Research trend: Forest policy and governance - Future analyses in multiple social science disciplines

Around the globe, forests are utilized, managed and conserved in multiple ways. Decisions about forest policies and management are determined by individual and societal groups' interests and values, and have economic, social, and political dimensions. Over the past few decades, a fast growing and diversifying research programme on forest governance, harnessing a number of social science disciplines, has endeavoured to understand these dimensions. In this light, the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) Division 9 Unit 09.05 (Forest Policy and Governance) organised an international scientific conference on “Forest-related policy and governance: Analyses in the environmental social sciences” in late 2016. This conference aimed to be the global scientific hub for forest-related social sciences research, including studies on forest-related empirical fields, both rural and urban. It took stock of the latest scientific advancements in the fields of forest-related policy analyses, as well as wider forest governance studies from various social scientific disciplines. Based on this stock-taking exercise across a number of forest-focused social science disciplines, this paper reviews selected contributions to this conference, which were compiled into this special issue, and identifies research trends and potential fields for future research in the forest-related social sciences.