*Editorial* **Post-Restoration Forest Management Issues in East Asia under Climate Change: Based on the Special Issue "Economic and Societal Losses Due to Environmental Impacts on Forestry Productivity"**

**Noriko Sato 1,\* and Tetsuhiko Yoshimura <sup>2</sup>**


**Abstract:** Forests provide diverse ecosystem services to people. Consequently, initiatives have been undertaken to restore deforested areas. In East Asian countries, particularly those within the Asian Monsoon region, deforestation has contributed to natural disasters such as sediment run-off, landslides, and flooding, which are exacerbated by torrential rainfall. Restoring forest cover is a critical aspect of national land conservation. To achieve this goal, state-led afforestation initiatives have been launched. Successful afforestation efforts have also been considered an indicator of economic development. However, Japan, which implemented afforestation projects successfully in the 1950s and 1970s, has experienced the under-utilization of its forests due to significant changes in economic and societal conditions since afforestation took place. During the 2010s, the Japanese government promoted the industrialization of forestry, encouraging final felling and reforestation. However, there have been issues with immature forest operation methods and low forestry productivity. Furthermore, in the context of intensifying climate change, heavy rainfall-induced disasters have become more intense, with an increased threat to human safety. Research efforts from the natural and social science fields in Japan have helped identify issues that need to be addressed concerning forests where plantation trees are now utilizable. There is a need to identify improved methods of forestry practice that reduce the risk of climate change-related disasters and establish related forest policies.

**Citation:** Sato, N.; Yoshimura, T. Post-Restoration Forest Management Issues in East Asia under Climate Change: Based on the Special Issue "Economic and Societal Losses Due to Environmental Impacts on Forestry Productivity". *Forests* **2023**, *14*, 1845. https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091845

Received: 9 August 2023 Revised: 25 August 2023 Accepted: 8 September 2023 Published: 11 September 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

**Keywords:** afforestation; under-utilization; forestry operation; clearcutting; economic losses; societal losses; rural community; disaster-resilient forestry; East Asia
