and applications. We welcome submissions that:

• Advance policy and governance for integrated ecosystem service management;
• Apply spatial analysis and modeling for multifunctional landscapes;
• Showcase participatory approaches and tools for inclusive decision-making;
• Link ecosystem services to rural development, climate mitigation, or nature-based solutions;
• Explore assessment, marketing, or certification of forest ecosystem services.

Dr. Susete Marques
Prof. Dr. Emin Z. Başkent
Dr. Brigite Botequim
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.