This Research Topic will focus on intact forests, forests that have relatively low levels of direct human impact, but are nonetheless still being affected by less visible but pervasive elements of human pressure, including defaunation, selective logging, shifting fire regimes and climate change. Among the themes covered in this topic are:

(i) the definition of intact forests (which is context-dependent) and where they are to be found today, spanning tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomes;

(ii) the agents and rates of change in intact forests, and the drivers and geography of these changes;

(iii) comparisons of the functions and services that intact forests provide, compared to more heavily modified forests, including biodiversity, carbon storage, fire resilience, and water cycling;

(iv) the interactions and trade-offs between sustainable forest harvesting ;

(v) the policy options that exist to protect and manage intact forests;

(vi) the international policy levers and financial instruments that can be leveraged to protect intact forests;

(vii) the interaction between indigenous peoples and other traditional peoples play and the management and protection of intact forests;

(viii) evaluations of the effectiveness of existing and past intact forest protection.

Keywords: Forests, Human Impact, Defaunation, Logging, Fire, Climate Change, Sustainability, Intact Forests, Forest Management, Forest Policy

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.