This Special Issue, a product of the SIMRA project and its Thematic Session organised at the 125th Anniversary IUFRO Congress in 2017, is a contribution to advancing and exchanging scientific knowledge of social innovation in the context of forestry. A purpose of the Issue is to promote social learning, contribute ideas on social innovation for the development of rural policy and sustainable forestry, and ideas useful for practice communities at various levels. The aim of this work is to increase the well-being of forest-dependent communities and assist them in building resilience to challenges currently faced. The papers in the special issue focus on identifying and explaining the role and place of social innovation, and the enabling policies and decision-making processes, which lead to an increase in the sustainability and multi-functionality of forests to the benefit of the communities which depend upon them.