Managing Forests for Adaptation to Climate Change

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Managing Forests forAdaptation to Climate Change

• Zoltán Rakonczay
• WWF European Forest Programme
• Strategies for the Sound Use of Wood24-27
  March, 2003, Brasov, Romania

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Outline

• Climate Change and Impacts on Forests
• Natural Adaptation Mechanisms
• Adaptation Measures
• Implications for the Use of Wood

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Climate Change is Happening

• An increasing body of observations gives a
  collective picture of a warming world and other
  changes in the climate system (IPCC TAR)
• It is very likely to be happening
• Caused by anthropogenic sources of GHGs
• Burning of fossil fuels is the main culprit (CO2)
  
• Main issues adaptation and mitigation

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Changes in the Environment

• Temperatures are likely to increase
• (0.1-0.4C/decade)
• Precipitation
• increase in the north, decrease in the south
• changed seasonal pattern
• Extreme weather events more frequent
• storms, floods, droughts
• Increased CO2 concentration

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Likely Impacts on Forests

• Shifting range boundaries
• towards the north
• towards higher elevations
• Changes in phenology
• lengthening of the growing season
• higher evapotranspiration
• functional groups may disintegrate due to
  differing responses to environmental change

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Likely Impacts on Forests (2)

• Changes in the carbon balance (???)
• higher growth (initially?)
• higher decomposition/respiration (!)
• Increased incidents of abiotic damage
• windthrow, fire, snow/ice
• Increased incidents of biotic damage
• new pests moving in
• increased susceptibility due to stress

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Adaptation Mechanisms

• Physiological acclimation
• trees can tolerate changes within the historic
  range of environmental variability
• exceeding this range can be catastrophic

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Adaptation Mechanisms

• Physiological acclimation
• trees can tolerate changes within the historic
  range of environmental variability
• exceeding this range can be catastrophic
• In-situ evolution
• typically a slow process, many life cycles
• adequate genetic diversity is a prerequisite
• losses of diversity (on the short run)
• speciation (on the long run)

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Adaptation Mechanisms (2)

• Migration
• the most effective adaptation strategy by far
• requires freedom of movement along environmental
  gradients
• rate of change is a crucial factor
• functional groups have to migrate together
  (keystone species)
• Refugia
• areas where the special microclimate allowed the
  survival of species

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What is Special AboutCurrent Climate Change?

• The rate of change seems to be extraordinarily
  fast
• The landscape is no longer pristine
• fragmentation
• altered ecosystems
• degraded/stressed ecosystems
• invasive/introduced species
• Ecosystems serve basic human needs
• we cannot afford losing crucial functions

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Implications for the Use of Forest (use of wood -
broad sense)

• Biomass use for energy
• fossil fuel substitution
• Carbon sequestration
• lack of use of wood
• Adaptation measures
• protection/management of forest for biodiversity
  benefits
• to secure services for the long run

For global climate benefits
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Adaptation Measures

• Nature reserves
• sufficient size
• full range of forest types
• Connectivity
• avoid fragmentation
• restore connectivity (corridors)
• Protect climatic refugia / migration corridors
• different scales (microhabitats to ecoregions)
• historic migration corridors are often degraded

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Adaptation Measures (2)

• Protect primary forests
• Provide buffer zones to protected areas
• Practice low-intensity forestry
• small canopy openings to protect microclimate
• reasonably complete set of species
• Maintain genetic diversity at all levels
• Identify and protect functional groups
• Monitor changes (adapt mgmt. if needed)

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Implications for the Use of Wood (strict sense)

• Forest utilisation should give priority to
  adaptation measures
• Use efficiently what forests do provide, instead
  of trying to grow what you think the market will
  demand in the distant future.
• technological advances (targeted research)
• consumption habits of end users (marketing)

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Conclusions

• Climate change is happening
• Forests are likely to suffer major impacts
• Adaptation should be facilitated
• recommended measures differ little from sound
  management under static climate

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Conclusions (2)

• Adaptation measures should be given priority
  (precautionary principle)
• Efficient use of available wood should be
  promoted
• novel technologies
• awareness raising / marketing

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• Zoltán Rakonczay
• WWF Forest - Climate Change Officer
• zoltan.rakonczay_at_elender.hu
• tel [phone]