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Episode 2: Time to resist and adapt
473 Plays2 years ago
Explore what stresses forests and how society responds in our latest podcast episode
We are excited to present the newest episode of Branching Out. Join us as we discuss the topic of strengthening forest resilience and adaptation. Listen how people, trees and ecosystems adapt and resist to stress.
Featuring co-host Ewa Hermanowicz, from FSC and Coordinator of IUFRO’s Communication and public relations working party, along with Lucy Amissah from Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Andrew Liebhold from the US Forest Service, Mariella Marzano from Forest Research UK and Jens Peter Skovsgaard from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who together unravel the interplay between climate change and forest health.
We explore current trends and developments in forestry and research that aim to adapt forests to climate change. Learn about the role of society for the future of forests. Tune in to Branching Out: the forest podcast on your favourite platform or visit our website to access this episode. And don’t forget to subscribe, share, and join us on this podcasting adventure.
More info at iufro.org
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Transcript
Challenges Facing Forests
00:00:00
Speaker
Picture a dense forest engulfed in flames, raging wildfires that destroy everything in their path. Or imagine a silent invasion of voracious pests slowly transforming vibrant forests into dead landscapes.
00:00:18
Speaker
And then fierce storms with winds that pare through ancient trees leaving all devastated. How can forests endure the lot? Trees cannot run for shelter. Can we give them a hand?
Introduction to 'Branching Out' Podcast
00:00:38
Speaker
Welcome back to Branching Out, the forest podcast, where we connect forests, science and people. Brought to you by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, IUFRO. Let's discover the role of forests and trees for people and nature while we unravel complex forest topics and keep you up to date with forest research.
EU Forest Congress 2024 Themes
00:00:55
Speaker
In the previous episode, we talk about the general theme of the EU for War Congress 2024 in Estokolm, Sweden, for us and society towards 2050. In this episode, we dive into how people, trees and ecosystems adapt and resist to stress, which is the first of the five guiding themes of the Congress. We will explore how forest disturbances affect not only the environment, but also society.
00:01:17
Speaker
Moreover, we will uncover inspiring ideas of adaptation and resilience as communities and ecosystems find ways to overcome these challenges. I'm your host, Jose Volanos, a passionate science communicator from the Ayufro headquarters. And joining me is Eva Hermanovic from FSA, who has a lot of experience in communicating about forest genetic resources and lists Ayufro units on communication and public relations. Welcome, Eva!
00:01:42
Speaker
Thanks, Jose, and thank you for the introduction. You mentioned forest genetic resources and they are actually at the basis of adaptation of forest trees to change. The wider the genetic base, the higher the chances to adapt to changing conditions.
00:01:58
Speaker
And we hear the word stress in many contexts, say the stress you feel before a test or a job interview, a work deliverable when you're organizing an event and much more. Over the next 20 minutes we'll take you on an exploration into causes and impacts of stress and some inspiration in the face of adversity, but not any stress, the one that forests face.
00:02:22
Speaker
So grab some water or a cup of tea or coffee and prepare to embark on a journey into the heart of our forests.
Forest Stressors in West Africa
00:02:30
Speaker
And to truly understand the stresses of the forests, let me introduce our first guest, Lucy Amisa from Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. Lucy, you study the relationship between living organisms and their environment. What stresses the forests?
00:02:46
Speaker
Thank you very much for this question. Forests are actually stressed through the disturbances. And these disturbances include drought, wildfires, pests and diseases, unregulated, logging of the forest for timber, illegal mining, hunting for bush meat. So all these are disturbances that stresses the forest.
00:03:10
Speaker
The extent and the severity of the disturbance determine how the impact is going to be. In addition, even the characteristics of the forest itself will determine how stressful the forest is going to be. In which regions of Africa are forests most stressed?
