The common forestry practices at local, regional, and global scales are strongly criticized by a society that is demanding multiple goods and services proved by forests in addition to timber. The new societal demands are asking for a more “friendly” forest management of natural forests and plantations. One of that needs is taking care of the forests in addition to generating profit for the landowners. Given this changing scenario, new and interesting challenges are displayed for forest sciences in general, and for silviculture in particular. New directions should be taken by policymakers, scientists, professionals, and landowners in the future in order to provide a certain balance in forestry practices to increase the sustainability of socio-ecological systems. The new scientific trends show that the ecosystem management paradigm could provide insights about how can we balance the supply for both ecosystem goods and services at different scales (from microorganisms to landscapes) by maintaining ecological functions. Currently, I am starting to develop novel silvicultural ideas, and how the ecological theory and complexity science can be linked to increasing our socio-ecological understanding in times of global change.  

In my country, Chile, a piece of land within the temperate region of the southern hemisphere and dominated by Mediterranean and Temperate forests, where the forestry sector is characterized by its success based on exotic fast-growing plantations (e.g., Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus spp.), but, on the other hand, by increasing degradation of native forests. Responsible forest management and restoration practices should be addressed by different social actors, where forest restoration, native tree plantations, sustainable forestry management of fast-growing plantations are the main challenges of Chilean forestry science in the near future.

Research areas

• Silviculture 

• Applied forest ecology

• Regeneration ecology and silviculture

• Ecological forest management 

• Forest restoration