Description
Forests are well-recognized for their role in climate change mitigation, but the role of forests and trees in providing multiple goods and services that contribute to the resilience and adaptive capacity of people and ecosystems has not yet received the attention it deserves in climate policy and action.
Forests and trees play a crucial role in enhancing social and environmental resilience. Natural forests and wildlands provide on average 28 percent of total household income in communities in and around forests—nearly as much as agricultural crops—supplying food, fuelwood, and fiber for consumption and sale. Forests make essential contributions to health, access to clean water, and moderation of natural disasters, which are especially important to poorer households. They also regulate hydrology, which influences rainfall, flooding, and groundwater recharge both locally and remotely. Deforestation can induce warmer and drier conditions with grave implications for maintaining agricultural productivity, and the effects can be felt over long distances.
The linkage between forests and adaptation is two-fold: forests provide ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being and reduce social vulnerability ('forests for adaptation'). Yet, forests themselves are being impacted by climate change and need to adapt ('adaptation for forests'). Forest protection, sustainable management and reforestation can help people adapt to climate change, but it is also necessary to implement measures to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on forests.
There is renewed global momentum for both forests and adaptation after COP26. Through the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, more than 140 countries pledged to halt deforestation by 2030 with around USD 20 billion in support of this goal. Developed countries agreed to at least double their funding for adaptation by 2025, to reach at least USD 40 billion, a significant milestone to tackle the persisting imbalance between finance for mitigation and adaptation. The Adaptation Fund announced confirmed commitments of USD 356 million, which is three times its mobilization target for 2022. COP26 also adopted the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) to be developed in the period of 2022-2024.
Since 2017, FAO has collaborated with CIFOR, lead center of the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry CGIAR research program (FTA), on the topic of forests, trees and adaptation to climate change. This included three particular milestones: 1) preparation and involvement in the FAO-Quebec conference on Food security and nutrition in the age of climate change (24-27 Sept 2017); 2) Framework Methodology for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments of Forests and Forest Dependent People (2019); and 3) guidelines for Integrating forests and trees in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) (Nov 2020).
More recently, FAO and CIFOR co-organized an event at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Climate, alongside COP26, entitled Leveraging the Power of Forests and Trees for Climate Resilience (Nov 2021), as well as two scientific workshops with leading experts on ecosystem-based adaptation (7-8 Dec 2021) to lay the groundwork for this project.
The objectives of this project are two-fold. The first objective is to draw on CIFOR and FTA’s extensive knowledge on ecosystem-based adaptation and scientific networks to develop a set of principles for integrating forests and trees into climate adaptation policy and action. These principles will be published in a scientific paper, which FAO will draw on to develop a FAO policy paper and agenda item for COFO 2022. The second objective is to develop a collaborative proposal of multi-country support from FAO with CIFOR and partners to provide appropriate technical support to countries for integrating forests and trees in national climate adaptation policies and measures.
