Sustainable Forestry: Linking Economics and Management

Dear Colleagues,

In an era marked by deepening climate crises and mounting ecological pressures, forests are increasingly recognized as pivotal carbon sinks, biodiversity reservoirs, and providers of essential ecosystem services. However, leveraging their full potential requires an integrated understanding of both ecological function and economic value—particularly in light of evolving global carbon governance frameworks.

This Special Issue aims to explore how sustainable forest management can be aligned with economic instruments for climate change mitigation. The focus is on integrating forest-based carbon activities into existing and emerging carbon pricing mechanisms—such as Emissions Trading Systems (ETSs) and carbon taxes—as well as examining policy readiness in countries that have not yet adopted these instruments.

We invite contributions that address the following:

1. The role of forests in compliance and voluntary carbon markets;
2. Economic valuation of forest ecosystem services in carbon accounting;
3. Comparative analysis of global ETSs and carbon tax systems;
4. Governance challenges in integrating forests into climate finance frameworks;
5. Design and implementation of incentive schemes for afforestation, reforestation, and conservation;
6. Policy options and financial tools for countries without carbon pricing mechanisms.

This Special Issue invites original research and reviews at the intersection of sustainable forest management (SFM), economics, and climate mitigation. We aim to gather multidisciplinary contributions that analyze forests through the lens of emissions reduction policies, carbon pricing instruments, and forest-based climate solutions.

Dr. Karlo Beljan
Dr. Andres I. Susaeta
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.