Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management: Vegetation and Soil and Water Conservation in Arid Areas
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 1013
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable forest ecology; management; forest ecology; arid land ecosystems
Interests: soil and water conservation
Interests: forest socioecological assessment; forest policy and education
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Deforestation and forest degradation are influenced by the increasing consumption of goods and services, as well as recurrent droughts mainly caused by climate change. This phenomenon has been accentuated in the arid regions of the planet, where the loss of vegetation, soil erosion, and water scarcity put the productivity and function of forest ecosystems at risk. Furthermore, the loss of forest productivity makes it difficult for the inhabitants of these regions to develop productive activities. In recent decades, vegetation and soil and water conservation practices have been incorporated into forest ecosystems worldwide; therefore, the contribution of scientific evidence on conservation practices allows us to update and design the guidelines for the sustainable management of forests, especially in arid areas where water scarcity hinders sustainable development. This Special Issue aims to present selected contributions of scientific advances related to vegetation, soil, and water conservation in forest ecosystems of arid areas, with a focus on forest conservation practices, arid lands’ productive potential, cover and land use changes, forest soil conservation, water supply, water scarcity, forest watershed management, forest diversification, forest socioecological assessment, forest plantations and biodiversity, and arid ecosystems affected by climate change.
Potential topics of interest include those listed below, although we are not limited to these topics if your submission is in line with the general theme described above:
- Dry forest biodiversity assessment;
- Arid land–land use–land cover;
- Policy and education in arid areas;
- Soil productivity;
- Soil erosion in arid lands;
- Water harvesting in arid lands;
- Watershed management;
- Forest plantations in arid ecosystems;
- Forest socioecological assessment;
- Climate change scenarios.
Dr. Martín Martínez-Salvador
Dr. Gabriel Sosa-Perez
Dr. Sandra Rodríguez-Piñeros
Dr. Eduardo Santellano-Estrada
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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.
Keywords
- land cover assessment
- water conservation
- soil erosion
- forest policy
- water supply in arid lands
- forest plantations in arid lands
- climate change
- drought
- dry forests
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