Climate Change

Model Forests and Climate Change 

Climate change has far reaching implications for sustainable livelihoods, food security, health, water availability and biodiversity. Model Forests, with their landscape-scale platforms and broad stakeholder engagement, are ideally suited to carry out climate change research, develop community adaptation and mitigation strategies and monitor such efforts over the long-term.

Mitigating climate change requires reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through reduced deforestation and degradation (REDD+) in developing countries in order to improve the quantity and quality of forests. Model Forests are in an ideal position to be a sub-national REDD+ delivery partner by providing a governance model that balances the distribution of REDD+ benefits and rights of local peoples. With respect to REDD+ and climate adaptation─responding today to those future climate changes that will indeed occur─Model Forests focus on:

1) Forest management through reforestation, implementation and applied research on climate change impacts relating to forests;
2) Capacity building through research extension and communications activities to increase awareness of the need for climate change adaptation;
3) Policy and networking to influence governments to develop policies based on climate change models and research in Model Forests.

Climate Change Projects (selected examples)

Ibero-America
The Ibero-American Model Forest Network, through funding from the European Union (1.9 million Euros, 2012-2016), is supporting an EcoAdapt project to "Strengthen REDD+ capacities of Latin American forest landscape managers." Representing over 15 million hectares of forest, one Model Forest each from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala is involved. The goal is to develop the knowledge-based capacity to plan, implement and monitor REDD+ activities in tropical countries that reduce deforestation and improve sustainable management of natural resources at landscape level. http://www.bosquesmodelo.net/categories/noticia16-abril2012 | http://www.ecoadapt.eu/

Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Model Forest Network is preparing a project to assist Model Forests and municipalities to understand the voluntary market for carbon credits, to adopt a system for measuring emissions and to test a mechanism for local distribution of financial compensation.

Canada
The Canadian Model Forest Network and its national partners have developed a guidebook, Pathways to climate resilience: A Guidebook for forest-based communities, to encourage forest-dependent communities to conduct a self-assessment of their vulnerability to climate change in order to identify adaptation options.
http://jem.forrex.org/index.php/jem/article/viewFile/133/75 | http://www.modelforest.net/pubs/Pathways_to_Climate_Change_Resilience_FINAL_Feb_2011.pdf

Research and Training (selected examples)

Sweden and Canada
In collaboration with Prince Albert Model Forest, funded through the IMFN, a research project “Learning from our Elders” is being conducted in order to gain insight into indigenous perspectives on climate change to assess local community adaptability. http://www.vilhelminamodelforest.se/ | http://www.pamodelforest.sk.ca/

Ibero-America
In 2011, a regional workshop entitled “Model Forests and local implementation of National REDD+ Strategies in Latin America" in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, strengthened partnerships between national agencies, donors and REDD+ experts in countries where Model Forests exist, and improved the common understanding of REDD+ in both the region and between Model Forests. http://www.imfn.net/imfnnewsletter/NewsReader.php?&RequestType=ART&LangCode=E&JID=1009&AID=1224
http://www.bosquesmodelo.net/categories/noticia4-abril2012

Africa
The Secretariat of the African Model Forest Network (AMFNS) co-hosted a regional workshop on REDD+ in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to analyze the potential for, and challenges of, implementing REDD+ in Model Forests and other forested landscapes in the Congo Basin. The AMFNS also organized a national REDD+ workshop in Yaoundé, Cameroon in collaboration with IUCN, CIFOR and the Forest Governance Learning Group “GREG-Forêts”. The workshop’s participants identified the conditions for successful implementation of REDD + in rural areas and particularly in the Model Forests. http://www.pfbc-cbfp.org/news_en/items/SRAFM_-_Atelier_REDD_-_Kinshasa-EE.html

Canada
In 2011, approximately 40 IMFN representatives from the African and Ibero-American Networks attended a workshop on community forestry and REDD+ implementation co-organized by Canada’s Laval and McGill universities in Quebec City. There, the Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences from the University of Kyoto gave a keynote address on community involvement in forest management activities in the Kyoto Model Forest. An additional five representatives from Model Forests in Africa and Latin America also gave presentations. A tour of the Lac-Saint-Jean Model Forest formed part of workshop as well. Discussions on key topics ranged from Aboriginal approaches to community forestry in Canada, to implementing REDD+ strategies in Africa. http://www.ihqeds.ulaval.ca/16265.html