Global dry forests: a prologue

SUMMARY The dry forest biome covers extensive areas of the global tropics. However, the understanding of these forest formations from both human and biophysical perspectives varies widely both geographically and in terms of disciplinarity. While considerable resources have been made available for the sustainable management of the humid tropical forests, there has been a lack of comparable sustained attention on their dry forest equivalents. This special issue is an attempt to provide further insights into the state of the knowledge of global dry forests, and identify research gaps that could contribute to their long-term sustainability, both for human well-being and ecological integrity.