The 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests
The 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests
Forests at the Crossroads: Integrating Ecology, Technological Innovation, and Governance
Part of the International Electronic Conference on Forests series
Event's Timezone: Central European Summer Time
17 May 2026
16 July 2026
19 July 2026
15 August 2026
9 September 2026
forest ecology, remote sensing, sustainable forest management, wood science, climate change, wildfire, ecosystems service, tree physiology
The IECF 2026 is Now OPEN for Abstract Submission and Registration.
Instructions for authors are available online.
Submit your abstracts HERE.
For any inquiries, please contact us at iecf2026@mdpi.com.
Welcome from the Chairs
We are pleased to extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to each of you on behalf of the organizing committee of the 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests—Forests at the Crossroads: Integrating Ecology, Technological Innovation, and Governance, which will be hosted online and promoted by the open access MDPI journal Forests (ISSN: 1999-4907; IF: 2.5).
The aim of this gathering is to bring together academics, practitioners, and innovators whose works shape the future of forest science. Participants come from a wide range of institutions and professional backgrounds across the globe, each contributing valuable experiences, perspectives, and insights that reflect the complexity and diversity of our planet’s forests.
Throughout the conference, we aim to cover—among others—the following topics:
S1. Forest Ecology and Sustainable Management;
S2. Forest Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Earth Observations;
S3. Wood Science, Production Chains, Fuelwood and Trade;
S4. Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing;
S5. Wildfires and Other Forest Disturbances;
S6. Forest Ecophysiology, Genetics and Molecular Biology.
Once again, welcome to IECF 2026. We look forward to a stimulating and rewarding experience.
Kind regards,
Dr. Nikolay S. Strigul, Washington State University Vancouver, USA
Chairs of the 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests
Event Chairs
Mark Vanderwel holds a Ph.D. in Forestry from the University of Toronto and is currently Associate Professor at the University of Regina. His research in forest ecology focuses on how tree-level demographic processes interact with disturbance to create changing patterns of structure, biomass, and diversity within forest stands and landscapes. By understanding how tree growth, mortality, and recruitment are controlled by different environmental factors, he seeks to learn how processes such as climate change and disturbance affect the broader condition of forest ecosystems over time.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Arts and Sciences, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, USA
Dr Nikolay Strigul is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at WSU Vancouver. He has previously held research and faculty positions at Stevens Institute of Technology and Princeton University. His research centers on mathematical modeling of forest dynamics, with the goal of understanding and predicting the impacts of environmental stressors and land-use practices. He integrates mathematical and statistical methodologies with experimental studies and remote sensing technologies to advance our understanding of biological phenomena across multiple scales. His research interests include forest modeling, environmental science, remote sensing, applied mathematics and statistics, complex adaptive systems, as well as data-intensive and individual-based models.
Sessions
S2. Forest Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Earth Observations
S3. Wood Science, Production Chains, Fuelwood and Trade
S4. Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing
S5. Wildfires and Other Forest Disturbances
S6. Forest Ecophysiology, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Registration
When registering as an "Academic", please register with your academic email address, as this will accelerate the registration process. If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for understanding.
Participation to the conference is considered final only once the registration fees have been paid. The number of participants is limited: once the number of paid registrations reaches the maximum number of participants, unpaid registrations will be cancelled.
Please note that, in order to finalize the scientific program in due time, at least one registration by any of the authors, denoted as the “Covering Author”, is required to cover the presentation and publication of any accepted abstract. The “Covering Author” registration deadline is 15 August 2026. Your abstract will be withdrawn if your registration is not completed by this date.
