Thumbnail Image

Economic analysis of adaptation options toward drought-induced risk in forest: financial balance and/or carbon balance

XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 1p.

Author Breteau-Amores, S.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Synopsis (short abstract) Forests provide ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being and reduce social vulnerability. Nowadays, the pace of changes induced by climate change is being too fast for a natural and spontaneous forest adaptation.
Drought is a natural phenomenon affecting forest productivity and health especially when its intensity is extreme. In Europe, trees are suffering from severe water shortage occurring particularly in early summer. While drought is considered as one of the main damaging abiotic risks, its induced impacts on forest health have been underestimated for a very long time due to inconspicuous damage at first sight.
In this context, forests need adaptation to reduce vulnerability to drought-induced dieback and to anticipate and cope with this increasing risk.
Different adaptation strategies were tested and combined through forest-management-based and market-based adaptations using original methods.
This thesis provided the following main results for the considered case studies and under some assumptions. First, the results proved that adaptation is relevant to face drought-induced risk of dieback: Adaptation, both forest-management-based and market-based, provides always the best scenario as opposed to the baseline or the “do-nothing” scenario from an economic perspective. Second, combining forest-management-based adaptation strategies appeared as a relevant way to adapt forests in view of a drought-induced risk of forest dieback. The combination of different strategies was therefore more beneficial for the forest owner than each strategy separately (synergy vs. additionality). However, not all adaptation options appear relevant (i.e. maladaptation). In the same vein, while forest insurance against drought-induced risk can be an option, the low gain of current contracts cannot provide enough incentive for forest owners to adopt these insurance contracts. Keywords: Adaptive and integrated management, Climate change, Research, Sustainable forest management ID: 3482552

Statutory body / Meeting title World Forestry Congress (WFC)

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Impacts of the national forest rehabilitation plan and human-induced environmental changes on the carbon and nitrogen balances of the South Korean forests
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The carbon (C) balance is a key to the climate regulation role of forests, and the nitrogen (N) balance affects forest productivity, ground and surface water quality, and the emission of N2O. Humans have impacted the C and N balances, but quantification of the responses of forests to human activities is limited. This study aimed to quantify the impacts of the long-term national forest rehabilitation plan and the contribution of the increase in air temperature, CO2 concentration, and N deposition on the C and N balance of the South Korean forests during 1973–2020 by using a biogeochemical model. The C and N balance increased from 0.20 to 4.30 Mg C ha–1 year–1 and from 0.20 to 17.4 kg N ha-1 year-1, respectively. This led to the whole South Korean forests to newly store 825 Tg C and 3.04 Tg N after the national forest rehabilitation plan. The increase in air temperature, CO2 concentration, and N deposition contributed –11.5, 17.4, and 177 Tg C for the newly stored C stock, respectively, and –25.4, 8.90, and 1,807 Mg N for the newly stored N stock, respectively. This study would provide references on the benefits of forest rehabilitation for the C and N balance and for future forest rehabilitation efforts. Moreover, our findings improve the understanding of the impacts of human activities on the C and N balance. Keywords: Carbon, Nitrogen, South Korean forests, Climate change, Human impacts ID: 3622951
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Index insurance for coping with drought-induced risk of production losses in French forests
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Drought-induced risk of forest dieback is increasing due to climate change. Insurance can be a good option to compensate potential financial losses associated with forest production losses. In this context, we developed an ex ante index-based insurance model to cope with drought-induced risk of forest dieback. We applied this model to beech and oak forests in France. We defined and then compared different indices from simple ones relying on rainfall indices to more complex ones relying on the functional modelling of forest sensitivity to water stress. After the calibration of the contract parameters, an insurance scheme was optimized and tested. We showed that optimal insurance contracts generate low gain of certain equivalent income, high compensation, and a high basis risk. The best contract was not proportional to the complexity of the index. There was no clear advantage to differentiate contracts based on species. Results highlighting the various perspectives of this first approach are discussed at the end of this paper. Keywords: Drought; Forest; Index insurance ID: 3482551
  • Thumbnail Image
    Article
    Composition diversification vs. structure diversification: How to conciliate timber production and carbon sequestration objectives under drought and windstorm risks in forest ecosystems
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    This article aims to compare different forest adaptation strategies from an economic perspective with the objective to reduce extreme drought- and windstorm-induced risks of dieback. In this study, two diversification strategies were analysed. The first one was composition-based and consisted of mixing beech with oak whereas the second one relies on a diversification of the structure through a shift from the even-aged to the uneven-aged structure. We tested the efficiency of these two strategies individually and then combined through a simulation study in which we evaluated the financial loss and the reduction of carbon sequestration capacity. We combined a forest growth model computing Monte Carlo simulations with a forest economic approach using the land expectation value (LEV) adapted for a stochastic setting. The maximisation of the LEV criterion made it possible to identify the most economically effective adaptation strategies. Results show that diversification increases timber production and LEV, but reduces carbon storage. The two risks as well as the adaptation strategies show some synergies. Trade-offs between the financial balance and the carbon balance (i.e., adaptation vs. mitigation) are achievable. Valuing carbon services in addition to timber ones increases the forest value. Finally, our study presents a new approach for the economic valuation of multi-risk forest management, highlighting the importance of investigating several risks in a common analysis rather than separately. Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Mixed forests; Economics; Multi-risks ID: 3482550
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.