00:03:28
Speaker
The region of the tropical forest that is most stressed is the forest in West Africa, what we call the Apagini forest. And the Apagini forest is one of the biodiversity hotspots in the whole world. It is the most threatened by illegal logging, expansion for agriculture, illegal
00:03:49
Speaker
For example, we in Ghana, we have had problems with wildfires. And currently, as we speak, about 30% of the moist semi-deciduous and dry semi-deciduous forests have been altered in terms of their structure and in the composition. By the way, semi-deciduous refers to plants that lose their leaves for a short period of time. This is normally in the tropics and subtropical areas with woody species.
00:04:15
Speaker
And you know that when the structure of the forest is affected, it's kind of affecting the kind of animal species that we have because some animal species actually live in the upper story. And then if you know the whole structure of the forest is broken, then it affects the habitat of some animals.
00:04:32
Speaker
In Liberia, also, we have a big block of forests, as well as in Cuba, and all these countries are experiencing similar disturbances and threats as we have in Ghana. Forest disturbances, that is drought, fire, wind, snow, ice, insects, and others,
00:04:52
Speaker
are also a natural component of forest dynamics, but have been increasing in frequency and severity. Why do we see more of these disturbances?
Human Impact on Forests
00:05:02
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Is this all due to climate change? How has climate change affected forests?
00:05:07
Speaker
I think it's due to human pressure. We know that the population of the world has really tripled and there is demand for goods and services that the forest indeed provides. And so we are having more exploitation of resources to meet our needs. There's a lot of conversion of AVS for agricultural productivity. We are expanding mining, for example, into forest
00:05:33
Speaker
AAVS to be able to get resources to meet the needs of various economies, developed countries. A lot of the forest is being mined even for resources. And so all these land use changes are happening because we need to meet the demands of individual countries. But climate change is also exacerbating these impacts.
00:05:57
Speaker
The Ayufro World Congress 2024 first theme focuses on strengthening forest resilience and the concept of resilience is heavily debated. What is your take on forest resilience? Resilience actually would mean the capacity of the forest to resist the state banks and also recover from it.
00:06:18
Speaker
There are a number of actions that can be taken in a global literature so forest management activities have to ensure that the large block of forest that we have are maintained because if you have the proper structure of the forest and the composition
00:06:34
Speaker
and the diversity all in place. It helps in how they are able to absorb shock and then recover from it. A lot of forests have also been fragmented because of issues like wildfires and fragmentation affects the habitat of some species. So it is important that these areas that are
00:06:54
Speaker
destroyed or degraded are restored. So when we restore, what we are trying to do is that we are building connectivity between the fragmented areas and it also helps animals to move within these corridors. One important thing that we have to do to continue to ensure the resilience of the forest is also to reduce that aligning causes.
00:07:14
Speaker
So poverty is an underlying cause, especially in the tropics where most people live around the forest areas. It depends directly on it. And due to poverty, put a lot of pressure on exploiting resources from the forest. And so we need to be able to work on that.
00:07:31
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Talking about restore rain- degraded areas, it is important that we ensure different approaches are used. Currently, there's a lot of focus on just planting. But in some areas, we can use natural regeneration, which is low cost. And studies have shown that areas in Africa and Central America, the forest recovers very fast.
00:07:53
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Thanks Eva and Lucy. This was very interesting, the topic of the West African Upper Guinea forest and the situation there. And joining us in the exploration is Andrew Liphol from the US Forest Service. His research on invasive species and forest pests has shaped forest management strategies, protecting ecosystems and promoting sustainable practice. In fact, Sandy will be a keynote speaker
00:08:17
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on the topic of trending in forest resilience at the 2024 Congress.
Biological Invasions and Climate Change
00:08:21
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Welcome Sandy. How do you see the relationship between climate change and forest health? Yeah, thanks. I feel like the two largest problems globally these days are climate change,
00:08:32
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and biological invasions. They're largely separate problems, and I think they both have posed pretty serious problems and challenges for managing forests because they're both having huge impacts on forests. The way we've been managing forests probably isn't working very well. I think that you can find some really good examples around the world, certainly here in Europe,
00:08:56
Speaker
One of the biggest problems now with climate change has been that Norway spruce, which is probably the most widely used tree species in plantation forestry in Europe, is not as suitable for a lot of the sites where it's being planted. This has triggered bark beetle outbreaks and a lot of tree mortality and has greatly disrupted forest management activities.
