Facing an uncertain future: How forests and people can adapt to climate change

ABSTRACT

The most prominent international responses to climate change focus on mitigation (reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases) rather than adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of societies and ecosystems). However, with some degree of climate change now recognised as inevitable, adaptation is gaining importance in the policy arena. Moreover, it is one of the four building blocks of the 2-year Bali Action Planùongoing negotiations towards an international framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. This report presents the case for adaptation for forests (reducing the impacts of climate change on forests and their ecosystem services) and forests for adaptation (using forests to help local people and society in general to adapt to inevitable changes).