Abstract

Climate change is a threat to the stability and productivity of forest ecosystems. The loss of forests due to climate-induced stress will have extensive adverse impacts on biodiversity and an array of ecosystem services that are essential for the maintenance of local economies and public health. Despite their importance, there is a lack of decision-support tools required to evaluate the potential effects of climate change on Asia-Pacific ecosystems and economies and to aid in the development of regionally appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The project Adaptation of Asia Pacific Forests to Climate Change aims to address this lack of knowledge and tools and to provide support for regional managers to develop effective policies to increase the adaptive capacity of forest ecosystems. This objective has been achieved through the following activities: (1) development of a high-resolution climate downscaling model-ClimateAP; (2) development of climate niche models to evaluate how climate change might affect the distribution of suitable climatic conditions for regionally important tree species; (3) development and application of forest models to assess alternative management strategies in the context of management objectives and the projected impacts of climate change; (4) evaluation of models to assess forest fire risk and the relationship between forest fire and climate change; (5) evaluation of how vegetation dynamics respond to climate change using remote sensing technology. The outputs were developed with a focus on communication and extension to facilitate the dissemination of results to regional forest resource managers to support the development of effective mitigation/adaptation policy.

Presenters

Guangyu Wang
Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Technical, Political, and Social Responses

KEYWORDS

Adaptation, Asia Pacific, Climate Change, Climate Model, Ecological Model

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