Forests and climate change:Future strategies for protection and sustainable use
BackgroundGlobal warming with a predicted rise in average temperature at an unprecedented speed, leads us to expect definite impacts on forest ecosystems due to their comparatively slow reaction rates and anthropogenic imprint. The change in forest sites resulting from climate change (gradual) and the increase of extreme events such as storms, pest calamities or forest fires (abrupt) can result in habitats that are no longer suitable for certain species. The difficulties are intensified partly by great uncertainties, for example temporal or spatial variations of climate change and its exact nature, the interactions with other human impacts and possible reactions of the ecosystems. This is hardly ever taken into account in current concepts for nature conservation in German forests.
ObjectivesFirstly, current objectives and reference systems of nature conservation in forests and possible conservation strategies regarding climate change will be analysed and evaluated within the research project. Secondly, recommendations will be made for potential future conservation guidelines. The MethodsTheories concerning impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems and possible strategies of adaptation will be identified and interpreted by literature research and analysing thematically related projects. Therefore a classification of different categories will be made (e. g. disciplinary background, considered forest ecosystem, possibilities and intensity of intervention). A socio-scientific survey of forest and nature conservation management about already practised adaptations on the subject of climate change will complete the results. The following evaluation analyses the feasibility of recent forest conservation objectives with a view to the implications of climate change. This is based on a former research project at the Institute of Landscape Management ("Development of ecological criteria for forest management as a fundament for an incentive-based conservation strategy"). The results will be validated by discussion at an international committee of experts. At this point, the potential ability of forests to respond, adaptation and management strategies, as well as reference systems and guidelines of forest conservation will be discussed. In a further step, the guideline discussion will be considered in a wider, international perspective. In conclusion, recommendations for forest conservation in Germany will be made, which should provide a framework for a range of strategies at regional level.
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