12:07 p.m.
Dear IUFRO Meliaceae Working Party:
The announcement below may be of interest.
<http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/>
Regards,
Sheila Ward
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: IUFRO Headquarters <office(a)iufro.org>
Date: Mon, Jul 9, 2018 at 11:40 PM
Subject: IUFRO-GFEP Press Release: Report: Forests form buffer against
water crisis
To: Dear Reader of IUFRO News <mahoganyforthefuture(a)gmail.com>
<http://www.iufro.org/>
* International Union of Forest Research Organizations *
IUFRO-GFEP Press Release: Report: Forests form buffer against water
crisis *Report:
Forests form buffer against water crisis*
*More than 50 scientists from 20 countries contributed to major assessment
of forests-water-climate-people link*
PDF of Press Release for download: English
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29031/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-en_pdf/>
- Spanish
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29032/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-sp_pdf/>
- German
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29033/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-de_pdf/>
- Chinese
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29034/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-ch_pdf/>
- Portuguese
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29035/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-port_pdf/>
- French
<https://www.iufro.org/download/file/29045/6443/gfep-forests-and-water-press-release-fr_pdf/>
*Cloud forests in Rincón de la Vieja National Park in Costa Rica. Photo ©
iStock: PobladuraFCG*
*New York/Vienna (10 July 2018)*: A global water crisis is looming on the
horizon. In many places around the world it is at the doorstep rather than
the horizon, exacerbated by a growing global population and accelerated
climate change.
The solution may come, at least in part, from paying more attention to
forests. The relationships among forests, water, climate and people are
complex, go largely unrecognized and lead to the question: What can people
do with, to, and for, forests to ensure a sustainable quality and quantity
of water necessary to the health and wellbeing of both?
That question is addressed in a new and comprehensive scientific assessment
report released today at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum
(HLPF) on Sustainable Development in New York. The report underscores the
importance of embracing the complexity and uncertainty of
climate-forest-water-people linkages to prevent irrational decision-making
with unintended consequence.
The publication, entitled "*Forest and Water on a Changing Planet:
Vulnerability, Adaptation and Governance Opportunities. A Global Assessment
Report*" has been prepared by the Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) on
Forests and Water, an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on
Forests (CPF) led by the International Union of Forest Research
Organizations (IUFRO).
"Governments and all stakeholders wanting to achieve the SDGs (the
Sustainable Development Goals related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development) need to understand that water is central to attaining almost
all of these goals, and forests are inseparably tied to water", says Hiroto
Mitsugi, Assistant Director-General, Forestry Department, FAO, and Chair of
the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. "Policy and management responses
must therefore tackle multiple water-related objectives across the range of
SDGs, and take a multiple benefits approach."
More than seven billion humans currently on this planet share it with
approximately three trillion trees. Both humans and trees need water.
Forests' role in the water cycle is at least as important as their role in
the carbon cycle in the face of climate change. In addition to being the
lungs of the planet, they also act as kidneys. Thus, addressing
forests-water-people-climate links wisely, comprehensively and
expeditiously is crucial to our long-term wellbeing, if not survival.
"In our assessment, we focused on the following key questions: *Do forests
matter? Who is responsible and what should be done? How can progress be
made and measured?*" Panel co-chair Meine van Noordwijk, of ICRAF and
Wageningen University, Netherlands, explains.
"Natural disturbances and human activities influence forest and water
relations with their impacts, depending on their timing, magnitude,
intensity and duration", says Panel co-chair Irena Creed (University of
Saskatchewan, Canada). "Under a changing climate, these influencing factors
vary more than ever, sometimes in unanticipated ways. Forest management for
the future must therefore factor in uncertainty," she concludes.
Unfortunately, water is rarely considered a priority in forest management.
"Perhaps," says Professor Creed "because the co-occurrence of forest and
water is so common. But natural forests, in particular, contribute to the
sustainable water supply for people in the face of growing risks. And it is
also possible to actively manage forests for water resilience." In the
Hindu Kush – Himalaya region, for instance, various countries are
successfully reviving dried up springs by paying more attention to
water-sensitive land management.
