Editorial Team
Forests Monitor is global in scope and publishes scientific articles and current perspectives about forests and sustainable management of forest ecosystems to achieve better governance. Acceptance for publication is subject to a double-blind peer-review process. Its advantages include:
- Independence from large publishers
- Fee for reviewers to fairly reward their work
- High quality and quick speed of reviews (usually less than 2 weeks), partly thanks to the fees for reviewers
- Transparent and affordable page expenses (calculated per page)
- Articles published fast after acceptance
- Internationally recognized experts in the Scientific Board
- No additional cost for color graphics and tables
- Editing services included in the publication fee
- Digital and social media marketing of published articles
Editorial Board:
Vilis Brukas, PhD
Dr. Vilis Brukas is a professor in forest planning at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). His research interests include but are not limited to mixes of policy instruments, interface between policy and planning, approaches to forest management across Europe or forest governance in transition economies.
Raised in Lithuania, he earned his Master's degree in forestry in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Denmark in 2000. His unique educational background exposed him to diverse forest governance models, fueling his passion for forest policy as an academic discipline.
Livia Zapponi, PhD
Livia Zapponi is a researcher at the Institute of BioEconomy of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), where she focuses her activities on forest ecology. In particular, she studies saproxylic insects and how to implement sustainable forest management strategies to improve their conservation. She has contributed to several projects analysing the drivers of forest biodiversity, to explore the effect of forest management on animal communities and to develop biodiversity indicators. Besides, she also investigates the sustainable management of insect pests.
Livia received her PhD in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Analysis from Roma Tre University in 2010 and holds two Masters of Science, in Ecology (Sapienza University of Rome) and in Environmental Management (University of Nottingham).
Frederick Cubbage, PhD
Fred Cubbage teaches, performs research, and serves the profession in natural resource policy and forest economics. He has worked at the University of Georgia, the USDA Forest Service, and North Carolina State University. He has authored or co-authored about 550 papers and articles, and 4 books, including a new book in 2022 on Natural Resource Leadership and Management published by Routledge Press.
Fred was the Department Head of Forestry and Environmental Resources at NC State for 10 years, and was the Founder and Co-Director of the Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium (SOFAC) for 25 years. Fred was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and Uruguay in 2004, and consulted for the World Bank and has cooperated with scientists in Latin America, Vietnam, Laos, and China for two decades. He was President of the Society of American Foresters in 2017.
Kevin Boston, PhD
Dr. Kevin Boston has a strong academic and professional background and has earned a BS in forestry from Humboldt State University, Master of Forestry, and Ph.D. in forest engineering from Oregon State University. His JD is from Lewis and Clark College and emphasized environmental and corporate law. He has significant professional experience as a practicing forester, and it includes both a California Registered Professional Forester and Professional Engineer in Oregon.
Dr. Boston has authored over 100 papers and seven books in forest management and engineering. He has held a variety of commercial appointments in forestry throughout the United States, New Zealand and Europe. Dr. Boston is currently an associate professor with the Center for Forest Business at the University of Arkansas, Monticello.
Scientific Board Members:
Meley Mekonen Rannestad, PhD
Meley Mekonen Rannestad is a researcher in tropical forests and climate change in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). She holds a PhD in Forest and Resource Economics and master's degree in international environmental studies from NMBU.
Her research focuses on sustainable and climate-smart management of tropical forests and the economics of tropical forests-based climate change mitigation. Her earlier works have been published in top-tier journals in her field. Rannestad has extensive experience in the management of large-scale (>NOK 15 million budget) research and capacity-building projects related to tropical forest management. Currently, she is leading a research project financed by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) that is developing a decision support tool that enables ex-ante assessments of policies and interventions to minimize tradeoffs and maximize synergies between global environmental, national economic and local subsistence and/or livelihood objectives/demands related to tropical forests in East Africa.
Austin Himes, PhD
Austin Himes is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University. Prior to his academic career, he worked for GreenWood Resources, Inc. conducting applied forestry research and managing hybrid-poplar plantations. His research interests are interdisciplinary and revolve around silviculture and management of forests for multiple ecosystem services and diverse values. He has authored peer-reviewed articles on many topics ranging from trade-offs between ecosystem services in plantation forests, the carbon benefits of building with wood, short-rotation wood crop systems and the different ways that people value nature.
