The PEFC Forest Forum 2024

PEFC Forest Forum

Forest management in the climate crisis: Building resilience and sustainability

Join us for a unique event and experience forest management in the climate crisis, in theory and in practice. Following an insightful morning with engaging speakers exploring the theme of the event from a theoretical point of view, we'll head to the beautiful Chantilly Forest to experience first-hand how climate change already affects forests, and how management is being adapted to increase resilience.

Forests find themselves at a crucial juncture. Climate change is changing their landscapes by affecting their diversity, health, and resilience to pests, droughts, and fires. However, there's an upside: forest products such as wood, fibre, and fuel hold considerable promise in combating climate change. These resources, though often overlooked, possess the potential to play a pivotal role in shaping a sustainable response to the climate crisis.

In the face of a warming world, the forest sector is focusing on adaptation, mitigation, and decarbonization to respond to the challenges of climate change. 

The PEFC Forest Forum 2024 in Paris, France, organised by PEFC International and PEFC France, will put forest management in the climate crisis in the spotlight. It will demonstrate the good practices in the forest that are building resilience and sustainability, and will inspire action. 

The event will showcase on the ground efforts in forest management that highlight the challenges and opportunities of adapting forests to a 2°C warmer world.

The details

Taking place on Thursday 16 May, we’ll start the day in the Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport hotel, hearing from a range of exciting and insightful speakers. At lunchtime, we’ll leave the hotel and head out to the field, to the beautiful Chantilly Forest, where we’ll get to see the theory on the morning in practice. We’ll end the day in the forest with an evening reception, before heading back to the hotel. 

The morning agenda

We begin the day in the hotel venue, focusing on how the forest sector is adapting, mitigating, and decarbonizing in response to the challenges of climate change.

Session 1: Adapting forests and forest management to a changing climate

Adaptation encompasses changes in forest management practices designed to decrease the vulnerability and increase resilience of forests to climate change. 

In this session we delve into the challenges that forests face due to climate change, and outline the policies and tools that the forestry sector and wider society is implementing to address them.

Session 2 Mitigation & decarbonization for climate change

Mitigation strategies involve reducing emissions through the prevention of deforestation and forest degradation, whilst also enhancing forest carbon sinks. Decarbonization incorporates the reduction of emissions from forest sector operations and across the value chain, for example by replacing carbon-intensive products with wood-based products.

The speakers in this session will look at the causes of deforestation and forest degradation and what is being done to prevent this, as well as activities undertaken by forest sector-based companies to decarbonize their operations. 

The afternoon agenda

After lunch in the forest, we will split into six groups and move around different sites within the forest, each with an expert covering different forestry themes. The themes will cover:

• Climate
• Genetics and adaption of trees
• Biodiversity and entomology
• Forest/fauna balance
• Experimental plantations
• Pedology/education

At the end of the day, under a tent in Chantilly Forest, the group will come back together for drinks and nibbles. We will arrive back at the Hilton between 20:30 and 21:30.

Chantilly Forest

Covering 6,300 ha, mainly oaks, La Forêt de Chantilly is one of the oldest forests in northern France. Formerly a royal forest, it is now property of Institut de France, a non-profit umbrella organization overseeing five academies who strive to enhance the arts, sciences, and humanities.

To respond to the climate crisis and its negative effects on the forest, the owner initiated the gathering together with foresters, the local population, and research institutes. A large programme of applied research is underway to understand the decline of the oaks and find solutions.

The forest in its current form will change profoundly in the decades to come. The desire of the owner and the collective is to maintain a multifunctional forest ensuring maximum functions and services.