Management of the Sustainable Forest Operations and Silviculture

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of naturally growing forests has been gaining attention of late; however, in many instances, it is crucial to manage forests to ensure their multipurpose functions. The primary aim of silviculture is to guide forest growth according to human concepts to sustainably safeguard ecosystem services. It is essential to implement those same silvicultural concepts through forest operations. Traditionally, silviculture has been understood as directing operational choices; however, each such choice has its potential and limitations, which will impact silviculture and may require adaptation. The absence of modern equipment might impede management, while the availability of suitable machinery can open new perspectives for silviculture. Therefore, forest operation planning should also include silvicultural assessment and lead to mutual adaptations for the highest overall benefit.

This Special Issue aims to explore the convergence between silviculture and forest operations. It seeks to identify common areas with significant potential for generating synergies and to develop new ideas on how to enhance that integration. Contributions may be based on field studies, remote sensing, or modeling, encompassing traditional methodological approaches as well as the integration of AI tools.

Dr. Benno Richard Eberhard
Dr. Raffaele Spinelli
Prof. Dr. Hubert Hasenauer
Dr. Rachele Venanzi
Prof. Dr. Enrico Marchi
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.