Austin received his PhD in Forest Ecosystems and Society from Oregon State University in 2019 and holds a M.S. from the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. He is a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester.
Marco Mina, PhD
Marco Mina is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Alpine Environment at Eurac Research, Bolzano/Bozen, Italy. He is specialized in the application of simulation models of forest dynamics to explore interactions of trees with their changing environment and forest management strategies to enhance long-term resistance and resilience at multiple scales - from stand to landscape. His research interests also include silviculture, forest monitoring and inventory, forest biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Marco received his PhD in forest ecology from ETH Zurich in Switzerland in 2015 and holds a MSc from the University of Padua, Italy. He also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Université du Québec á Montreal, Canada, between 2018 and 2021. He is a member of the Italian Society of Forest Ecology and Silviculture (SISEF) and has an active collaborative network across Europe and North America.
Juan Picos, PhD
Dr. Juan Picos Martín is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Vigo, where he has taught and conducted research since 1998 at the School of Forest Engineering. He currently combines academic responsibilities with active research within the AF4 Research Group, focusing on forest ecosystems, wildfire prevention, and sustainable resource management. His academic and scientific trajectory is marked by a consistent commitment to bridging applied research, environmental policy, and knowledge transfer in the forestry sector.
He holds a degree in Forest Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (1996) and earned his PhD from the University of Vigo in 2004, with a thesis recognized by the Fundación Mapfre for its relevance to wildfire insurance and forest risk management. His early professional experience involved technical and managerial roles in forest owners’ associations and cooperatives in Galicia, overseeing forest inventory and biomass commercialization of up to 50,000 m³ per year.
Since joining the University of Vigo, Dr. Picos has played a prominent role in institutional management, serving as Secretary (2011–2017), Director (2017–2024), and currently as Deputy Director (2024–) of the School of Forest Engineering. He has been instrumental in fostering academic innovation and strengthening links between the university and the forest sector.
Dr. Picos has authored over 35 peer-reviewed scientific articles, many of them in high-impact journals (Q1 in Forestry and Remote Sensing), covering topics such as wildfire modeling, remote sensing, LiDAR and UAV-based inventory systems, forest economics, and biomass mobilization. His scientific work has accumulated over 840 citations on Google Scholar and over 430 on Scopus, with an h-index of 15 and 12 respectively. He has also supervised multiple doctoral theses and contributes to scientific outreach and environmental education.
His research activities extend beyond academia through leadership in national and European R&D projects.
He also played a leading role in technology-transfer projects such as the continuous forest inventory of Galicia.
Dr. Picos is a recognized contributor to European policy and scientific advisory bodies. He is an expert for several international task forces and working groups, including:
- UNECE/FAO Task Force on Forest Product Conversion Factors
- UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Sector Outlook
- EIP-AGRI Focus Groups on forest biomass and climate adaptation
He also held prominent roles in professional societies, having served between as the Regional Dean of the Spanish Chartered Forestry Engineers (2015–2019), member of its governing board (2020–2024), and a former board member of the Spanish Society of Forest Sciences (SECF).
Yennie Bredin, PhD
Yennie Bredin is a researcher with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research in Oslo, Norway. She has a PhD in tropical forest ecology and a master’s degree in tropical ecology and natural resource management from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Yennie’s research has focused on floodplain forest ecology, forest biodiversity and carbon, and the human dimensions of biodiversity conservation. She is currently working on several national and international multi-, and transdisciplinary research projects related to the restoration, enhancement, and conservation of biodiversity.
Jacek Siry, PhD
Dr. Siry’s expertise includes international investments and finance, business management, and policy; wood products trade, availability, and costs; and forest management across the world’s leading wood supply regions. His research is focused on the global competitiveness of forest industries, international forest investments, timber market modelling, and forest management efficiency.
Currently, Dr. Siry is Stuckey Timberland Professor of Forest Economics and Taxation, The Harley Langdale Jr. Center for Forest Business, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, USA.