00:09:18
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When we start planting species outside of their native range, they very often will grow better than they do in their native range. But then there are also situations where if conditions change, they may not do as well. And I think that's sort of what we're facing now in Europe.
00:09:34
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And how about the second challenge? And the problem of biological invasions is one in a way, it's a more difficult problem, I think, because with climate change, you know, you can always find some tree species that that's adapted to a certain climate. But what we're seeing with biological invasions is that we have probably more sort of irreversible changes taking place.
00:09:57
Speaker
As the world, we have increasing amounts of globalization, of trade, a movement of people around the world. There is this problem that we accidentally move species from one part of the world to another, and these can cause huge problems. And we're facing this in forestry. These problems manifest them both in terms of
00:10:17
Speaker
invasive plants that in some cases the native tree species, you know, for throughout evolution dominated forest ecosystems are being displaced by non-native tree species. But we also have the problem of invasions of insects and diseases and in many cases these can be quite catastrophic.
00:10:35
Speaker
where I'm from in North America, we have probably more than our fair share of disasters. We've had the chestnut blight that came in, was accidentally introduced in the early 1900s. More recently, we've had this emerald ash borer, which was accidentally introduced. And both these insects and diseases, they're examples of organisms that are eliminating most of their hosts. And in most cases, there was really nothing that we can do once these species become established. And
00:11:03
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The consequences are pretty severe that we're basically eliminating individual tree species from forest ecosystems. And that's something that, as I was saying before, it's sort of in many cases an irreversible trend. And that's why there are measures to prevent the spread of unwanted organisms.
00:11:21
Speaker
otherwise called biosecurity. For example, in airports and docks. You probably have experienced this while traveling. These two challenges definitely make it difficult for a tree or a species alone, which is likely to succumb to this. What does the forest resilient mean in this case?
00:11:35
Speaker
One of the things that we're kind of learning is that when are more tree species in an area that actually creates more opportunities for invasions of insects and diseases, because very often insects and diseases, they specialize on one tree species or a genus of a tree. And so if you have more tree species that basically this kind of creates more opportunities for those insects and diseases,
00:12:01
Speaker
But on the flip side, when you have more tree species in an area, it probably makes the invasions a little less catastrophic. So in other words, if you have 20 tree species in an area and you wipe out one of those tree species, it's not that bad. On the other hand, if you have one or two tree species in an area, you wipe out one of those tree species, then that's pretty bad.
00:12:25
Speaker
And will forests reach a tipping point soon? Or are we already at this point of massive and potentially irreversible change? I think I'm less pessimistic that we're reaching some kind of tipping point with forests around the world. I do think that we can actually adapt in many cases to a lot of changes in the climate. And I think that the reality is that
00:12:48
Speaker
In many cases, our management practices have been rather static and in some cases have actually created more problems than a lot of the problems that we have. For example, in the North American West, you probably know there's this huge problem with wildfires. Fire is actually a very natural part of most forest ecosystems. For years, we've done such a good job of suppressing fires that the conditions in
00:13:18
Speaker
forests in western North America have quite substantially changed. And in fact, many of the forest insect and disease problems we have in the American West are a consequence of suppressing fires. Thanks Jose and Sandy.
Forest Decline and Society
00:13:31
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And as we have explored the impacts of climate change on forests, it becomes evident that these changes extend beyond the realm of trees and their ecosystems.
00:13:40
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The consequences of these disturbances have profound implications for society. Just imagine the situation of people living close to fire-prone forests. Joining us to shed light on the broader societal impact is Mariela Martano from Forest Research UK. Her research focuses on the social aspects of forest health and, like Sandy, concerning pests and diseases.
00:14:06
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Society benefits from many forest ecosystem services such as wood production, food like berries or mushrooms, energy, carbon sequestration, water management, to name a few. If forests decline, what are some of the knock-on effects on society?
