December 2018: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released two publications on climate change and forests. These documents aim to support integration of climate considerations into forest policies and actions and to increase understanding of the role of climate change vulnerability assessments for forest and forest-dependent people.

The paper titled, ‘Climate Change for Forest Policy-Makers: An Approach for Integrating Climate Change into National Forest Policy in Support of Sustainable Forest Management,’ advocates for integrating climate change considerations into national forest-related policies and actions, and aims to strengthen cross-sectoral coordination on climate change between forestry and other land use sectors. The document is based on a governance framework that recognizes eight essential elements of forest governance: forest-related policies and laws; concordance of broader development policies with forest policies; institutional frameworks; financial incentives, economic instruments and benefit sharing; stakeholder participation; information, communication and outreach; stakeholder capacity and action; and cooperation and coordination. FAO argues that these eight elements are critical factors in ensuring a coherent approach to addressing forests and climate change and achieving sustainable forest management (SFM).

FAO’s Committee on Forests (COFO) requested FAO’s Forestry Department to update the 2011 version of the publication, ‘Climate Change for Forest Policy-Makers, ’ to help senior government officials and others prepare the forest sector for the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change in light of new international agreements and frameworks, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Version 2.0 of the document reflects these new frameworks and country commitments.

The paper titled, ‘A Review of Existing Approaches and Methods to Assess Climate Change Vulnerability of Forests and Forest-Dependent People,’ aims to facilitate the preparation of a framework methodology for climate change vulnerability assessments of forest and forest-dependent people, which FAO is currently developing. The document underscores the necessity of approaches to assess the vulnerability of forests to climate change, observing that climate change impacts are already being seen in the world’s forests. The document provides an overview of vulnerability assessment methods, and reflects on how such assessments can be adapted to evaluate the biological vulnerability of forests and the vulnerability of forest-dependent communities to climate change. The document underscores the potential for forest managers and forest-dependent communities to use vulnerability assessments to prioritize where to direct resources to adapt forests and communities to changing conditions, lessen harmful impacts of climate change on forests and forest users and reduce vulnerabilities to climate change. [Publication: Climate Change for Forest Policy-Makers] [Publication: A Review of Existing Approaches and Methods to Assess Climate Change Vulnerability of Forests and Forest-Dependent People]