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2009-05-06
UNFF welcomes Adaptation Study and calls for further scientific inputs
On 21 April, Risto Seppälä presented to the United Nations Forum on Forests the report of the IUFRO-led Global Forest Expert Panel on Adaptation of Forests to Climate Change (GFEP). The UNFF took note of the report and called for science-based information also for future UNFF sessions.
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) held its 8th session from April 20th to May 1st at the UN Headquarters in New York. There climate change was considered a key agenda item. In order to inform related discussions, Expert Panel Chair Risto Seppälä presented the main findings of the assessment report on "Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change". Two of the leading authors of the report, Andreas Fischlin (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland) and Jeremy Rayner (University of Regina, Canada) went into further detail about the results of the assessment regarding the climate change impacts on forests and the policy options for adaptation.
More than 200 copies of the full report and 600 copies of the policy brief entitled "Making forests fit for climate change" were distributed to the UN delegates and had an influence in the discussions of the Forum on climate change. Several key messages of the assessment are reflected in the resolution on “Forests in a changing environment” adopted by the Forum. The Forum also invited the Global Forest Expert Panels initiative to continue to provide science-based information relevant to the themes of future UNFF sessions.
The main findings of the assessment report were also taken up by news media from around the world. Highlights of the media coverage include reports in Nature Magazine, BBC News, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Canwest News Service (Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Germany), Europa Press (Spain), Radio Canada, Radio France Internationale, Deutsche Welle Radio, Globe & Mail (Canada), Le Monde (France), Politiken (Denmark), Die Presse (Austria), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy). The report was covered by media in 16 languages, including Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Thai.
Alexander Buck, GFEP Coordinator: buck (at) iufro.org
Further information:
Find the report and detailed information on GFEP here.
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