00:14:23
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So when our forests decline, the knock on effects on society are wide ranging and they include the reduction and loss of all the services you've already highlighted. So they affect livelihoods, access to medicine and shelter, in urban forests which help regulate our temperatures, you've got the urban heat island effect, they help with flood event, they remove air pollutant, they help with noise and think about the loss of
00:14:46
Speaker
access for recreation so the physical and mental health and benefits of seeing and engaging with trees has been widely studied. We've got forest bathing for example and during the pandemic there were a number of really interesting studies that showed our massive appreciation for being able to connect with our trees and our forests.
00:15:03
Speaker
Mariela, how can history help us when it comes to managing the health of our forests? There's so much that we can learn from past records in terms of identification of pests and diseases, but also what can be done in terms of management and engaging communities. This all provides lessons in terms of what to do and what not to do, more importantly.
00:15:24
Speaker
Because forest managers face really difficult tasks in identifying the right approach to take, but given the huge uncertainties and in the same vein, something that I'm really interested in, what can we learn from each other? How is society key to the future of our forests? Everyone can be involved in checking on our trees, making sure that they are well, that they look good. And the key is to arm people with information on what to look out for, how to do this, and who to report it to if they find something.
00:15:51
Speaker
Ultimately, it's to keep planting trees, but making sure they're planting the right tree in the right place to minimise stress, increase those benefits for society. And the forest experts will tell you that understanding the conditions in which trees are expected to live now and into the future is really crucial. Your species diversity, your forest structure, your soils and the microbiome,
00:16:12
Speaker
your water, your pollution surrounding land use change. But it's also crucial to understand the social, political and economic infrastructure that needs to be in place. And a good deal of thinking is needed about how we include all members of all sectors, all societies in decision making about forest protection. Yay. So with all this in mind, what is forest resilience to you? It's very, very context specific and can mean different things to different people in different contexts.
00:16:40
Speaker
So it's something that is wanted, but the specifics of what is wanted can vary widely across cultures, disciplines, organizations and individuals. So I'm skirting the question somewhat, but I had a look and my own organization's vision is for thriving trees, woods and forests, helping to tackle society's biggest challenges.
00:16:59
Speaker
And we're increasingly seeing that organisational shift within many sectors and government bodies, such as my own, the UK Forestry Commission, towards prioritising engagement and resilience to make sure our forests are fit for the future. Rather than a prescriptive list, though, what resilience is and involves, can we turn on its head a bit and start to think about what components or different pathways of resilience we could be looking at? So that's your resistance.
00:17:22
Speaker
That's your recovery, your adaptation or your transformation and thinking about these pathways. So what is it that you're looking at in terms of what is it you want in terms of resilience? And where should you tackle that? Which sort of pathway do you want to go down? Maybe all the pathways, maybe just one or two.
00:17:39
Speaker
Thinking through these pathways can help you identify and, you know, target those management actions. And what is important, though, is that those involved in thinking through and planning for resilience need to develop that common understanding. What do we mean about resilience here in this context?
00:17:55
Speaker
That's a great insight into how society plays a role in what we're discussing today, which is resilience and adaptation. Thank you, Mariela and Eva. Now, climate change is making life more difficult for forests and it becomes harder for them to adapt to all sorts of stress, all and new. And if forests can recover quickly after extreme stressful events, their ability to mitigate the impact of climate change may also decline.
00:18:20
Speaker
How can we support forests to adapt to global changes, especially climate change and their impacts? Can we help them to become more resilient, robust, less fragile? Well, here to answer this is Jens Petros-Cogart from the Swedish University of Agricultural and Science, SLU. He is a silviculturist. What it means is someone who studies the grow, the structure and quality of forests with a view on the goods and services they provide.
00:18:44
Speaker
Welcome,
Global Forestry Trends
00:18:45
Speaker
JP. What are current trends and developments in forestry and research that aim to adapt forest to climate change? Well, globally, there are three rather opposing trends in forestry, but two of them are handled much the same way. So in forestry practice, it looks like two trends you could say. And the first trend is to make the forest either more robust or more resilient. And robustness, that's the ability of the forest to resist or withstand stress. Whereas resilience is the ability to recover from stress.
