Observation and Research on Ecological Restoration of Degraded Forests

Dear Colleagues,

According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2020, forest degradation has become a global environmental issue due to human activities, severe climatic events, fire, pests, diseases and other environmental disturbances. Forest degradation is defined as the long-term reduction in the levels of goods and services including carbon loss, greenhouse gas emissions, wood production, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functions, human health and, even worse, the decline of forest resilience—the ability of a forest ecosystem to re-organize and recover following disturbance. Forest degradation is one of the more challenging types of disturbances to measure and monitor. With the development of observation technology, the processes of forest degradation and restoration can be monitored. However, how to assess these degraded forests in a timely and accurate manner is still a considerable question. Nonetheless, it is society's obligation both to protect forests from any degradation, restoring and transforming them to be healthier, with better structure and function. Tackling forest degradation can be achieved through the implementation of silvicultural measures to restore and transform degraded forests to high-level forests (e.g. mitigation of degradation process, forest stand tending, natural regeneration, reforestation, afforestation), control of forest fires, conservation of marginal farmland to forest lands, development of protective shelterbelts in the environmental fragile sites, implementation of policies and measures for biodiversity and natural reserves conservation. This Special Issue aims to provide observation technology, driving forces and restoration methods to address degraded forests in terms of improving forest sustainability.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Observation technology of degraded forests;
• Structural and functional degradation of forests;
• Degradation mechanisms of natural forests or plantation forests;
• Plant-soil feedback of degraded forests;
• Driving forces of degradation forests at larger scale;
• Restoration or transformation methods of degraded forests;
• Environmental effects of forest degradation or restoration;
• New technologies and methods for forest ecological restoration;
• Climate adapted reforestation for ecological restoration of degraded forests.

Dr. Long Yang
Dr. Marianthi Tsakaldimi
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.

• degraded forest
• ecological forest restoration
• observation technology
• plant–soil feedback
• sustainable forestry
• silvicultural measures
• optimization of forest structure and function