Climate change experts across Europe are converging on the Welsh capital for a major international conference which will play a key role in shaping our landscape for generations to come.
Greater incidence of extreme weather events are already beginning to make an impact with increased flooding, drought, soil erosion, fire and high temperatures.
Now FUTUREforest, an inter-regional project looking at climate change and the key role trees and forests play, believes that by working together it has found how forests can best help combat that change and how we can adapt our forests to it.
The team of experts from the EU INTERREG IVC and Welsh Assembly sponsored project are set on making a seismic shift in the thinking on climate – and showing how the challenges provide fantastic opportunities for forests.
And at the project’s second international conference ‘FUTUREforest – helping Europe meet the challenge of Climate Change’ at the Pierhead, Cardiff, they will be previewing what could be the one of the most influential documents on climate change and forest management this year.
They have brought together all the latest thinking on water management, natural risk, timber production, carbon management, soil protection and biodiversity on best practice based on their shared knowledge.
And the draft report, they believe, will help show policy-makers and politicians the massive benefits regional and national Governments can gain by looking afresh at their forest resource.
The focus for the Welsh team’s project manager from Forestry Commission Wales, Dr Helen Cariss, is on water management.
"It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Wales are at risk from flooding – but trees and woodlands could help reduce that risk," she said.
Forestry Commission Wales, which sponsors FUTUREforest in Wales, is working with researchers to develop good practice guides on using our woodland to help reduce downstream flooding.
Woody debris dams, new floodplain woodland creation and other flood risk management in the uplands can help reduce the kind of flooding that has caused millions of pounds worth of damage across Wales and across Europe.
Meanwhile experts from the other partner regions are specialising in other areas - Auvergne, France (biodiversity); Brandenburg, Germany (knowledge transfer); Bulgaria (soil protection); Catalonia (natural risks); Latvia (timber production); Slovakia (carbon management).
"There is some really exciting work going on across all the regions, and it will all be brought together for the first time in draft form at Cardiff in November," said Helen.
"Learning from other regions, many of which have similar challenges to ourselves, helps us to short cut costly research, which would take a long time to conduct and also to identify new methods of best practice," she said.
The FUTUREForest second international conference ‘FUTUREforest – helping Europe meet the challenge of Climate Change’ will be held at the Pierhead, Cardiff, 18-19 November.
NOTES TO EDITORS
FUTUREforest is a three year INTERREG IVC programme funded by the EU and the Welsh Assembly government. It aims to identify the threats, weaknesses and strengths of Europe’s forest as they face up to climate change; developing best management techniques to guide policy makers and stakeholders.
It also aims to improve and adapt regional and local forest management policies and practices focusing on water balance, soil, biodiversity, timber and non-timber forest products, air quality including carbon sequestration, and natural risk like fires, pests and pathogens.
The objective is to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies and contribute to the economic modernisation and increased competitiveness of Europe through exchange, sharing and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices in woodland management.
The project will provide political decision makers and other stakeholders in European regions with the knowledge, tools and approaches to enable effective forestry/regional development policies and forest management practices.
It also intends to identify opportunities resulting from climate change including increased biomass production - and therefore carbon sequestration - due to changes in rainfall pattern and higher temperatures.
The partners include Auvergne, France (biodiversity); Brandenburg, Germany (knowledge transfer); Bulgaria (soil protection); Catalonia (natural risks); Latvia (timber production); Slovakia (carbon sequestration)
Forestry Commission Wales is responsible for FUTUREforest in Wales. It is the government department responsible for forestry policy and manages the 311,000 acres (126,000 ha) of public forests owned by the Welsh Assembly Government.
More information on the woodlands of Wales is available on: www.forestry.gov.uk/wales