Special Issue "Non-Wood Forest Products Management: Inventory, Planning, Governance, Marketing and Trade"

Forest ecosystems provide various benefits to society in the form of ecosystem services. Non-wood forest products or wild products (NWFPs) (forest fruits, mushrooms, cork, pine kernels, acorns, medicinal herbs, essential oils, chestnuts, etc.) are cross-categorical ecosystem services that have recently received substantial attention from researchers and practitioners. They have been used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food, in local medicines, and in other products supporting health and livelihoods. Many research works have been devoted to the study of various aspects of NWFPs, mainly to contribute to the creation of jobs, socio-economic opportunities, and the competitiveness of rural economies, while mitigating climate change effects, addressing soil conservation concerns, and providing effective responses to address the need for carbon-neutral energy. There are a myriad of opportunities to unlock the full potential of NWFPs, such as creating new knowledge and tools to optimize the sustainable provision and profitability of NWFPs, fostering the development of market conditions for NWFPs, and developing economic and governance strategies for the better management of wild forest products—particularly in low-income countries. Thus, we encourage research endeavors involving the development of models, methods, processes, and decision support tools to address the inventory, planning, harvesting, governance, certification, marketing, and trade of NWFPs to contribute to this Special Issue. This initiative will also contribute to the NWFP knowledge base and to the strengthening of research strategies to support the full encapsulation of NWFPs in the framework of the sustainable management of forest ecosystems. This Special Issue is developed in collaboration with the 19th Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2021), and it is sponsored by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO Units 4.04.04—Sustainable Forest Management Scheduling and 5.11-Non-Wood Forest Products as well as the IUFRO Task Force on Unlocking the Bioeconomy and Non-Timber Forest Products). Papers submitted for publication in this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer-review process with the aim of prompt and wide dissemination of research results and applications.

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

More information at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/nonwood_forest_products