Transforming Forest Governance and Rural Livelihoods to Address Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Dear Colleagues,

Forests have re-taken center stage in global conversations as they play a vital role in climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation and linkage to most of the Sustainable Development Goals through contributions to ecosystem services, green economic opportunities and social and environmental justice agendas We must find suitable approaches to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, enhance forest rehabilitation and improve the quality of forests. In general, deforestation and forest degradations have been impacted by a complex of social, economic and political factors, driven by complicated direct and indirect drivers, including the livelihoods of forest communities and forest governances from the local to global level. Forests have been fully recognized by international communities and national authorities to be a key mechanism for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, especially in human-dominated tropical and subtropical regions. This Special Issue will focus on transforming forest governance and rural community livelihoods to address climate change and biodiversity loss. In just a few decades, global policy instruments, including REDD+; nature-based solutions; local initiatives, including decentralization; forest tenure reform; and community-based actions have been proposed and implemented. However, we have often ended up with confusing outcomes. This collection of articles will assess how these actions address relevant drivers of deforestation, whether or not benefits are equitably distributed and shared among stakeholder and demonstrate the meaningful participation of forest communities.

Prof. Dr. Jinlong Liu
Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala
Dr. Peter Edwards
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.