Forests and climate change are intrinsically linked, in ways that extend beyond carbon. Climate change could change the forest landscape worldwide and vice versa. Changes in global climate may have diverse effects on forests, including stress, compositional and functional changes, and changes in the capacity of forests to provide products and services. These effects are as yet poorly understood. Forest ecosystems capture and store CO₂, making a major contribution to the mitigation of climate change. However, when forests are destroyed, over-harvested or burned, they can become a source of CO₂ emissions.

In December 2009 Parties to the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol are expected to agree on an ambitious and effective international response to climate change for the next commitment period. This Copenhagen agreement will likely include a range of forest-related adaptation and mitigation measures. The mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) has been the most debated measure on the road to Copenhagen.

In the ETFRN News 50 on Forests and Climate Change, a contribution is made to a better understanding of the role of forests and their management in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Towards best forest management practices for adaptation and mitigation

Reducing deforestation and forest degradation through better forest governance and management will contribute to mitigating climate change. Better forest management may further help people adapt their livelihoods in the face of the inevitable changes in climate that will occur in the coming decades. The challenge after Copenhagen will be to translate goals and agreements into policies and practices that work and to develop approaches to effectively integrate the objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation with sustainable forest management and biodiversity protection. These approaches must at the same time contribute to the welfare of rural people in developing countries.

Measures needed to enhance the mitigation and adaptation potential of forests are largely the same practices and policies that have been identified for achieving sustainable forest management in the past. Therefore climate objectives are most effectively and sustainably achieved if they are embedded in a multiple use forest management approach. This means recognizing the tradeoffs that exist between, for example, timber production, carbon storage and biodiversity conservation, a core challenge of sustainable forest management since decades.

The importance of governance underpins the effective integration of forest and climate change objectives. Local populations need to be involved in a meaningful way to create co-benefits for their livelihoods, biodiversity and other environmental services. Not addressing “people” and “planet” considerations is increasingly seen as a business risk. Capacity-building will have to go beyond technical issues and focus on the country’s governance and institutional structures. The integration of REDD and forest law enforcement and governance initiatives will generate synergies and avoid duplication.

More reflections on the way forward after Copenhagen, can be found in the synthesis article from the ETFRN News “Forests and climate change: an overview”

Link to ETFRN News 50 “Forests and Climate Change: adaptation and mitigation”

This ETFRN News is a joint production of Tropenbos International and Wageningen International and has been made possible by financial contributions of the Government of the Netherlands, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).