Expected climate change and options for European silviculture (ECHOES)

ECHOES is a 4-year COST Action started in May 2008. The main objective of the Action is to mobilise and integrate the existing scientific knowledge for European forest policymakers and managers who have to make decisions on adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Climate change is a major concern for forestry. Many scientific activities have been initiated in that field but did not lead yet to clear and tested strategies for action. They are either much more global than European forestry or too limited in their scopes to actually contribute to sustainable forest management. ECHOES aims at helping European decision makers and forest managers in their definition of strategies toward a reduction of forest losses, an increase of forest gains, and an adoption of mitigation and adaptation measures. It also aims at suggesting improvements of monitoring systems and identifying research priorities. In order to reach these goals, it has to focus on climate change and forests in Europe and to integrate different but tightly interrelated issues: impacts on forests with adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; climatic trends with extreme events; natural sciences with social sciences; research with actual policy and management; ecosystems with products and services; the main components of forest multifunctionality. Regional analyses, case studies and compared alternatives instead of a general consensus allow to combine a rather large scope with concrete and useful views.