Mountain Research and Development (MRD): Call for Papers, MRD 37.2 Mountain Forests and the SDGs: Challenges and potentials for fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Mountain forests play a key role in securing mountain livelihoods by providing timber, fuelwood, food, fodder, and medicine. In addition to these provisioning services, they offer cultural services as well as locally and globally significant regulating and supporting services such as protection from natural hazards, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. 1 These important services provided by mountain forests have been explicitly acknowledged in three targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—targets 6.6, 15.1, and 15.4. 2
Forest cover dynamics are very diverse, with some trends that are generalizable. Development challenges vary immensely. In some places, forest cover is increasing with the abandonment of mountain agriculture. In other places, often in poor agricultural areas, forest cover is diminishing. Climate change impacts on forests are not well understood, as temperature and precipitation trends may be buffered by steep environmental gradients. Extreme climatic events may lead to higher disturbance intensities compared to lowlands due to higher relief energy in mountain environments. It is therefore important to manage, understand, and value mountain forests as a key resource for sustainable development beyond the 3 explicit targets. MRD is looking for papers for its 3 peer-reviewed sections:
MountainDevelopment (transformation knowledge):
Papers should present well-validated experiences of and research insights into how to manage forests so that their regulating and supporting functions are maintained and their provisioning services can help to combat poverty and enhance regional economies.
MountainResearch (systems knowledge):
Papers should take an integrative systems science perspective to analyze the state of mountain forests at the beginning of the SDG era; this includes research into stresses and disturbances in mountain forests as well as mountain forests’ resilience to perturbations.
MountainAgenda (target knowledge):
Papers should provide well-referenced overviews of the role of forested areas in mountains for combating poverty; they should highlight pathways out of poverty (SDG goals 1 and 2) in such areas and conclude with agendas for future sustainability-oriented research or policy.
All contributors should link their work to the SDGs, at least in their introduction and discussion sections.
Please e-mail a notice of intent indicating the main research question and the conceptual framework and methodology applied to the Editorial Office by 1 April 2016: email@example.com
• Submit full papers by 25 June 2016. • Guidelines for authors are available at: http://www.mrd-journal.org/submission_GAuthors.asp
• For more information on the journal see: http://www.mrd-journal.org
1 See Price MF, Gratzer G, Lalisa Alemayehu Duguma, Kohler T, Maselli D, Romeo R, editors. 2011. Mountain Forests in a Changing World—Realizing Values, Addressing Challenges. Rome, Italy: FAO/MPS and SDC. 2 SDG “mountain” targets: 6.6: “By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes”; 15.1: “By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements”; and 15.4: “By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development.”