Sustainable Forest Management, Agroforestry Competencies and Regenerative Agriculture for Attaining 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dear Colleagues,

Contradicting forces are shaping the sustainability of global forests, which are deeply impacted by global challenges such as climate change, poverty and hunger, uncontrolled demography, and urbanization, and must cope with new threats to health and the global economy. Beyond geopolitical challenges, ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, biomass for materials and energy production, and increasing demand for land are key questions. By generating new activities in response to ever-changing challenges, such forces can improve the capacity of societies to adapt. However, they can also reduce that capacity by creating new threats to forestry sustainability.

Thus, to avail such potentiality, the notion of sustainable forest management, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture has evolved.

• Sustainable forest management offers a holistic approach to ensure forest activities deliver social, environmental, and economic benefits, balance competing needs, and maintain and enhance forest functions now and in the future.
• Agroforestry is the integration of trees and shrubs into farming landscapes, enabling farmers to improve their land's environmental, social, and economic values.
• Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach to land management that keeps water in the landscape, improves soil health, stores carbon, and increases biodiversity.

These three district tactics may contribute to food security, increase biodiversity, and combat climate change and may attract more policy attention and investment to fulfill their potential for achieving the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these trends have recently received significant attention from producers, retailers, researchers, consumers, politicians, international development organizations, and the mainstream media.

These insights will assist readers in understanding how the notion of sustainable forest management, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture practices can foster SDGs set by the UN. In this context, research and reflections developed in different territorial contexts are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• How the six Ps (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership) impact sustainable forest management.
• The impacts of including indigenous people and their tactics to sustainably manage existing forests.
• The conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources in forest areas.
• The maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socioeconomic benefits to meet the needs of societies.
• Legal, institutional, and economic framework for forest conservation and sustainable management.
• Agroforestry policies at different levels of decision making.
• The nexus between agroforestry and regenerative agriculture.
• Social, economic, and environmental prospects of agroforestry and regenerative agriculture.
• Extending the prospects of sustainable forest management, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture: (i) adaptation, resilience, and mitigation of climate change; (iii) integrated soil, water, and biodiversity management; (iii) improved productivity and livelihoods; (iv) soil armor, diversity, continual live plant/root, livestock integration, and minimizing soil disturbance.

Dr. Md Ashraful Islam
Prof. Dr. Qian Lu
Prof. Tatiana L. Bezrukova
Guest Editors

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• sustainable forest
• management
• agroforestry
• modelling
• lifecycle assessment
• regenerative agriculture
• sustainable development goals
• soil, water, and biodiversity conservation