Research trends: Orchestrating forest policy-making: Involvement of scientists and stakeholders in political processes.

Introductory paper to the Special Issue on “Orchestrating forest policy making: Involvement of scientists and stakeholders in political processes”. Brief conceptual introduction and explanation that the special issue is based on the results from the COST Action FP 1207 in forest policy named ORCHESTRA and the working group (WG) 3, dedicated to researching different pathways to better orchestrate forest-related policies in Europe. Researchers in WG 3 have been concerned with the different means for organizing a participatory policy process involving scientists and stakeholders. The special issue disseminates results from one literature review and ten case studies focusing on the following questions related to participatory forest-related governance: What are the most effective means for participatory forest-related policy processes involving scientists and stakeholders? What are efficient methodologies for developing, implementing and monitoring multi- stakeholder-based forest-related policies? Which factors hinder or support the establishment and implementation of effective participatory forest-related processes involving scientists and stakeholders? The paper also provide an overview of Authors' names and contents of each paper included in the Special Issue.