Context

With the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report has come more certainty that climate change is an inevitable consequence of past and present human activities on this planet.  Forests interact intimately with climate, acting as sinks of CO₂ when growing, and as a source of CO₂ when being destroyed by natural or by man-driven events.  Forests are also an essential part of many societies in the developed and developing world, integrated within the economic and social fabrics of their populations.  A changing climate will impact forests and therefore will influence these societies.  How can we adapt our forest management? How can we soften blows and capture opportunities? These and many other questions are at the heart of the present conference.

Conference goal and objectives

The conference will focus on the current state of knowledge of ongoing changes in climatic conditions in different regions of the world, and the implications of these changes for forest management and conservation. Presentations and discussions will emphasise research, policies and practices that are needed to enable us to plan for and manage healthy, productive forests to meet future societal needs for forest products and the full range of forest goods and services. Ongoing research in various fields of forest and forest related sciences will be presented in parallel sessions of the conference.

Target audience

Public sector, private enterprise and civil society specialists involved in the challenges related to the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts and adaptation to climate change as related to forests, forest health and forest management, and including:

• Researchers and academics
• Managers and investors
• Policy makers and planners

Conference Format

The conference welcomes posters and papers and includes presentations by selected keynote speakers who will provide state-of-the art overviews of main topics in focus. Both invited and offered technical presentations will be given in concurrent sessions. Field trips are planned for the day after the conference (Aug 29, 2008, choice between excursions on various topics).

Language

The official conference language will be English. No translation facilities will be provided.

Submitting abstracts

The conference welcomes oral and poster presentations. Guidelines for presentation formats are provided below.  All contributors are kindly requested to submit their abstracts by e-mail to the following mailbox address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Related events

The Forest Adaptation 2008 conference is not an isolated event as many others are focussing on various issues related to climate change and terrestrial systems. Of particular interest is the “High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy”, hosted by FAO, in June 2008, in which discussions will underscore the strong linkages between food security and poverty reduction in the face of climate change and energy security. The challenges faced by agriculture, fisheries and forestry from climate change and bioenergy will be highlighted in order to identify the steps required to safeguard food security within the broader context of action at the global, regional and national levels.

Two other conferences will also be held shortly after the Forest Adaptation 2008 conference:

• The 14th Conference of the International Boreal Forest Research Organisation on
  “The role of boreal forests in a global context”,
  September 22-27 2008, Harbin, China.
  
• The International Conference on the “Role of Forests in Climate Management: Research-Innovation – Capacity Building”
  co-organised by the Federal Forest Agency of Russia, the World Bank Group, The FAO, IUFRO and the WHO,
  October 4-7 2008, St-Petersburg, Russia,.

Interaction is being planned among these events so that declarations and recommendations can be used to raise the overall awareness of forest-related issues within the global debate on climate change.