Editors of academic journals play a key part in the production of knowledge and the continuation of scholarly conversations about practical and intellectual issues of the day. While peer review, an essential part of journal processes, has received considerable attention in the scholarly and the popular press, much of it critical, the role of the chief editor remains rather shadowy and underexplored. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 11 editors of academic journals in the field of higher education probed for editors’ thoughts about their work. The editors, located in seven countries, described dual roles as gatekeepers – keeping up standards in the field – and academic developers – supporting and encouraging novice and other potential authors. They searched for balance between these often contradictory expectations amidst complexities and challenges of contemporary academia.

Since the early 1990s, there has been hope that the uptake of certified forest products would ensure more sustainable forest management and also deliver business benefits along the value chain. Our study applies a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to model an e-commerce purchase in the case of multiple products with various attribute and certification combinations in the Finnish retail outdoor decking material market. We received 2772 responses from 231 participants in an online survey. Applying conditional logit and latent class models, we were able to assess the relative importance of attributes, identify various consumer segments, and simulate various scenarios for communicating the certification and origin of forest products and competing materials. Our results show that the most important attribute for consumer decision-making was the outdoor decking material followed by price, origin, and certification. Some consumer segments showed a habit of only choosing certain materials or domestic products, while paying less attention to other product attributes. Simulations for an e-commerce purchase situation also implied that communications concerning intangible product attributes, such as domestic origin and environmental certifications, could be used in the brand building of the forest sector to gain competitive advantage and increased market shares over other sectors. The results suggest that the conventional and constantly developing e-commerce marketing tools should be harnessed also in forest product and more general environmental marketing.

The present study analyses the values held by forest professionals in three Nordic countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The data is from a large (n = 1113) internet survey that used cognitive mapping as a research tool, which is a novelty in value measurement. The questionnaire is based on the organisational value theory of Schein (1992), supplemented with relevant forest-related and environmental values. The forest-related main value factors were in the following order of importance: Expertise, Private forestry, Forest production, Nature conservation, and Tradition. The measurement included two kinds of cases: action values, referring to present decision-making, and ideal values, referring to decisions concerning future ideals. Most of the values’ scores were similar. Almost all values received higher scores of importance in the ideal cases compared to action cases, a fact that can probably be explained by constraints related to the professionals’ current working environment. Some international differences were also found: Sweden and Norway were closer to each other and both differed from Finland, where private forestry, forest production, and traditions are highly valued. Moreover, respondents working in industry were found to be slightly more production-oriented than other forest professionals. The study also revealed several weaknesses of the cognitive mapping method in measuring values.

A global assessment of the status of tertiary, vocational, and technical forest education and training found deficits in inclusion of knowledge and student diversity. Coverage of forest services and cultural and social issues was characterized as weak in the curricula of many programs. The inclusion of traditional and Indigenous knowledge was frequently poor or absent. Gaps were found in enrollment at tertiary education levels with respect to diversity by gender, race/ethnicity, and other societal groups. If unaddressed, forest researchers, professionals, and workers will continue to lack familiarity with different knowledge systems and the importance of inclusive representation. Improvements in forest education related curricula, research, monitoring, policy, recruitment, and promotion are recommended. Without remedial action to build a representative, skilled, and knowledgeable workforce, prospects for forests to meet local, national, and global goals are at risk. Improved social and knowledge diversity in forest education is paramount for the future of forests.

Global awareness of sustainability issues is growing rapidly, and business organizations are called to address wider social and environmental concerns along with economic performance. However, limited systematic knowledge exists on the interactions between forest industries and natural ecosystems. We thus investigated the role of ecosystem services in the context of China’s forest sector. A qualitative research approach was used to elicit company external expert viewpoints on the topic. Our analysis focused on three themes: (1) forest company dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services; (2) business risks arising from dependencies and impacts; and (3) risk response strategies. The interviewed 20 experts identified a series of forest company dependencies and impacts (including negative and positive impacts) on several ecosystem services. The extent of dependencies and impacts is largely influenced by the business portfolio of the company. The perceived business risks include intense competition and the consequently increasing price for natural resources, which would affect forest company business plans, costs and outputs. The suggested strategies for turning risks into opportunities include outsourcing wood, changing production focus, promoting industrial upgrading and implementing regular assessments of corporate dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services. The findings of our study can guide companies’ decision-making in managing forest ecosystems sustainably.