The Value of Systematic Evidence Synthesis in Forestry, Land Use and Development to Improve Research, Decision-Making and Practice

Abstract

Despite well-established procedures for using systematic evidence-informed approaches to policy and practice in fields as diverse as medicine, crime and justice, education, and conservation, the uptake of these rigorous methods of synthesising relevant literature has been disappointingly slow in forestry and related fields. This may be due to: general lack of understanding of, or misconceptions about, systematic evidence synthesis; a belief that the method is inappropriate for the “messy” world of forestry and land-use; a dislike of the protocol-driven approach that underpins systematic evidence synthesis; the rigorous approach is beyond the resources of time and funding available for a given topic review; systematic reviews can only be undertaken by a narrow “elite”; or a combination of these. The current Special Issue of Forests brings together a range of papers that demonstrate that systematic evidence synthesis is appropriate for forestry and land-use policy and practice, and that the method is evolving to embrace new ideas that fit with the core tenets of comprehensiveness, transparency, and procedural objectivity.