Adapting to climate change in Canadian forest management: Past, present and future

Abstract

Canadian forest management agencies have already made significant progress in addressing climate change. Adaptation measures have included undertaking research and completing assessments; implementing organizational changes; beginning to modify policy, practices, and approaches; developing tools; and providing guidance and education. Although progress to date is encouraging, forest managers recognize that adaptation is in its early stages. Suggested next steps include making further progress in adapting wildfire management; adapting forest and pest management; incorporating climate change considerations into seed transfer, tree species selection, and stocking policies; adapting forest industry operations; and adapting forest management decision making by including climate change in assessment, monitoring, analysis, and forest management planning. Potential longer term options are to move toward integrated adaptation and mitigation and to modify forest management to account for the effects of climate change on processes at broader landscape scales. Moving forward with implementation requires consideration of the degree to which organizations and/or key stakeholders are ready, able, and willing to implement the changes and whether there are appropriate partnerships, enabling institutions, required science and actionable knowledge, sufficient adaptation resources (in terms of knowledgeable individuals and funding), and sufficient leadership to meaningfully move forward with change.