Forest Engineering and Sustainable Forest Bioenergy

Dear Colleagues,

During the last two decades, sustainability in forestry had already expanded to the multifunctional perspective following social progress toward favoring soil and water protection, biodiversity, and climate aspects. In this context, forestry has been several steps ahead, accumulating a wealth of experience regarding the application of sustainability principles. Recently, increasing demand for forest products is improving the profitability of sustainable forest management, which will have long-lasting positive effects on forest resources. In the case of wood, traditional uses like building material, furniture, or packaging will be complemented by new products emerging from technological developments driven by bio-based economies. In forestry operations, the sustainability concepts with their principles and sustainability indicators are based on the idea of Sustainable Development scoping to use “forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, and vitality.” For example, regarding energy, chips, pellets and firewood are growing dramatically, or are expected to do so in coming years. This emerging green energy will be able to supply the market with carbon-neutral fuel.

Purpose:

Supplement existing knowledge about the sustainability of forest operations along the supply chain from the forest to end-customers (mills, wood yards, yards).

Promoting small scale forestry and agricultural crops as a sustainable alternative to provide bioenergy and finding efficient solutions to pressing needs in the supply of wood fuels for bioenergy.

Scope and focus of the special issue:

1. Sustainability of forest operations
2. Life cycle analysis of wood and biomass supply chains
3. Fuel consumption and GHG emissions from transport and road construction operations (primary & secondary transport, shipping, port activities, etc.).
4. Environmental impacts of road construction (erosion, dust, etc.)
5. Sustainability analysis including tools for assessment
6. Impact of climate change on forest logistics
7. Efficient tools and methods for operational monitoring of small-scale, low-mechanization procurement
8. Sustainable operations and logistics for small-scale procurement
9. General and public awareness and perception on wood fuels and bioenergy
10. Sustainability of wood fuels
11. Sustainability of biomass & bioenergy procurement
12. Policy in bioenergy

How the issue will usefully supplement existing literature:

By (1) providing up-to-date information of the major drivers that impact the sustainability of forest operations, (2) fostering new practices and technologies to improve the sustainability of forest operations along the supply chain, (3) sighting/(searching for) new or emerging wood resources & supply chains, (4) tailoring policies to the variability of economic contexts and supply areas.

Dr. Andrea R. Proto
Prof. Dr. Stelian Alexandru Borz
Dr. Mauricio Acuna
Dr. Peter Rauch
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• forest operations
• sustainability
• wood
• fuel consumption
• life cycle analysis
• climate change
• bioenergy policy
• advanced monitoring systems
• economic variability
• small scale procurement
• public perception
• mechanization
• green logistics
• modal split
• sustainable transportation