On 21 March 2019 (3:00 PM CET), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) and European Forest Institute (EFI) are holding a webinar on "Forests: Solutions and perspectives to fight climate change."
Forest ecosystems and their wide range of services are threatened by multiple, interrelated, and simultaneous socio-economic and climate changes. Climate change scenarios predict changes in the potential distribution ranges of tree species and forest habitats, increased incidence of forest insect pests, and increased fire risk. These impacts, in turn, will determine significant alteration of forest health, functionality, biodiversity and possibly enhance desertification, thus compromising the provision of ecosystem services as we know it.
The Paris Agreement (2015) and the latest IPCC Assessment Report (2018) included explicit call to conserve and enhance forests and other biological carbon reservoirs and also emphasizes urgent and efficient actions to protect vulnerable ecosystems and biodiversity in the context of combating climate change and adapting to its impacts. Climate policy is thus a top priority, but as highlighted by the IPCC (2018) assessment, its targets must build on synergies with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN.
In this context, sustainable forest management and climate smart forestry activities can maintain forest functions and services while having a central role in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the long-term, broadly contributing to SDGs.
CMCC Foundation, in collaboration with EFI, will celebrate the international day of forests taking stocks of the existing know-how, research activities, and policies implementing sustainable forest management to support the role of forest to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
3:00 pm – Welcome and introduction - Valentina Bacciu, CMCC – IAFES Division3:05 pm – Challenges and perspectives for a long-term vision in managing forests under climate change: the Italian case – Marco Marchetti, University of Molise3:25 pm – Climate-Smart Forestry: the missing link – Hans Verkerk - European Forest Institute3:45 pm – Managing forest fire to cope with climate change: adaptation and mitigation strategies – Donatella Spano - University of Sassari and CMCC Foundation4.05 pm – Q&A session (moderated by Valentina Bacciu)4.25 pm – Closing Remarks