In Season 3 of Branching out: the forest podcast, we explore how scientists in IUFRO collaborate across disciplines to tackle emerging topics through Task Forces. We continue the Season with the Task Force on the Forest-Water-Livelihood-Governance Nexus highlighting, among other things, the vital importance of forests for the quality and quantity of drinking water.
Host Gerda Wolfrum from IUFRO Headquarters and co-host Lubna Anfaresi, Indonesia, from the International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA), spoke with Task Force co-leads Mingfang Zhang from the University of Electronic Science and Technology, China, and Nadeem Shah from Forest Research, Great Britain.
Forests are natural water reservoirs and filters: they can capture, store, filter, and release water while supporting ecosystems and livelihoods. They play an important role in regulating freshwater ecosystems and supplying critical water-related ecosystem services to human societies. Forests can also mitigate the effects of climate extremes like flooding, droughts and landslide risks. They help us to sustain crops and livestock production, and thus support livelihoods.
However, forests are increasingly under stress, including through climate and land use changes, droughts, wildfires, pests, and diseases. All this has negative impacts on water and people's livelihoods. Nadeem Shah explained, "As for what we can do, and what science can do to make this forest-water-people system more resilient, well, one obvious solution would be to stop deforestation. But, failing that, we can increase resilience by improved forest management."
Mingfang Zhang listed several important factors for managing forests for water objectives and pointed out that, "Management of forests for water must also take into account other ecosystem services such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. And global changes are significantly altering the forest and water nexus. We need to reshape our management strategies to adapt to these changes."
What is a main takeaway? It's extremely important that people understand how forest-related decisions taken in one place can affect water management and water availability in other places. Forest managers and decision makers need to know and understand how their actions affect the water system, and consequently, the livelihoods of people who depend on it.
In the years leading up to the 2029 IUFRO World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, the Task Force will continue to provide global leadership in advancing forest hydrology research and in bridging forest–water science, policy, and society in the context of global change. It will focus on identifying emerging priorities of forest hydrology studies and establishing a cross-disciplinary network connecting natural and social sciences to address the livelihood issues related to the forest, water and climate connection.
