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Climate change is exacerbating already existing pressures on forests. Although higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could increase forest growth in certain regions, there is also a higher risk of extreme weather events like droughts and heatwaves, which could affect forest growth. Climate change mitigation and adaptation measures aim to increase the climate benefits from forests. They focus on both the mitigation capacity of forests (reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases), and the ability to adapt to climate change, creating resilient forests.
Mitigation measures
Mitigation measures either aim to reduce greenhouse gases emissions or to increase the removal of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. There are four ways of achieving this:
Reducing emissions from deforestation
Reducing emissions from forest degradation, degraded forests have less sequestration capacity and emit more due to dying and decomposing trees.
Enhancing forest carbon sinks, this could be done by extending rotation cycles, planting productive species, afforestation, thinning, restoration.
Product substitution, read more about this on the Harvested Wood Products page.
Between mitigation measures and adaptation measures there are synergies and conflicts. A conflict might arise with heavy thinning to make wood available (mitigation) but which can cause stand instability (affecting adaptation). A possible synergy could be planting productive tree species (high carbon sequestration) that is well adapted to predicted future climate change. A brief review of the state of knowledge on Policy options to enhance the contribution of the EU’s forests to climate mitigation is available here.
Adaptation measures
The changes in climate are happening too fast for forests to adapt which could lead to huge diebacks, loss in biodiversity or a decline in growth. Read more about the effects climate change has on forests on the Pressures and Disturbances page. To support forests to adapt to the changing environmental conditions several actions can be taken depending on the forest type, pressures, and region. Adaptation measures could include;
Diversifying the forest in terms of species, structure, age and genetics. A diverse forest is more resilient for pressures and disturbances. This could include changing from a monoculture to a more diversified species composition, or changing from an even-aged forest to an uneven-aged forest.
Active planting with a diverse set of species.
Assisted migration. The movement of species and populations is facilitated within and across their natural range, considering the predicted future climate conditions.
Silvicultural measures like thinning, can reduce competition and drought stress and activities that aim to prevent the occurrence of disturbances, such as salvage logging are implemented to avoid pest outbreaks.