Making climate information useable for forest-based climate change interventions in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Understanding knowledge systems, that is the combination of agents, practices, and institutions that organize the production, transfer, and use of knowledge and their role in making climate information useable for forest-based climate responses, is critical for building resilience to climate change. This study used the concept of a knowledge system to examine how organizational collaboration, in the processes of forecast translation, influences the production of useable information in forest-based climate change interventions in South Africa. Twenty-two key informant interviews were conducted with actors in the fields of climate change and forestry. Results reveal that carbon sequestration and landscape management are the dominant forest-based climate interventions. Consequently, the information translated from the forecasts is tailored towards facilitating the implementation of these two interventions. Network analysis reveals that actors in the categories of small-scale forest companies and community-based enterprises are less integrated into the process of information production. A concerted effort towards the meaningful integration of all categories of actors in the process of information production, as well as the production of information that encourages the implementation of other types of forest-based climate change interventions such as forest bioenergy, is thus recommended.