It is with immense pleasure that we announce the 1st International Electronic Conference on Forests (IECF):

Forests for a Better Future: Sustainability, Innovation, Interdisciplinarity

Virtual Conference; 15-30 November 2020

Forests and forestry activities provide an opportunity to address the pressing challenge of climate change through sustainable production. Forests also play a strategic role in mitigating critical issues, including biodiversity conservation, water regulation, energy efficiency, pollution reduction and mitigation, production of raw biological materials, food safety, and human and ecosystem health and poverty.

Forests contribute to the improvement of some important development issues focused on sustainability and responsible forest management as a shared and essential factor to address global challenges and guarantee the conservation and enhancement of the global forest heritage as well as the socio-economic development of production, environmental, and socio-cultural chains.

The global pandemic has forced us to reduce travel and to reflect on our ability to leave scientific acquisitions as a legacy to future generations. This reduced mobility stimulates us to maintain connections with the scientific network using emerging technologies. This conference is an opportunity to communicate our shared passion for forests, forest products and services, and forest biodiversity.

The conference will discuss the state of the art of forestry operations, wood supply chains, and ecosystem services, and objectives for the future will be sought. Sharing and discussing the latest research findings with the global community of scientists in the field of forests is the central purpose of this virtual meeting.

Topics of the conference include:

-        Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration

-        Forest Genetics, Ecophysiology and Biology

-        Forests and Urban Forest Sustainability

-        Forest Inventory, Quantitative Methods and Remote Sensing

-        Wood Science, Production Chains and Fuelwood

-        Forest Operations and Engineering

-        Fire Risks and Other Natural Hazards

IECF is a virtual conference sponsored by Forests (ISSN 1999-4907; Impact Factor 2.116 (2018)). Participation is free of charge for authors and attendees. Accepted papers will be gathered in the proceedings of the conference. Selected extended versions of the papers will be published in a Forests conference Special Issue with a 20% discount applied to the article processing charge (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/Forests/special_issues/IECF2020).

IECF offers you the opportunity to participate in this international, scholarly conference without having the concern or expenditure of travel—all you need is your computer and access to the Internet. We would like to invite you to “attend” this conference by presenting your latest work.

For more information on IECF, please visit the conference website (https://iecf2020.sciforum.net/) or contact us by email (iecf2020@mdpi.com).

Dr. Angela Lo Monaco
Dr. Cate Macinnis-Ng

Chairs of the 1st International Electronic Conference on Forests