Sustainability and Rainforest Communities: Technological and Social Innovations for the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Dear Colleagues,

Tropical rainforests are locally and globally significant in terms of environmental, social, and economic values, but local and global market demands for food, fuel, and fibre result in deforestation and forest degradation. Despite global commitments to forest protection through the mobilisation of public, private, and civil society stakeholders, tropical deforestation and degradation continue. Processes of tropical deforestation and degradation erode social–ecological resilience at local and global scales, with the potential to trigger self-amplifying feedbacks and regime shifts if unabated.

The adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a strong framework to substantially reduce tropical deforestation and forest degradation, with target 15.2 stating that by 2020 we need to “promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.” However, this target cannot be reached independently of other goals, such as SDG 9, which promotes the integration of small-scale business into value chains and markets, and SDG 12, which is to ensure sustainable production and consumption.

In this Special Issue, “Sustainability and Rainforest Communities: Technological and Social Innovations for Conservation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals”, we invite contributions that focus on the synergies between SDGs 9 (integrate small-scale business into value chains and markets), 12 (ensure sustainable production and consumption), and 15 (protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of forest ecosystems). Papers exploring the positive and negative synergies with other SDG goals related to sustainable rainforest communities are also welcome. This Special Issue welcomes papers that present novel interdisciplinary conceptual approaches for examining social and technological innovations for tropical forest conservation, as well as syntheses and empirical studies relating to questions such as:

• What are the emerging remote sensing technologies for monitoring land cover change, forest cover, forest health and function, carbon stock, and biodiversity?
• How can methodologies integrate new technologies and traditional ecological knowledge to achieve rainforest system sustainability?
• How can participatory methodologies at multiple scales be integrated into land-use planning and decision-making processes to deliver more sustainable and equitable outcomes for rainforest communities?
• How can social and/or technological innovations secure the rights of forest communities and support the development of alternative livelihoods?
• What opportunities exist in linking non-timber forest products with wider supply chains, and what are the consequences for rainforest conservation and sustainability at multiple scales?

Dr. Izabela Delabre
Dr. Pedram Rowhani
Dr. Alexander Antonarakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• tropical forest conservation
• technological and social innovations
• methodologies
• traditional ecological knowledge
• land use
• remote sensing
• telecoupling
• supply chains