COP25 Event: Managing Forest Landscapes for Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation

3 DECEMBER, 14:00 – 15:00 • Norrsken House, Stockholm

What role do forest landscapes play for our climate, and how can we manage them to combat climate change? This seminar will highlight experiences from Swedish actors in managing the forest landscape for water security, biodiversity and social values.

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

Productive, multifunctional landscapes – with healthy ecosystems and a mix of trees, forests and agricultural lands – support and regulate the hydrological cycle whilst contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Water resource management that supports the productivity of landscapes is key to poverty reduction and improved livelihoods for people, production of raw materials, enhanced biodiversity, and maintenance of the water cycle. Sustainable water resource management in landscapes supports several SDGs and provides important links between SDG2 on Zero Hunger, SDG6 on Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG12 on Sustainable consumption and production, SDG13 on Climate Action and SDG15 on Life on Land, as well as contributing to achieving the Paris Agreement.

This event will showcase Swedish knowledge and experiences on climate action forestry and agroforestry, as well as restoration for productive multifunctional landscapes, related to hydrology and water related ecosystem services. We will share experiences, best practices and innovative methods and ideas from Swedish actors, active in Sweden and internationally, in managing the forest landscape not only for timber but also for water security, biodiversity and social values, and thereby contributing to a more effective achievement of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. The focus will be on governance, using practical examples from forestry, wetlands and agriculture.

The seminar will build on the success and challenges that Sweden has faced over the past 150 years in restoring a degraded forest landscape to today’s highly productive system, followed by examples where Swedish expertise has been exported and implemented in other parts of the world. We land in a panel discussion with the audience where we share lessons learned from experiences of similar challenges and discuss how to best proceed towards climate smart, productive and multifunctional landscapes.

AGENDA

14:00 Welcome and Introduction – Lotta Samuelson, SIWI SWH

14:05 Best practices and innovative methods and ideas from Swedish actors:

• Olof Johansson, Sveaskog: A landscape approach to water conservation
• Ulrik Ilstedt, SLU: The transformative power of trees: Re-storing tropical dry-lands for carbon and water
• Malin Gustafsson, SIWI/Agroforestry Network: Agroforestry for climate change adaptation and mitigation 

14:30 Panel discussion
All of the above presenters together with the following representatives:

• Ulrika Åkesson, Lead Policy Specialist Environment and Climate Change, Sida
• Christina Snöbohm, Senior sustainability strategist, COOP

14:55 Concluding remarks.

The event is free of charge and no registration is needed.

Read more about the COP25 events happening in Stockholm here!