Dear Colleagues,

Forests provide a vital renewable resource and a wide range of other ecosystem services that are influenced by forest management. Different forest management methods can be used to meet forest owners and societal needs. Continuous cover forestry (CCF) or uneven-aged forestry is a forest management system that by selective harvesting of single trees or groups of trees always maintains structurally diverse stands with trees of various sizes. There is a growing interest in this management method in areas where currently even-aged forests managed using clearcutting dominate, for example, in Fennoscandia and the Baltic States.

The two management systems are inherently different, no clearcutting takes place in CCF, and increased use of CCF is advocated by various stakeholder groups. Importantly, the use of CCF is seen as potentially beneficial to forest biodiversity, which is in decline regionally and globally. Additionally, CCF could provide a viable forest management option under changing climatic conditions and increasing natural disturbance pressure. Since CCF has been practised very little in clearcut dominated regions, its effects on various ecosystem services are largely unclear, especially regarding whether CCF could provide competitive economic returns and if it will benefit biodiversity. Studies from other regions show varying results and highlight the importance of landscape context and forest history.

For this Special Issue, we invite papers dealing with any aspect of the practice and effects of CCF. For example, topics can include the study of different selective harvesting methods, their effects on stand growth, economic viability, biodiversity, aesthetics, disturbance resistance, and disease resistance.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.

• uneven-aged forestry
• forest biodiversity
• disturbance mimicking
• moderate severity disturbance
• boreal forest
• ecosystem services
• sustainable forest management
• partial harvest
• production forest