A global assessment on adaptation of forests to climate change

Abstract

An international Expert Panel was established in 2007 to undertake an assessment of the impacts of climate change on forests and forest-dependent people as well as on management and policy options for effective adaptation to climate change. This paper summarizes the main findings of the assessment, which has also revealed severe limitations in current knowledge. Much more research is needed, especially on the forest-related social and economic impacts of climate change. Despite the limitations of current knowledge, climate change is progressing too quickly to postpone actions pending the outcomes of future studies. The assessment confirms that the practices associated with sustainable forest management are likely to help reduce environmental, social and economic vulnerabilities under a wide range of potential future climatic conditions.

Keywords:

• Climate change impacts on forests
• forest adaptation management
• forest adaptation policy
• global forest expert panel

Acknowledgements

This article is based on the peer-reviewed global assessment report “Adaptation of forests and people to climate change” (Seppälä et al., 2009a), which was prepared on a collaborative basis by an international expert panel. I express my gratitude to all 35 authors of the assessment report and to my fellow editors of the report, Alexander Buck and Pia Katila.