Forests and Adaptation to Climate Change: What is at Stake?

This research paper by Bruno Locatelli and Emilia Pramova explores the bidirectional relationship between forests and climate change adaptation, introducing the concept of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA). The authors argue that forests provide critical services that reduce human vulnerability ('forests for adaptation') and that forests themselves require management to survive climate shifts ('adaptation for forests').

• The relationship between forests and climate adaptation is bidirectional: forests provide ecosystem services that help society adapt to climate change, and forests themselves require adaptation measures to mitigate the negative impacts of a changing climate.
• Ecological infrastructure, such as forests, mangroves, and wetlands, is often more cost-effective and adaptive than engineered infrastructure because it can be modified more easily and can enhance natural ecological resilience.
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is an emerging multi-sectoral and multi-scale approach that uses ecosystem services to reduce societal vulnerability while simultaneously reducing the vulnerability of the ecosystems themselves to threats like land-use change and climate change.
• Forest adaptation measures are categorized into buffering measures, which prevent perturbations like fire and disease, and facilitating measures, which ease the transition of ecosystems toward new states, such as reducing landscape fragmentation to help species migrate.
• A project in the Tegucigalpa region of Honduras, accepted by the UNFCCC Adaptation Fund in September 2010, exemplifies EbA by using forests to regulate water supply for the city while increasing connectivity between protected areas to enhance ecosystem resilience.
• Effective EbA requires new governance models and financial mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services, to address the fact that the costs of forest management and the benefits of the resulting ecosystem services often occur in different sectors or locations.
• While global mitigation mechanisms like REDD+ can support adaptation by strengthening local institutions and conserving services, they may also negatively impact the adaptive capacity of local populations by restricting access to land and forest resources.

APA

Locatelli, B., & Pramova, E. (2010). Forests and Adaptation to Climate Change: What is at Stake? World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-4-response-1.pdf

Chicago

Locatelli, Bruno, and Emilia Pramova. Forests and Adaptation to Climate Change: What is at Stake? World Resources Institute, 2010. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-4-response-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Locatelli |first1=Bruno |last2=Pramova |first2=Emilia |title=Forests and Adaptation to Climate Change: What is at Stake? |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2010 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-4-response-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{locatelli2010forests, author = {Locatelli, Bruno and Pramova, Emilia}, title = {{Forests and Adaptation to Climate Change: What is at Stake?}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2010}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-01/wrr-2010-11-question-4-response-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }