The scientific journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change is working on a special issue entitled “Global Change in Forests and Their Communities: Analyzing spatio-temporal changes in complex forest social-ecological systems” and has recently opened a call for papers to include contributions from the research community.
The objective of this research topic is to assess how different global phenomena, such as climate change, rural to urban migration, among many others, are simultaneously affecting forests and forest-related communities. Understanding the mutual interactions of forest and human communities through multidisciplinary approaches has become fundamental to encourage forest practitioners and decision-makers to adopt management strategies that can preserve forest resources, biodiversity and safeguard forest-dependent communities.
This special issue explores the integration of multidisciplinary perspectives, such as socio-economic analysis, governance frameworks and community dynamics, in order to integrate them into decision-making processes. It also aims to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the ongoing interactions that characterise human-nature forest systems through the development, adoption and application of standardised quantitative parameters combined with qualitative data.
Seeking to address a research gap
The issues outlined above seek to address a gap in research that needs to be tackled in order to effectively achieve the targets of UN Sustainable Development Goal 15, particularly those related to the use and restoration of forest ecosystems. Thus, Frontiers of Forests and Global Change welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that focus on examining the complex cause-effect relationships and feedback loops that occur in social-ecological systems.
Specifically, the guest editors are particularly interested in papers dealing with contrasting human-to-nature forest systems changes such as: increased fire activity versus depopulation of the rural landscape, biodiversity depletion versus afforestation, loss of traditional ecological knowledge versus intensification of management (e.g. timber), or rural tourism from urban areas.
Contributions may also cover natural capital accounting and carbon trading offsets, traditional use (harvesting, management) of wild forest products and other cultural ecosystem services.
Guest editorial board
The guest editorial board that will review and accept manuscripts submitted for the Frontiers Special Issue of this research topic on global change in forests is composed of the following researchers and academics:
- Marco Cervellini. University of Bologna, Italy.
- Valentino Marini Govigli. Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
- Debbie Bartlett. University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
- Simone Blanc. Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences, School of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Turin, Italy
- Paola Mairota. University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
- Elena Gorriz-Mifsud. Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC), Solsona, Spain
Please kindly note that the deadline for abstract submission is 6 May 2022 whereas the deadline for manuscripts submission is 6 July 2022.
