Research is vital to understand and predict the nature and magnitude of the impacts of climate change and the consequences of mitigation and adaptation measures. Not surprisingly therefore, climate change is a major preoccupation of the global scientific community. We have played our own part in this research effort for many years – in the UK, measures to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts are high priorities for the UK government and for the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales. This research fits in to our drive to understand what makes forestry sustainable – and any change in the environment has the potential to affect tree growth and woodland structure in both positive and negative ways. The possible impacts of climate change and what we can do to avoid or adapt to them now cut across all our thinking on sustainable forest management in the UK.
We must promote an open scientific debate that is not inhibited from critical examination of existing policies. 
- Dr Steve Gregory, Research Purchasing Manager, Forestry Commission
The role that forests play in the mitigation of climate change through carbon sequestration is a subject of scientific and public controversy. In the face of a barrage of results from research around the world, we must maintain a scientific capacity to understand and advise on the competing claims and to fill gaps specific to forests and woodlands in the UK. In order to develop adaptation policies we need a better understanding of the functioning of woodland ecosystems in a changing physical environment – and this must include changing relationships between trees and their pests and pathogens. We should also gain clearer insights into what confers – or damages – the resilience of woodland ecosystems. It is vital that we examine the consequences of current policies and management practices to ensure that they are not endowing us with woodlands that are ill-prepared to withstand change.