The same lack of attention to the importance of forests and trees for water
can be noted in international climate debates. "In view of the vital role
water plays, even in facilitating the continuous sequestration of carbon in
standing forests, a lack of understanding of landscape-scale effects
amongst the forest and water science communities and policymakers is of
increasing concern," warns Professor van Noordwijk.
In areas of water scarcity, water should be at the center of discussions of
forest-climate interactions because carbon-centered forest strategies will
have important consequences on water resources. Numerous forestation
projects, for example, have failed to consider adequately the water demands
of newly introduced foliage, or to use species that are well-adapted to
local conditions. In some cases, fast-growing species have been used
without thinking about the relative impacts on the locally available water
supply.
Forests can also disperse waters to relatively distant areas. Adding forest
and vegetation cover, for example, to upwind coasts where moisture released
in the air is likely to deliver water to drier inland areas represents one
possible win-win strategy. Availability of waters in the Nile River basin,
for instance, is potentially influenced by changes in the land use practice
in the Tropic forest belt across the West African Rainforest and the Congo
Basin. Consequently, managing forest-water interactions will require the
engagement of forest managers, water users and other stakeholders across
hydrologically connected landscapes.
Changes in forest-water relations will affect the quality and quantity of
related ecosystem services such as the supply of water or forest products
and will also have an impact on where, how and to whom these services will
be available. Therefore, it is necessary to consider questions of
distributional equity, fairness and justice in forest-water arrangements.
Already marginalized and vulnerable communities should not be exposed to
further risks.
As adaptive management strategies are developed, trade-offs may go beyond
timber and water and also include, as an example, non-timber forest
products. Poorer people throughout many parts of the world depend heavily
on the direct use of non-timber forest products for their livelihoods.
These are essential in the burgeoning discussion around ecosystem services
and the safety net they provide for subsistence households must not be
forgotten. These trade-offs will cause some conflicts.
The case of the Murray Darling basin, located in southeastern Australia, is
one example of a continuous and still unresolved conflict over ecological
water allocations. The basin covers over 1 million km2 (14% of Australia's
landmass) and contains over 30,000 wetlands. However, the introduction of
strict water allocation rules in response to threats to the basin's
capacity to cater to an increasing demand for water met with resistance
from farmers depending on irrigation. Meanwhile, many areas of the
floodplain forests of iconic Red Gums continue to decline. Conflicts
between land and water users remain, and many forest, and former wetland,
areas are consumed by bushfires that occur increasingly every year.
The report concludes that international governance can play a key role in
optimizing climate-forest-water relations by creating norms such as the
SDGs, by providing forums in which norms can be discussed, negotiated and
agreed upon, and by providing opportunities for assessing progress.
Similarly, new levels of collective action - especially across sectors and
across spatial scales – as well as stronger participatory approaches are
needed to shift policy goals away from more profit-oriented toward more
sustainability-oriented strategies.
There is, the report says, a clear policy gap in climate-forest-water
relations that is waiting to be filled.
