Abstract: Forests are vulnerable to climate change. It is therefore important to maintain and enhance their resilience and adaptive capacity, including through fire prevention and other adaptive solutions (e.g. appropriate species, plant varieties, etc.). At the same time, forest management can mitigate climate change if forests’ role as sinks in the carbon cycle is maintained or enhanced and by providing bio-materials that can act as temporary carbon stores or as carbon substitutes, replacing carbon-intensive materials and fuels. The European Union recently adopted rules for accounting, monitoring and reporting on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry under which Member States will, for example, provide information on their plans for enhancing sinks and reducing forest-related emissions. The EU and Member States have also made Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry -related commitments to be achieved by 2020, the 2nd Commitment Period under the Kyoto Protocol. Forests also mitigate the impact of extreme weather events by moderating temperatures, and reducing wind speed and water run-off.

ecosystem, emissions, forest sector, biological productivity, available resources

Presentation: oral