Dear Colleagues,

The human impact of exceeding the buffer capacity of the ecosystem prevents the ecosystem from maintaining its normal structure and function. Excessive land use, along with excessive use of fossil fuels, is emerging as a major factor that causes ecological imbalances at both the local and global levels and ultimately threatens the stability of the entire global environment. The rapidly progressing climate change is also an example of a functional imbalance between greenhouse gas sources and their absorption sources. Ecological restoration is used as a useful tool to mitigate, delay, and recover from these adverse effects that humans have had on the global ecosystem. Ecological restoration becomes a means of solving the insurmountable part of engineering technology that is governed by thermodynamic laws in dealing with environmental problems.

The international community's efforts to address climate change initially focused on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, but today's shift to carbon neutrality is the result of the correct recognition of this ecological background. "Nature-based solution" and "UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration" were created in this context. The restoration of the forest, which is the most diverse and stable among the ecosystems, is a leading part of this paradigm shift. However, forest restoration is still often in conflict between afforestation and ecological restoration. In addition, for the restored ecosystem to maximize its function, reference information that places the introduced vegetation in the optimal ecological range is important.

This Special Issue is aimed at providing case studies of ecological restoration of forests that are achieved by accepting the principle of ecological restoration beyond afforestation.

Prof. Dr. Chang Seok Lee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• afforestation
• ecological imbalance
• ecological restoration
• forest
• reference information