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Open research questions in Forest Management and Policy

108 gap statements mined from Forest Management and Policy papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,049 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The study addresses the need for a systematic analysis of the spatial correlation and clustering characteristics of forest carbon sequestration efficiency.

    Spatial Correlation Analysis of Forest Carbon Sequestration Efficiency in China · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap between the current forest carbon sink trajectory and the EU-27 climate objectives. The current forest carbon sink is not sufficient to meet the EU-27 climate objectives.

    Alarming decline in the carbon sink of European forests driven by disturbances · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could focus on developing more complex models that account for environmental and social considerations. Future research could explore the impact of different carbon pricing scenarios on the forestry sector in Bulgaria.

    Assessing Forestry's Carbon Sink Potential in Bulgaria: A Comparative Study under Different Carbon Pricing Scenarios · 2026 · DOI

  • The study addresses the need for a computable bio-economic model to optimize forest carbon sinking in Bulgaria.

    Assessing Forestry's Carbon Sink Potential in Bulgaria: A Comparative Study under Different Carbon Pricing Scenarios · 2026 · DOI

  • The need for efficient methods for organizing natural capital information. The challenge of quantifying wood provisioning ecosystem services due to large-scale data collection requirements. The lack of a robust method for calculating NAI using EO data.

    A bottom-up approach to compiling wood provision ecosystem service accounts with EO data · 2026 · DOI

  • Further scientific investigation is needed to understand tree biomechanics and failure risk in urban contexts. Advanced professional training is needed for operators to correctly assess tree safety. The development of standardized evaluation methods is needed to recognize the ecological value of habitat trees.

    Silent extinctions: how neglecting the ecological value of habitat trees threatens urban biodiversity and ecosystem services · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of practical recognition of the ecological value of habitat trees is a major obstacle to effective conservation. The absence of standardized evaluation methods is a major obstacle to effective conservation. Current tree management practices often prioritize perceived risk and aesthetics over ecological integrity.

    Silent extinctions: how neglecting the ecological value of habitat trees threatens urban biodiversity and ecosystem services · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of historical monitoring of forest growing stock. The uncertainty in modeling forest densification. The complexity of exploring the dynamic conditions that sustain the carbon sink.

    Steady forest sink of 10% of total carbon emissions driven by unique management and environmental changes over 150 years in France · 2026 · DOI

  • The cumulative intensity of the carbon sink since the onset of C emissions remains critically undocumented. The dynamic conditions that sustain the sink have remained unexplored.

    Steady forest sink of 10% of total carbon emissions driven by unique management and environmental changes over 150 years in France · 2026 · DOI

  • The challenges include reversing the loss of mature trees, preserving biodiversity, and ensuring future cities are liveable and healthy. The challenges also include removing the silos and prioritizations currently relegating urban forest management to the background.

    Rethinking urban forests as essential infrastructure for resilience, equity, and biodiversity in the current climate emergency · 2026 · DOI

  • The gaps include the lack of recognition of urban forests as essential infrastructure, inadequate equitable access to greenspaces, and insufficient integration into broader climate and biodiversity governance frameworks.

    Rethinking urban forests as essential infrastructure for resilience, equity, and biodiversity in the current climate emergency · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to consider continental heterogeneity. The challenge of developing effective forest conservation strategies.

    Beyond Averages: A Continental Analysis of Forest Transition Heterogeneity · 2026 · DOI

  • The empirical results regarding the validity of the Forest Transition hypothesis remain mixed. There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of forest transition dynamics, particularly in terms of continental heterogeneity.

    Beyond Averages: A Continental Analysis of Forest Transition Heterogeneity · 2026 · DOI

  • Underrepresentation of Natural Regeneration and Afforestation – Due to classification challenges and Sentinel-2’s resolution constraints, both natural regeneration and afforestation efforts may be underreported or misclassified.

    RIGOR-MED_Initial_Assessment_Report_20260130 · 2026 · DOI

  • The need to account for spatial autocorrelation among occurrence points. The challenge of determining the optimal threshold for binary classification of suitable and unsuitable habitats.

