Vulnerability assessment to climate change of three ecosystem-based forest management projects in Quebec
| The Forestry Chronicle | 2014 | Peer Reviewed | Original research | https://doi.org/10.5558/tfc2014-040Abstract
The new forest management stewardship of Quebec acknowledges the importance of integrating climate change consequences into forest management. However, forest professionals do not know how they could take climate change into account into their decision-making. This paper proposes the assessment of climate change vulnerability for three ecosystem-based forest management (EBFM) projects in Quebec: the Tembec project in the Abitibi region, the Triad project in the Mauricie region, and the Laurentian Wildlife Reserve project. The objectives were to identify: i) climate change vulnerabilities affecting forest ecosystems and forest management, ii) adaptation options to decrease these vulnerabilities, and iii) current EBFM practices impeding or facilitating the integration of climate change adaptations in forest management. Several features of EBFM, like promoting ecosystem resilience and using an adaptive management framework, may facilitate the integration of adaptation measures into the current forest management approach. We present climate change adaptation as a piece of the puzzle that would facilitate the achievement of EBFM objectives.