Interactions Between Forest Management and Carbon Balance: Mechanisms, Simulation and Practice

Climate change has been a global issue of great significance. So far, more than 50 countries and regions worldwide have set their carbon neutral target in different forms (e.g., legislation, declaration). As a part of nature-based solution for mitigating climate change, sustainable forest management has been acknowledged in numerous international conventions (e.g., The Paris Agreement). However, most of the world's forests are experiencing variable degrees of degradation, mainly due to the serious disturbances of unjustified harvesting and natural hazards (e.g., fire, wind). Unlike the traditional wood production objective, carbon stored in forest ecosystems usually undergo complex accumulation, turnover, and release processes. Therefore, the potential management prescriptions were quite different from that of traditional timber production. However, the differences, magnitudes, and mechanisms of different management strategies and prescriptions on the process of carbon balance from forest ecosystems are still unclear. Thus, developing sustainable forest management techniques for carbon neutral targets has drawn much attention from policymakers, forest landowners, and other stakeholders. Meanwhile, research seeking to improve the human well-being of rural areas through international or regional carbon trading market are also welcomed.

This Research Topic is dedicated to advancing the progress of sustainable forest management for carbon neutral targets. It provides an opportunity for publishing the original research or rigorous reviews on simulating the forest carbon balance, evaluating different management strategies on the forest carbon balance, quantifying the effects of climate on the forest carbon balance, and understanding the trade-offs between carbon and timber or other services, and developing flexible decision-making tools for various forest landowners considering carbon objectives, and promoting the human well-being of rural areas through carbon trading market. Manuscripts focused on the above topics, both for natural and planted forests, and both from empirical and theoretical perspectives, are sincerely welcomed.

In this Research Topic, well-prepared submissions that cover one or more of the following topics are very welcomed:
- Simulating the carbon balance of forest ecosystems from empirical or theoretical perspectives.
- Evaluating the effects of different management prescriptions on the forest carbon balance.
- Quantifying the effects of climate change on the forest carbon balance.
- Understanding the complex trade-offs between carbon and timber or other services.
- Developing flexible decision-making tools for various forest landowners considering carbon objectives.
- Improving the human well-being of rural areas through international or regional carbon markets.

Keywords: Forest management, Carbon balance, Trade-off, Climate change, Carbon sequestration, Carbon stock, Decision-making tools, Carbon trading

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.