    Projected spatiotemporal shifts in forest community suitability in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate change · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on improving the accuracy of multi-annual forest AGBD estimates. The study's findings can inform future research on the impacts of climate-driven natural disturbances on forest ecosystems.

    Accelerating biomass loss from forest disturbances across Europe · 2026 · DOI

  • It highlights the need to engage younger and urban residents in forest visitation and non-wood product collection. The study notes the impact of urbanization, changing lifestyles, and evolving leisure preferences on forest visitation and collection trends.

    Visitation and non-wood product collection in Slovak forests in comparison with Czechia · 2026 · DOI

  • As more information on carbon projects becomes publicly available, future research could investigate how factors such as credit price and co-benefits influence carbon credit transactions and project establishments in different regions of the country.

    Afforestation/Reforestation and Avoided Conversion Carbon Projects in the United States · 2025 · DOI

  • China’s Forest Tenure Reform and Institutional Change in the New Century: What Has Been Implemented and what Remains to be Pursued? Land Use Policy 2013, 30, 825–833.

    The Key Factors That Influence Farmers’ Participating Behavior in Forest Management Plan Formulation Based on 1752 Households in China · 2025 · DOI

  • However, interactions between extreme events, nutrient limitations, and CO 2 ‐driven productivity gains remain uncertain and are not fully captured in the modelled results.

    Response of Global Forest Management to Changes in Wood Demand · 2025 · DOI

  • However, its influence on forest area required to meet the demand for timber and carbon storage and subsequent land use and land cover change (LULCC) is rarely studied.

    Role of Forest Carbon Change in Shaping Future Land Use and Land Cover Change · 2025 · DOI

  • Concurrently, instruments including horizontal ecological compensation, earmarked transfer payments, and regional cooperation funds should be explored for integration into the operational framework of the “Poverty-Relief Enclave”, so as to counterbalance the asymmetries in regulatory input and revenue acquisition between the host and home areas and to reinforce the institutional impetus for sustained local…

    Mechanisms Underlying the “Poverty-Relief Enclave” Model in Forest Regions: A Quadripartite Evolutionary Game Approach · 2026 · DOI

  • Further development of the EO approach for application to other regions and ecosystems. Investigation of the effects of variations in wood density and tree species distribution on NAI estimates. Comparison of the EO approach with other methods for quantifying wood provisioning ecosystem services.

    A bottom-up approach to compiling wood provision ecosystem service accounts with EO data · 2026 · DOI

  • Optimizing differentiated public-welfare-forest compensation mechanisms - Investigating the effects of policy publicity on forest protection awareness and policy satisfaction among forest farmers - Analyzing the impact of household age, annual household income, forestland area, forest management cost, and policy understanding degree on compensation…

    Forest Ecological Compensation and Forest Farmers’ Willingness to Accept: Evidence from Nanping, China · 2026 · DOI

  • Empirical foundation for communication, education, and green-infrastructure initiatives aimed at engaging younger and urban residents, - Promoting more equitable access to forest-based…

    Visitation and non-wood product collection in Slovak forests in comparison with Czechia · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Forest Management and Policy

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research could focus on developing more complex models that account for environmental and social considerations (“Assessing Forestry's Carbon Sink Potential in Bulgaria: A Comparative Study…”, 2026); (2) The lack of a robust method for calculating NAI using EO data (“A bottom-up approach to compiling wood provision ecosystem service accounts…”, 2026); (3) Further scientific investigation is needed to understand tree biomechanics and failure risk in urban contexts (“Silent extinctions: how neglecting the ecological value of habitat trees…”, 2026); (4) The gaps include the lack of recognition of urban forests as essential infrastructure, inadequate equitable access to greenspaces, and insufficient integration into broader climate and biodiversity governance frameworks (“Rethinking urban forests as essential infrastructure for resilience, equity,…”, 2026); (5) There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of forest transition dynamics, particularly in terms of continental heterogeneity (“Beyond Averages: A Continental Analysis of Forest Transition Heterogeneity”, 2026). 108 gap statements have been mined from Forest Management and Policy papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,049 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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