This international conference will focus on the current state of knowledge on climate change impacts on forest ecosystems, services and activities. It will highlight methods and challenges to mitigate or tackle climate change impacts, both before they arise and once they have occured. It will show how climate change and forest sciences address the issues facing forest managers.

Background
Climate change is emerging as the major concern for society in the 21^st century and beyond. This is particularly true for forest management and the forest-based sector. Forests will be impacted by climate change but the forest-based sector has the capacity to react through both adaptation and mitigation measures.

Although many scientific activities have been initiated in this field, uncertainties remain as to tested strategies for moving forward. Several recent scientific approaches aim at helping decision makers in their elaboration of strategies for action regarding climate change and forest impacts, including adaptation and mitigation management. Among them, the European intergovernmental COST Action ECHOES, the European research project MOTIVE, the European research project BACCARA, the Interreg European project REINFFORCE, the international research project TRANZFOR, the international research project FOREADAPT, and a new IUFRO working group on adaptation to climate change.

Climate change frames forestry in a new light. Forests are impacted by and influences socioeconomic development at the global level, atmospheric chemistry and physics and global and regional climatic parameters. Despite the inertia of the processes involved and the uncertain future, actions must be taken from now on in order to avoid adverse effects. The probability that a species is adapted to both present and future conditions diminishes with increasing climate change, and thus understanding how to compensate through improving knowledge on forests and forestry is crucial. Not only timber production should be maintained but also many other ecosystem services, particularly carbon sequestration, which plays a major role in mitigation, and biodiversity, which could facilitate adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change.

Objectives and target audience
This international conference will focus on the current state of knowledge on climate change impacts on forest ecosystems, services and activities. It will highlight methods and challenges to mitigate or tackle climate change impacts, both before they arise and once they have occurred. It will show how climate change and forest sciences address the issues facing forest managers.

The conference will essentially focus on temperate forests, obviously European ones, but also those of North-America, Asia ans South hemisphere.

The conference also provides a forum for stakeholders where the key issues of climate change will be presented and discussed by a panel of stakeholders and scientists working on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

200 to 350 scientists, policy makers, planners, managers, specialized journalists, including representatives of a wide range of socioeconomic, ecological and institutional contexts are expected.

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