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Group of 3, 5% off;
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Group of 5 or more, 10% off;
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Group of 10 or more, 15% off.
|
Early Bird Until 19 July 2026 |
Regular Until 9 September 2026 |
Supported documents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author, Reviewers, Topical Advisory Panel Members, Review Board Members, Guest Editors | 30.00 CHF | 50.00 CHF | |
| Student | 30.00 CHF | 50.00 CHF |
Please upload the front and back of your valid Student lD card. |
| Academic | 50.00 CHF | 70.00 CHF | |
| Non-academic | 100.00 CHF | 150.00 CHF |
| Supported documents | |
|---|---|
| Conference Chairs, Session Chairs, Committee Members of the Conference, Keynote Speakers, Invited Speakers, MDPI Guests, Editorial Board Members |
Please upload your invitation email. |
| Listener |
Cancellation policy
| > 2 weeks before the conference | Full refund |
| < 2 weeks before the conference | No refund |
Disclaimer
We will endeavour to present the program advertised. However, MDPI and its partners reserve the right to alter or cancel, without prior notice, arrangements, timetables, plans, or other items relating directly or indirectly to the 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests—Forests at the Crossroads: Integrating Ecology, Technological Innovation, and Governance. MDPI and its partners are not liable for any loss or inconvenience caused as a result of such cancellation.
Beware of Unauthorized Registration
Note that Sciforum is the only official registration platform to register to IECF 2026. Beware that entering into financial agreements with non-endorsed companies can have costly consequences.
Insurance
The organizers do not accept liability for personal accident, loss, or damage to private property incurred as a result of participation in the event.
Payment methods
Wire transfer, Credit card
Currencies accepted by this event
Swiss francs (CHF) , Euros (EUR) , US dollars (USD) , Pounds sterling (GBP) , Japanese yen (JPY) , Canadian dollars (CAD) and Singapore dollars (SGD)
Instructions for Authors
The 5th International Electronic Conference on Forests will accept abstracts only. The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference.
2. All abstracts should be submitted and presented in clear, publication-ready English with accurate grammar and spelling.
3. You may submit multiple abstracts. However, only one abstract will be selected for oral presentation.
4. The abstracts submitted to this conference must be original and novel, without prior publication in any journals or it will not be accepted to this conference.
1. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors are aware of the contents of the abstract.
2. Please select only one presenter for each submission. If you would like to change the presenter after submission, please email us accordingly.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 mins. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session.
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the abstract. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly on the website using the proprietary slide viewer at Sciforum.net. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results are presented. Slides should be converted to PDF format prior to submission so that they can be converted for online display.
- Should include the title, authors, contact details and main research findings, as well as tables, figures and graphs where necessary.
- Size in pixel: 1080 width x 1536 height–portrait orientation.
- Size in cm: 38, 1 width x 54, 2 height–portrait orientation.
- Font size: ≥16.
- Examples of successful submissions can be viewed here at the following links: (1), (2), (3).
- You can use our free template to create your poster.
The poster template can be downloaded HERE. We will reach out to you closer to the dates of the conference with more information.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunities
- Forests Journal Publication
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue (to be updated), published in Forests (ISSN: 1999-4907, Impact Factor: 2.5), with a 20% discount on the publication fee. Please note, if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
- Proceeding Paper Publication
If participants wish to publish an extended proceeding paper (4–8 pages) to Environmental and Earth Sciences Proceedings(ISSN: 3042-5743), please submit it after the conference.
Authors are asked to disclose that it is a proceeding paper of the IECF 2026 conference paper in their cover letter. Carefully read the rules outlined in the 'Instructions for Authors' on the journal’s website and ensure that your submission adheres to these guidelines.
Proceedings submission deadline: 31 October 2026.
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must be formatted as follows:
Please click HERE to submit your proceeding paper to Environmental and Earth Sciences Proceedings.
Title.
Full author names.
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses.
Abstract.
Keywords.
Introduction.
Methods.
Results and Discussion.
Conclusions.
Acknowledgements.
References.
eesp_proceeding_paper-template.docx
Event Awards
To acknowledge the support of the conference's esteemed authors and recognize their outstanding scientific accomplishments, we are pleased to announce that the conference will provide 6 awards including Best Oral Presentation Award and Best Poster Award.
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 6
The Best Oral Presentation Awards are given to the submission judged to make the most significant oral contribution to the conference.
The Best Poster Awards are given to the submission judged to make the most significant and interesting poster for the conference.
There will be six winners selected for these awards. The winner will receive a certificate and 200 CHF each.
Sponsors and Partners
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Vivien Zhang
Ms. Tracy Zhou
Ms. Darija Zrnovic
Email: iecf2026@mdpi.com
For inquiries regarding submissions and sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to contact us.