Mauricio Acuna, PhD
Dr. Acuna is a Research Professor of AI and Automation in Forest Operations at Luke, Finland’s Natural Resources Institute. He holds a PhD in Forest Engineering from Oregon State University, an MSc in Operations Research and Management from the University of Chile, and a Bachelor’s in Forest Engineering from the University Austral of Chile. With nearly 30 years of professional experience, Dr. Acuna has provided forest management and supply chain solutions for private companies, universities, and research organizations worldwide. His international expertise spans Chile, Uruguay, Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Ireland, and Spain, focusing on forest operations and optimization modeling.
His research interests include AI, mathematical programming, forest management optimization, wood and biomass harvesting, transport logistics, and decision support systems. Dr. Acuna has served as Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO’s Division 3 (Harvesting and Transportation) and has been an active participant in multiple Cost Action Initiatives, such as Forest Energy and VR/AR in forestry. Currently, he is the Main Coordinator of the EU CBE JU project “OptiForValue”, which aims to create high-value, sustainable, and resilient forest value chains for a strong European bioeconomy.
Federico E. Alice Guier, PhD
Federico E. Alice-Guier has a bachelor’s degree in forestry from the National University of Costa Rica, a master's degree in carbon management from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in production ecology and resource conservation from Wageningen University. Works on the application of systems thinking and dynamics to study global environmental change; and promoting the implementation of nature-based solutions. He is currently a professor of Forestry and Environmental Management at the School of Environmental Sciences of the National University of Costa Rica.
Valentina
Dr. Valentina Vitali is a forest ecology researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zürich), in Switzerland. Her goal is to understand the mechanisms responsible for forest resilience to ensure future sustainable forest management.Her research focuses on the impact of climate change on the processes that drive and regulate forest growth, biogeochemical cycles, and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning. She investigates the impact of biotic and abiotic stressors on tree physiology and biochemistry using analyses of tree rings and stable isotope studies. In collaboration with the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Valentina conducts research in urban environments to promote biodiversity conservation.
Valentina Vitali received her PhD in forest ecology from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany, in 2017, and an M.Sc. in Conservation and Land Management from Bangor University, Wales, UK and M.Sc. in Sustainable Forest and Nature Management, from Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany.
Shaun Tanger, PhD
Shaun Tanger is an Associate Professor of Forest Policy and Trade with the Arkansas Forest Business Center in the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Dr. Tanger’s research program is focused on forest economics, policy and trade questions.
Currently he is examining interstate carbon leakage and carbon market participation under various tax structure alternatives. He is the co-host of the Timber University podcast, part of the Natural Resources University podcast network.
Miguel Montoro Girona, PhD
Miguel Montoro Girona is professor in forest ecology at UQAT (Canada). His research aims to evaluate the impact of natural (insect outbreak, fire, moose, beaver, windthrow) and anthropogenic disturbances (log drive and silvicultural practices) on forest ecosystem at multiples spatio-temporal scales to provide tools for the implementation of forest sustainable management in the face of climate change. He uses paleoecological and dendroecological approaches to reconstruct past disturbance regimes, or landscape simulations to predict the future of forest ecosystems.
Recently, he funded a research Group – GREMA (link) to help the regional institutions to apply sustainable forestry and to adapt forest management strategies to climate change.
Rita Sousa-Silva, PhD
Rita Sousa-Silva is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Biology at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Rita's research interests include forest and urban ecology, with a focus on the role of tree species diversity in the functioning of forest ecosystems, from natural forests to urban environments. She also investigates the relationships between urban trees and human health and well-being, aiming to translate this knowledge into strategies for planning and managing green spaces to optimize multiple services and benefits.
Rita received her PhD in forest ecology from KU Leuven, Belgium, in 2018. She is a member of TreeDivNet, a global network of tree diversity experiments, and Co-Chair of the Biodiversa+ Knowledge Hub on Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.
Giorgio Vacchiano, PhD
Giorgio Vacchiano is associate professor in Forest management and planning at University of Milan, Italy. He studies simulation models to support sustainable forest management, forest mitigation of climate change, and forest adaptation to extreme climate events in European temperate forests. He is active in science education and communication. In 2018 he was named by the journal Nature as one of the eleven best emerging scientists in the world who are "leaving their mark in science".
