Forest-Based Adaptation: Transformational Adaptation through Forests and Trees

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Libert-Amico, A., Duchelle, A.E., Cobb, A., Peccoud, V. & Djoudi, H. 2022. Forest-based adaptation: transformational adaptation through forests and trees. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc2886en

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Cover photograph: United Republic of Tanzania. Firewood collection. ©FAO/Alberto Conti

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and acronyms

Executive summary

1. INTRODUCTION

2. WHAT IS FOREST-BASED ADAPTATION?

2.1 Adaptation and resilience of forests

2.2 Adaptation services from forests and trees

3. POLICY SUPPORT FOR FOREST-BASED ADAPTATION

4. PRINCIPLES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR USING FORESTS AND TREES FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL ADAPTATION

4.1 Policy implications of the principles

5. CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boxes

Box 1. Forest-based adaptation as per the IPCC

Box 2. Forests in nationally determined contributions

Box 3. Forests in national adaptation plans

Box 4. Principles to leverage the power of forests and trees for transformational adaptation

Case studies

Case study 1. Locally-led landscape transformation to reverse degradation

Case study 2. Forests for life: policy integration through Colombia’s REDD+ results-based payments programme

Case study 3. The Forest and Farm Facility: Empowering forest and farm producer organizations

Case study 4. Shea tree management and value chains

Case study 5. Knowledge-to-action: Integrating forest and grasslands into adaptation strategies

Case study 6. Co-producing adaptation options

Case study 7. Large-scale Ecosystem-based Adaptation in the Gambia

Case study 8. Adaptation services and trade-offs from wet peatlands

Case study 9 Community monitoring technology for transforming local forest governance

Case study 10. Once there was a lake

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank, in alphabetical order, contributors Matthew J. Colloff (Australian National University), Lalisa Duguma (The Global Evergreening Alliance), Marguerite France Lanord (FAO), Peter Gilruth (CIFOR-ICRAF), Sophie Grouwels (FAO), Duncan Macqueen (IIED), Peter Akong Minang (CIFOR-ICRAF), Maria Nuutinen (FAO), Fatema Rajabali (UNFCCC-Nairobi Work Programme), María del Carmen Ruiz-Jaén (FAO), and Adriana Patricia Yepes Quintero (FAO) for their collaboration and support on the case studies.

Many thanks to the internal and external reviewers of the paper: Kate Dooley, Celia Harvey, Bruno Locatelli, Alexandre Meybeck, Sheona Shackleton and Tiina Vähänen.

We thank Andrew Morris who copy-edited the paper, Roberto Cenciarelli who provided layout and design, and Lucia de Canio who produced the infographics.

Abbreviations and acronyms

AFOLU agriculture, forestry, and other land use

CBD Convention for Biological Diversity

CIFOR-ICRAF Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry

COONAPIP National Coordination for Indigenous Peoples of Panama

EbA ecosystem-based adaptation

Eco-DRR ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FFF Forest and Farm Facility

FFPO forest and farm producer organization

GCF Green Climate Fund

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

KPI key performance indicator

NAPs national adaptation plans

NbS nature-based solutions

NBSAP national biodiversity strategies and action plan

NDCs nationally determined contributions

NGO non-governmental organization

NWP Nairobi Work Programme

SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

UNEA United Nations Environmental Assembly

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN-REDD United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

VNFU Viet Nam Farmers’ Union

Executive summary

Climate change is an existential challenge, and forests and trees provide an important part of the solution. Protected, sustainably managed and restored forests store and sequester carbon, and provide a host of biodiversity benefits and other ecosystem services that help people and ecosystems adapt to climate change. They regulate rainfall, stabilize local climate, protect coastal areas and mountain slopes, and provide food, fuel, fibre and fodder for local communities facing climatic threats.

Yet, forests and trees are already affected by climate change, including through more frequent and intense wildfires, pest and disease outbreaks, floods and drought. The role of forests and trees in mitigating climate change and buffering the most vulnerable from its impacts depends on their ability to adapt and maintain resilience in a warming world.

Forest-based adaptation is an ensemble of climate actions that employ forests and trees in support of climate change adaptation and resilience, including sustainable forest management, forest conservation and restoration, reforestation and afforestation. Forest-based adaptation can help address the gaps between current adaptation actions and the adaptation needed for reducing climate-related risks and impacts, while contributing to most of the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting strong synergies with mitigation.

This FAO technical paper unpacks the concept of forest-based adaptation and describes policy spheres that could bolster the role of forests and trees in providing adaptation and resilience