MARIE CURIE CLIMATE-FIT FORESTS
(FP7 People, Marie Curie IRSES GA 295136)
Solutions for adapted forest management strategies under the threat of climate change - learning from a climate gradient from Germany over Italy to South Africa
Climate change is a global phenomenon which is generally accepted as a reality by both the scientific community and governments. It is also generally accepted that the impacts of climate change could be the greatest on forests and forestry regionally and internationally through drastic changes in growing conditions. Hence, these changes will also impact seriously on the socioeconomic conditions in various countries, but more particularly the third world, which rely on forests and forests products to support their populations’ basic livelihoods.
In order to combat the effects of climate change suitable adaptations and mitigation strategies will have to be formulated and implemented. In order to implement these mitigating strategies rigorous analyses of climate change and climate changing effects will be required. In addition the application of potential mitigation tools for decision support will need to be sufficiently robust, but flexible enough to enable managers to take actions which are beyond those available in current and traditional practice paradigms.
Therefore, to meet these challenges posed by impending climate change, it will be logical, and critically important, to collaborate internationally in order to combine available and extensive expertise of scientists from countries in a north-south orientation with different climates and complementary forest management expertise, in a synergistic partnership and consortium.
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