00:19:14
Speaker
And how is robustness and resilience made operational in silviculture? Well, robustness and resilience, these are both pursued by adapting silviculture to rely on natural regeneration and to accommodate for a larger diversity of tree species. So you could say away from monoculture
00:19:30
Speaker
towards a more natural forest type. And a larger diversity of tree species and the absence of large pieces of exposed land are often considered an insurance against climate change or rather against the changing risk pattern that comes with climate change.
00:19:46
Speaker
All right, so what is the other trend? The other trend is for provision of an increasing quantity of timber and olive wood assortments. Society needs this, people need more wood. And this is often pursued by plantation forest methods. And some of these may not exactly create or maintain a forest that is close to the natural forest, but rather one that is less robust or less resilient actually. So that's why the trends are also opposing in a way.
00:20:11
Speaker
And how can silviculture be applied to solve controversial goals? Let's say between timber, carbon sequestration and biodiversity, how can it all serve the overall purpose of forest health and resilience?
Silviculture and Forest Health
00:20:23
Speaker
Silviculture itself cannot solve any controversy, but silviculturists can balance different goals based on more or less rational reasoning.
00:20:30
Speaker
And by applying a suitable simple cultural practices simple culture should always be objective oriented it should also be situational and should take into consideration the local circumstances such as local site conditions the present state of the forest on the land and so on so simple culture should work with nature but against nature.
00:20:48
Speaker
If you apply these principles, you more easily develop a resilient or robust force type and you do that at less cost. Then the final choice of siliculture is a matter of decision-making based on best available knowledge and based on priorities set by egregious criteria.
00:21:03
Speaker
This takes us back to the overarching question of forest resilience. What is your understanding of this term? A robust forest can better resist or withstand stress. A resilient forest can better recover from stress. Sometimes these concepts go hand in hand, other times not. And which is then better, robust or resilient? I don't think there's a universal answer to that question. The key interest in siliculture should be to develop and maintain forest types that have a large potential to adapt to any future situation.
00:21:32
Speaker
whether that situation is due to climate change, socially imposed changes on silvicultural practices or some other factor. And finally, how can scientific research in silviculture help to develop such forest types? Scientific research in silviculture should strive to identify forest types that possess a high degree of silvicultural flexibility or, in other words, forest types that can easily be modified depending on the products and services requested by society at any time in the future.
00:21:59
Speaker
Forest resilience is not only an ecosystem issue.
00:22:03
Speaker
It's also about our limited mental capacity to cope with the unknown, to cope with possible future changes, whether these are climatic, ecological, social, or whatever. The mental adaptability and transformability of people, managers, scientists, and the general public could actually be a critical limitation when we strive to improve forest adaptability and transformability. So the challenge goes well beyond the borders of civic culture.
00:22:30
Speaker
And if we were to look into a crystal ball, what will the forest look like in the future?
00:22:36
Speaker
I think we will see a large variety of forests in the future. Some will look much the same as now. Others will have degraded substantially, and yet others will have benefited substantially from climate change. I don't subscribe to the idea that climate change is only a threat to the
Future of Forests and Social Equity
00:22:51
Speaker
forest. Climate change is a threat to humanity. In some parts of the world, forests already benefit from climate change. Problem is that at the same time, forests in other parts of the world deteriorate, and this unfortunately contributes to global inequality.
00:23:05
Speaker
Thank you very much JP. This brings a larger perspective on society. So as we heard today, the issue of resilience is not a simple one and it is difficult to make it into practice because of the different factors that surrounds forests. Now Eva, what are your takeaway messages of today? Yeah, so for me the takeaways are the connection to other sustainable development goals, for example poverty and inequality.
00:23:31
Speaker
I would like to thank you Eva and our guests and to you, our listeners, listen to branching out wherever you listen to podcasts, raiders and reviewers. And next time we will start the topic towards a responsible forest fire economy. So don't miss it and check out more content from Ayufro at ayufro.org or click on the link in the show notes. Thanks to all of you and goodbye. Until next time.