Diverse Forestry Systems and Cleaner Production Practices for the Bio-Based Economy and Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth in the population has created tremendous pressure on various natural resources, including forest resources, for harnessing several ecosystem services. The most common trade-off is deforestation for obtaining the benefits like the production of food, fodder, fuel, and the development of infrastructure for urban sprawl and industrialization. These approaches usually result in land abandonment, degradation, or the development of urban heat islands, subsequently leading to unforeseen consequences at regional and global scales. Therefore, the unprecedented increase in the worldwide population has urged humanity to explore and develop various areas, including diverse forestry practices and cleaner production approaches. These pioneering practices can help assure human adaptability towards socio-ecological and economic interfaces under changing climatic conditions.

Consequently, they could further help build a bio-based economy for a sustainable future. Hence, innovative and sustainable forestry practices are imperative to address sustainability challenges in the current Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. In this regard, the present Special Issue, “Diverse forestry systems and cleaner production practices for the bio-based economy and sustainable development,” aims to collate notable research on addressing the diverse issues of forestry practices, alternative cleaner production approaches, improving human well-being, and approaches to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This Special Issue welcomes original research, reviews, mini-reviews, short communications, monographs, or opinions related to—but not limited to—the following:

1. Forest landscape restoration for bioenergy parks, aesthetic development, and other benefits;
2. Innovative forestry practices in urbs, suburbs, agriscapes, and potential ecosystems for green spaces;
3. Urban forestry and management practices for multipurpose benefits and sustainable cities;
4. Sustainability assessments of community, urban, and other forestry practices;
5. Policy perspectives and governmental schemes for promoting cleaner production, greening, and afforestation;
6. Cleaner agricultural productions for the smart utilization of land resources;
7. Cleaner production strategies for environmental clean up;
8. Phytochemicals and value-added byproducts from sustainable forestry systems;
9. Agroforestry as a sustainable approach towards bioeconomy.

Dr. Sheikh Adil Edrisi
Dr. Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash
Dr. Himlal Baral
Dr. Vishal Tripathi
Dr. Rama Kant Dubey
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.

• forest landscape restoration
• biomass and bioenergy production
• cleaner production
• phytoremediation and environmental clean-up
• sustainability assessment
• green space development
• urban forestry and agroforestry
• remote sensing and GIS approaches
• policy implications
• greening and afforestation approaches
• cleaner agricultural productions
• value-added products and bioeconomy
• circular economy
• decision making and forestry plantations
• land suitability and indigenous practices

Title: Assessing Forest Landscape Restoration in Asia-Pacific Regions To Attain UN-SDGs: Status and Trends
Authors: Ajijur Rahman; Himlal Baral; Sheikh Adil Edrisi
Affiliation: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor Barat 16115, Indonesia Thapar School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala 147004, Punjab, India
Abstract: Current burgeoning scenario of land degradation has put the humanity in the retreat as around 3.2 billion population is adversely affected by the global land degradation. Moreover, various approaches and initiatives are being adopted to tackle this global issue. Bonn Challenge, UN-Sustainable Development Goals are one of the major global initiatives, which are particularly associated to obstruct the degradation process. Recently, the UN has declared this decade (2021-30) as Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (here in the ‘Decade’). Considering the solemnity of these initiatives, forest landscape restoration (FLR) has been viewed as a pertinent solution, which could resolve the issues forest degradation and conserve our vital forest resources. To this, the present article is aimed to provide a state-of-the-art development in the FLR at the global level and discussing its fundamental issues, prospects and promises in the Asia-Pacific regions with a special reference to the Indian and Indonesian scenarios. The article also highlights on the apprehensions of the local communities while the implementation of these restoration initiatives. To this, the article further focus on the indigenous solutions to address those issues to further expedite the attainments of UN-SDGs during the Decade.

Title: Managing Urban Marginal Lands Through Urban Forestry and Expanding Green Space for Sustainable Cities: An Indian Scenario
Authors: Vivek Verma; Sheikh Adil Edrisi
Affiliation: Thapar School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala 147004, Punjab, India
Abstract: Urbanization is one of the major drivers considered for the excessive land-use change. The stimulated land-use change usually results in the altered dynamics of natural ecosystems and ecosystem services (ES) in the urban areas. This agitation in the dynamics undoubtedly has various unprecedented consequences. It usually includes the lowered productivity of the finite viable land resources, loss of biodiversity at landscape levels, disrupted hydrological cycling and most pertinently affecting the human well-being in the concerned cities. Therefore, it is the urge of the scenario to conserve the existing land resources, restore them and holistically manage those cities for its self-sustenance. Moreover, considering the solemnity of the issue, the concept of sustainable cities is being mooted from recent years. In addition, the growing momentum of sustainability for restoring and managing our natural resources, United Nations has also declared the current decade (2021-2030) as the ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’ (hereby the Decade). It also meant to expedite the accomplishment of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) by 2030. In this backdrop, the present article is aimed to explore the potential of already flourished concept of urban forestry for growing Indian cities. This study would systematically classify the potential and available marginal lands in the cities that could be exploited for the urban forestry practices. Simultaneously, it would also help in expanding the green space through exploring the possibility of urban forestry via appropriate strategies for multipurpose benefits. This expansion of green space for the Indian cities would not only help in coping up with the increasing population load but also assist in building sustainable cities during the Decade.