Eco-Sensitive Areas: Ecosystem Services, Protected Lands, and Current Challenges (Second Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

There are many eco-sensitive areas around the world, covering a sizeable portion of the world’s terrestrial surface. Examples include mountain regions (e.g., the Tibetan Plateau) and transitional zones (e.g., farming–pastoral zones). These regions provide products and services to large amounts, if not all, of the world's population, with benefits including freshwater, food, and recreation, etc. However, due to excessive human land use activities and climate change, these regions are currently facing numerous challenges that affect the structure, quality, and ability of these ecosystems to provide services and products. In response to these challenges, many policies have been implemented, including designating protected land areas and providing ecological compensation, in order to balance the relationship between ecological protection and socio-economic development. These interventions must be supported by the government at different levels to ensure that these ecosystems are able to sustainably provide their services. Because of this, studies related to ecosystem services should play an essential role in managing and conserving eco-sensitive areas and protected land. However, it is still unclear how studies on ecosystem services can support the conservation of biodiversity under present conditions and in future scenarios.

This Special Issue aims to address critical knowledge gaps in our basic understanding of land use/cover change, ecosystem services, how they have changed in eco-sensitive areas, and societal trends in and outside of eco-sensitive areas in terms of dealing with future challenges. A particular focus is placed on studies on protected land and research into the management and preservation of biodiversity and landscapes in these areas.

For this Special Issue of Land, we invite authors to submit theoretical considerations and descriptions of practical case studies, discussing ecosystem services and protected lands in eco-sensitive areas. Both review and research articles are welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• The mapping, quantification, and assessment of ecosystem services and their dynamics;
• The assessment of the effectiveness of protected lands after protection and restoration;
• The optimization of the layout of protected lands to enhance the delivery of ecosystem services;
• The identification of eco-sensitive areas from the perspective of ecosystem services and remote sensing;
• Land use and the trade-offs of ecosystem services;
• The identification of external threats to eco-sensitive areas.

Dr. Shicheng Li
Dr. Lanhui Li
Dr. Mingjie Song
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. Land 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.

• ecosystem services
• protected lands
• eco-sensitive areas
• Tibetan Plateau
• land use/cover change
• ecological compensation
• anthropogenic activities
• ecosystem restoration
• ecosystem services trade-off