Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for Forest Management: The Case of the U.S. Forest Service

Abstract

Forest managers need access to targeted scientific information about the impacts of climate change in order to adapt to climate change. Vulnerability assessments address this need and are common across a range of disciplines and geographies; however, the practice of vulnerability assessment has revealed challenges that warrant further examination in a specific context. The U.S. Forest Service, a national forest-management agency in charge of 78 million hectares, has developed a collection of climate change vulnerability assessments to support adaptation by forest managers. We conducted a qualitative document analysis, informed by a series of research interviews with scientists, of 44 vulnerability assessments developed for the U.S. Forest Service. We found that partnerships between research scientists and land managers were central to the development of vulnerability assessments in the U.S. Forest Service. Assessment processes vary across settings. As the practice has developed, vulnerability assessments increasingly cover larger spatial extents and a broader range of resources associated with forest management. We identified ways in which vulnerability assessments can support decision-making, including approaches already in use and opportunities to improve practice. In particular, we discuss how vulnerability assessments are well-positioned to support the development of land-management plans, which set strategic management direction for periods of at least a decade. This paper provides baseline knowledge on a fundamental aspect of a large national forestry agency’s climate change adaptation strategy, with many findings transferable to the study of other forest-management organizations.

Has the IPCC’s revised vulnerability concept been well adopted?

“…In general, our findings are consistent with earlier observations. For example, some studies have noted that the IPCC's revised vulnerability concept has received little attention (Borges et al 2019;Foden et al 2019) and that the TAR/AR4 vulnerability concept continues to predominate (Pinnegar et al 2019;Timberlake and Schultz 2019) and to be used across vulnerability studies (Nguyen et al 2016;Crane et al 2017;Filho et al 2018;Aslam et al 2018).…”

Quantifying the Variability of Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability in the Largest Water Tower Region Globally

“…In summary, the forest ecosystems’ vulnerability is an important basis for forest management decision-making [ 58 ]. The degree of vulnerability can be used to distinguish the management requirements of forests in different locations [ 59 ]. Moreover, the vulnerability can be reduced through targeted forest management programs to adapt to climate change and reduce the interference caused by social and economic development.…”

Confluencia entre los ecosistemas forestales y el conocimiento científico frente al cambio climático: Marco legal peruano

“…Como una gran agencia gubernamental que administra una gran cantidad de tierras forestales para múltiples propósitos diferentes y, a veces, contrapuestos, esta agencia norteamericana ofrece un caso útil para examinar la práctica de las evaluaciones de vulnerabilidad y sus perspectivas para apoyar la adaptación. Si bien no todos sus hallazgos específicos se aplican a la ordenación forestal, los temas generales que se destacan son las asociaciones entre ciencia y ordenación como foco de entendimiento para las dimensiones científicas y políticas de la adaptación, resultando como instructivos en todos los ámbitos y gama de contextos de su ordenación forestal (Timberlake and Schultz, 2019).…”