He is a member of the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF), of which he coordinates the working group on communication, and of the Ecological Society of America (ESA).
Stefanie Linser, PhD
Dr. Stefanie Linser holds a PhD and an MSc in forestry sciences. She has been working for 25 years in national and international forest policy issues and is a recognised expert on indicators for sustainable forest management (SFM) and related data. She has compiled data and provided input and indicator expertise to national and international organisations.
Since many years she is nominated to the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on forest Monitoring and is the deputy leader of this team since 2018. She was coordinating lead-author of the State of Europe’s Forests 2020 report and of the Austrian report on indicators for SFM 2020. She launched and still coordinates the IUFRO Working Party 9.01.05 on Research and Development of Indicators for SFM. She is also in in the steering committee for the further development of the FAO Global Core Set of Indicators for SFM and in the Forest Europe Think Tank Core Group. Her present focus of work is on the further development and improvement of indicators for sustainable forest management and related monitoring, reporting and assessment.
Jerylee Wilkes-Allemann, PhD
Jerylee Wilkes-Allemann is a senior researcher, forest policy scientists and lecturer at the Bern university of Applied Sciences, at the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, Switzerland. Her research focuses on forest policy, forest governance, sustainability, communication strategies and participatory processes, ecosystem services, urban forestry and the positive effects of nature (trees and forests) on human health. Jerylee is also involved in the CAS Urban Forestry and CAS Nature en Ville.
Jerylee received her PhD in forest policy and governance from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Switzerland in 2015. She holds a Diploma in forest science from the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Since 2023, Jerylee is a certified forest therapist. She has coordinated several national and international research projects and worked as a scientific collaborator at Agroscope in Switzerland between 2009 and 2011 and as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich between 2015 and 2020.
Jerylee is involved in several steering committees. She is co-president of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für den Wald, an association representing more than 20 Swiss organisations working with or within the Swiss forests, and co-funder and board member of ArboCityNet, a Swiss association working in the field of Urban Forestry in the Swiss context. Since 2022 she is member of the steering committee of EFUF and responsible for the EFUF communication strategy.
Laura Bouriaud, PhD
Graduated in Forestry (Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava) and in Legal Sciences (A.I. Cuza University, Iași), Laura Bouriaud has a Master degree in Political sciences in Nancy and a PhD in Forestry from AgroParisTech, France. She is a specialist in the field of forest policy analysis, with particular qualification on the climate change policies, private forestry and policies against illegal logging, as shown by her published works, as well as by her consultant missions to Kosovo, Russia, Montenegro, Albania and Republic of Moldova.
With more than 25 years of teaching experience in the field of Environmental and Forestry Law and Policy, Ms. Laura Bouriaud also has a rich research activity, leading as project manager 15 research grants, with a total budget of 1,8 million euro, targeting the sustainable and innovative use of the natural resources, including the biomass production, forest adaptation to climate change, or governance arrangements in ecosystem services delivering.
During her career, she has published eight books and over 60 articles, and she got her habilitation thesis in 2016. In recognition of her professional experience, Ms. Laura Bouriaud has been guest or organizer of international scientific conferences and she participated in evaluation committees for several doctoral theses defended in European universities. She is also reviewer for several scientific journals in the field, and member of the editorial board of Forest Policy and Economics, Rivista Quadrimestrale di Diritto dell’Ambiente and Bucovina Forestieră.
Professor Laura Bouriaud also has been involved in teaching activities at AgroParisTech France, and she is an associate researcher of the French Forest Inventory Laboratory from Nancy (IGN). In 2022, she was decorated with the Order of "Agricultural Merit" in the rank of Knight, by the Ministry of Agriculture, France. Since 2020, Laura Bouriaud is the director of the Council of Doctoral Studies at Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, being responsible with the coordination of the doctoral studies programmes. Laura Bouriaud is also a former member of the National Scientific Ethic council, and she is actively involved in providing expertise in forest policy process formulation in Romania.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Weber
Prof. Dr. Norbert Weber is Chairholder of the Professorship of Forest Policy and Resource Economics at TUD – Dresden University of Technology, Germany and acting as Head of the Department of Forest Sciences at TUD. He has been researching in the field of forest and environmental policy, partly with a coordinator role in European networks on research and teaching. His special interest lies in policy formulation, implementation and coherence in multi-level systems in Europe. Besides, he has been active as a reviewer for many scientific journals as well as project evaluator for national research institutions.
Todora Rogelja, PhD
Todora holds a PhD in Land, Environment, Resources and Health (LERH) from the University of Padova, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), and an M.Sc. in Forest Policy and Economics from the International FOPER Master Programme, awarded by the University of Belgrade. She works as a researcher at the University of Padova, TESAF Department, being currently engaged in several large European projects. Todora has more than 10 years of professional experience working on forest policy in governance, focusing on actors’ constellations, social innovation and policy and analysis. She is interested in qualitative and mixed methods. Todora is the deputy coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 4.05.05. on Social and Institutional Innovations and Entrepreneurship. During the last three years, she was intensively involved in the topic of gender equity, diversity and inclusion and was one of three main coordinators of the Massive Open Online Course ForGEDI.
Meelis Teder, PhD
Meelis Teder is a senior research fellow in forest policy analysis and forest products marketing at the Estonian University of Life Sciences in Tartu, Estonia. He is a forestry engineer from the Estonian Agricultural University, and he earned his MSc and PhD from the Estonian University of Life Sciences. In addition to teaching at the university, he has worked in the timber industry, dealing with sawn wood foreign trade. He has also been an entrepreneur in the forestry sector, starting businesses in the trading of forestry tools and a company dealing with forest inventory and management planning.
His research relates to various social science areas related to the forest sector, such as forest policy analysis, wood product trade, innovation, unemployment, labor markets, and student motivations to study forestry and woodworking. He has taught courses in wood trade and logistics, forest policy, innovation in the forest sector, forestry economics, and the economics of natural resources management. He was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Oregon State University and a visiting professor at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.
Lelde Vilkriste, PhD
Lelde Vilkriste is a docent at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU), where she earned her PhD in forestry and a Master's degree in economics. She has more than 20 years of research experience, particularly through international projects at the Latvian State Forest Research Institute Silava. Her research interests include forest economics and policy, the use of forest resources, and forest extension. She has conducted in-depth studies on the private forest sector and the factors influencing its development, as well as on forest extension.
In 2013, she carried out a research project in the United States, focusing on forest owner and public education regarding forest management and environmental issues. Over time, her interests has expanded to include non-wood forest products and the impacts of nature conservation requirements on the economic aspects of forest management.
Beyond research, Lelde has gained diverse experience in forest education, certification audits, and journalism. She has also designed and conducted surveys within various projects, which have served as the basis for scientific publications.
Publisher Board:
Rafał Chudy, PhD
Dr. Rafal Chudy is a CEO & Founder of Forests Business Analytics. He has over 15 years of professional experience in project management within natural resources, forest economics, and finances. During the last years, Dr. Chudy worked for private equity and consultancy companies from the United States, Australia, and Norway where he was responsible for ensuring that strong research and evidence-based insights underpin companies sustainable investment programs and services in real assets, mostly forestry & carbon, agriculture, or infrastructure. Dr. Chudy's research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at the international forest and natural resource economics conferences.
He holds a Master of Science (Forestry) degree from Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Master of Science (Forestry and Environmental Resources) from North Carolina State University, Master of Science (Forest Management) from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and a PhD in Forest Economics (specialising in Forest Sector Modelling) from Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Dr. Chudy also has a post-graduate diploma in Financial Controlling in Capital Markets Groups from Warsaw School of Economics.
Karolina Chudy, MBA
Karolina Chudy is the co-founder of the Forest Business Analytics (FBA), focusing on the supervision of the projects related to timberland investments and forest products markets. Karolina is also responsible for the implementation of comprehensive client service plans for existing and future clients. Before joining FBA, Karolina worked as a data visualization specialist at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre, where she analyzed massive data sets in Tableau software to provide strategic insights.
She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Analysis and Business Administration from the University of Lodz, a Bachelor's Degree in International Business from Østfold University College in Norway and a double International Master of Business Administration Degree (IMBA) at EAE Business School and University of Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain. Karolina also has accomplished the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments program organized by the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association.