Sustainable Wood Use Under Global Change: Source Diversity, Quality, and Processing Pathways

Global changes in climate, land use, and socio-economic conditions are reshaping forest resources and wood supply systems worldwide. Increasing disturbances, shifts in species composition, and the growing demand for sustainable bio-based materials require a broader and more flexible approach to wood utilization. At the same time, wood processing industries are facing challenges related to raw material variability, quality uncertainty, and the integration of wood from diverse sources, including alternative species, mixed stands, plantations, and non-traditional forest resources. Bridging forest and wood management is therefore essential to ensure efficient, sustainable, and resilient wood value chains. Understanding how wood quality, production systems, and processing technologies interact across species and sources is a key prerequisite for optimizing resource use under changing environmental conditions.

Despite significant advances in forest management, wood science, and processing technologies, research remains fragmented across disciplines and often focused on a limited number of commercially dominant species and conventional supply chains. At the same time, global changes in climate, land use, and socio-economic conditions are reshaping forests and wood supply systems. Increasing disturbances, shifts in species composition, and growing uncertainty in wood quality require broader and more flexible approaches to wood utilization under global change.

There is still a clear lack of coherent frameworks that connect forest resource diversity and dynamics, driven by site conditions, stand structure, and management practices, with measurable wood quality characteristics and processing performance. This gap becomes particularly critical as the contribution of wood from mixed stands, plantations, disturbance-affected forests, and other non-traditional sources continues to increase. As a result, the ability to predict raw material properties, optimize resource allocation, and support decision-making across forestry and industrial sectors remains limited, including cascading use and circular bioeconomy strategies.

The main goal of this Research Topic is to strengthen interdisciplinary knowledge and promote integrated perspectives linking forest resource dynamics with wood quality assessment, processing technologies, and end-use potential across the forestry and wood processing continuum. By addressing diverse species and wood sources and their effects on processing and product performance, the collection aims to support the development of more resilient and resource efficient forest-based bioeconomy models adapted to climate change.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions that explore sustainable wood use across the forest–wood processing continuum. Relevant subthemes include, but are not limited to:

• Wood quality variation across species, origins, and production systems
• Utilization potential of underused, alternative, or mixed-species resources
• Links between forest management, wood production, and processing performance
• Innovative processing technologies adapting to raw material diversity
• Sustainability assessments of wood-based value chains
• Case studies connecting forestry practices with industrial wood utilization

The collection welcomes original research articles, reviews, methodological papers, and perspective or concept articles.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Sustainable Wood Use, Wood Quality, Forest Resources, Wood Production, Wood Utilization, Wood Processing, Forest–Wood Value Chains, Bioeconomy, Global Change, Abandoned Land

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.