A regional forest conference was held at Linnaeus University recently. SLU arranged a number of talks on continuous cover and climate-adapted forestry.
During a conference titled ”How will the forest cope with our future climate?” a number of SLU employees contributed, for example by chairing roundtable talks on forestry, climate change and sustainability.
”Climate adaptation in continuous cover forestry” was chaired by SLU Future Forests' Emma Holmström together with Magnus Bondesson of the Swedish Forest Agency. The conversation centred on how climate change can facilitate or impede a development towards continuous cover forestry (CCF). One important argument was that it may prove necessary to broaden the concept of site adaptation. In the future, it may encompass not only species selection but also choice of forestry system.
Kristina Blennow of SLU Future Forests hosted a talk entitled “Social sustainability when climate-adapting the forest”. Participants noted the importance of sharing more knowledge and giving advice to forest owners on climate adaptation. They also stressed the potential for improvements in climate adaptation-based education, and the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation from a forest owner perspective.
A third talk, ”Breeding of broadleaf trees, desired tree species and necessary knowledge” was chaired by Skogforsk’s Mateusz Liziniewicz and Gudmund Volbrecht of Trees for me. The conversation highlighted the need for increased breeding of domestic broadleaf trees, but also foreign alternatives. As pine and spruce face severe challenges, too stringent a view of what is and isn’t suitable to grow in Sweden, was not considered beneficial for neither climate adaptation nor forest owners.