Abstract
The Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch and forest managers are facing unprecedented challenges to meet multiple ecosystem service demands from forests. Understanding the complex forest-water relations under a changing environment must add a human dimension, and this is essential in the move towards sustainable forest management in the 21st century. This Special Issue contains 10 papers presented at a joint international forest and water conference in Chile in 2018. These studies provide global examples on new advancements in sciences in forest ecohydrology, watershed management, and ecosystem service assessment under various geographical and socioeconomic settings.
Highlights
The United Nations emphasizes that sustainable forest management in the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030 (UNSPF) is an essential component of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for UN Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement adopted under the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Forest Instrument (UNFI), and other international forest-related instruments, processes, commitments and goals
Research is needed to improve our understanding of the tradeoffs and synergies among forest ecosystem services
Five papers addressed management issues: Managing headwater streams under climate change [5]; local communities’ participation in watershed management [2]; the nexus of forests, water, and policy [10]; ecosystem services in the Mekong River Basin [7] and; risk assessment of wildland fires in Alberta, Canada [6]
Summary
Enhancing the benefits and ecosystem services of forests has been increasingly recognized as an essential part of nature-based solutions for solving many emerging global environmental problems today, including sequestering atmospheric carbon, controlling land degradation and soil erosion, and providing abundant clear water. A core science to support forest management is understanding the interactions of forests, water, and people. These interactions have become more and more complex under climate change and its associated impacts, such as the increase in intensity and frequency of drought and floods, increasing population and deforestation, and a rise in global demand for multiple ecosystem services including clean water supply and carbon sequestration.
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