<http://www.iufro.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=19493&md5=92da3d19e9a705f708cb4e7cfa6e878b71da5ca1¶meters%5B0%5D=YTo0OntzOjU6IndpZHRoIjtzOjQ6IjgwMG0iO3M6NjoiaGVpZ2h0IjtzOjQ6IjYw¶meters%5B1%5D=MG0iO3M6NzoiYm9keVRhZyI7czoyMjoiPGJvZHkgYmdjb2xvcj0iYmxhY2siPiI7¶meters%5B2%5D=czo0OiJ3cmFwIjtzOjM3OiI8YSBocmVmPSJqYXZhc2NyaXB0OmNsb3NlKCk7Ij4g¶meters%5B3%5D=fCA8L2E%2BIjt9>
<http://www.iufro.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=19495&md5=4bfaca089fdf287ea8ce46cfbf6be3b88e25db71¶meters%5B0%5D=YTo0OntzOjU6IndpZHRoIjtzOjQ6IjgwMG0iO3M6NjoiaGVpZ2h0IjtzOjQ6IjYw¶meters%5B1%5D=MG0iO3M6NzoiYm9keVRhZyI7czoyMjoiPGJvZHkgYmdjb2xvcj0iYmxhY2siPiI7¶meters%5B2%5D=czo0OiJ3cmFwIjtzOjM3OiI8YSBocmVmPSJqYXZhc2NyaXB0OmNsb3NlKCk7Ij4g¶meters%5B3%5D=fCA8L2E%2BIjt9>
*Photo left: Riparian vegetation and landscape in Mongolia, a country where
freshwater resources are scarce - © Alexander Buck Photo right: Leaf area
is an important measure for the water use of trees - © iStock: Keikona *
<http://www.iufro.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=19496&md5=4b9902c661c2b47c21945225944499121757a183¶meters%5B0%5D=YTo0OntzOjU6IndpZHRoIjtzOjQ6IjgwMG0iO3M6NjoiaGVpZ2h0IjtzOjQ6IjYw¶meters%5B1%5D=MG0iO3M6NzoiYm9keVRhZyI7czoyMjoiPGJvZHkgYmdjb2xvcj0iYmxhY2siPiI7¶meters%5B2%5D=czo0OiJ3cmFwIjtzOjM3OiI8YSBocmVmPSJqYXZhc2NyaXB0OmNsb3NlKCk7Ij4g¶meters%5B3%5D=fCA8L2E%2BIjt9>
<http://www.iufro.org/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=19492&md5=b80e587dc9c9ae8ac500072cfa1272be71440b27¶meters%5B0%5D=YTo0OntzOjU6IndpZHRoIjtzOjQ6IjgwMG0iO3M6NjoiaGVpZ2h0IjtzOjQ6IjYw¶meters%5B1%5D=MG0iO3M6NzoiYm9keVRhZyI7czoyMjoiPGJvZHkgYmdjb2xvcj0iYmxhY2siPiI7¶meters%5B2%5D=czo0OiJ3cmFwIjtzOjM3OiI8YSBocmVmPSJqYXZhc2NyaXB0OmNsb3NlKCk7Ij4g¶meters%5B3%5D=fCA8L2E%2BIjt9>
*Photo left: Spring in the temple forest of Dakshinkali, Nepal – © Dipak
Gyawali Photo right: Blue Nile falls in the Tis Abay, Ethiopia – © iStock:
Joel Carillet *
###
The report and policy brief are available electronically at:
https://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/forests-and-water-panel/report/
<http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/forests-and-water-panel/report/>
The report will be launched at the *2018 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)
on Sustainable Development* in the course of the side event "Forests and
Water on a Changing Planet: Scientific Insights for Building Sustainable
and Resilient Societies", held in New York on 10 July at 1.15-2.30 pm. The
side event is hosted by the Permanent Mission of Austria to the UN and
co-hosted by IUFRO. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2018
The IUFRO-led *Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEP)* initiative of the
*Collaborative
Partnership on Forests (CPF)* established the Expert Panel on "Forests and
Water" to provide policymakers with a stronger scientific basis for their
decisions and policies related to forests and water, and to specifically
inform relevant international policy processes and the discussions on the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and related Sustainable Development
Goals.
https://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/forests-and-water-panel/
<http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/forests-and-water-panel/>
The *International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)* is the
only world-wide organization devoted to forest research and related
sciences. Its members are research institutions, universities, and
individual scientists as well as decision-making authorities and other
stakeholders with a focus on forests and trees. https://www.iufro.org/
For more information, please contact: Gerda Wolfrum at +43 1 877015117 or
wolfrum(at)iufro.org <wolfrum(a)iufro.org>
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