Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry

1. Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry 28 November 2002

2. Natural Resources Canada • Sustainable development of natural resources • Earth Sciences, Energy; Forests; Minerals and Metals • Lead on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program • Serving Canadians through: • Scientific and technical activities • Knowledge on resources • Policy and regulations • Promotion of Canada internationally

3. Canada’s Forests • will be impacted by climate change • offer opportunities to partially mitigate climate change

4. Forests are an integral part of Canada Forests provide people with unique goods and services • Environmental benefits related to: • weather and climate • clean air and water • soils • wildlife habitat • biodiversity. • Social and economic benefits related to: • communities • competitiveness

5. Why are we concerned about climate change impacts on Canada’s forest? • Climate change will likely affect: - weather - forests - communities

6. Assessing the impacts of Climate Change on the forest • Forest Health Network • Climate Change Impacts on the Productivity and Health of Aspen (CIPHA) • Boreal Ecosystem Monitoring Sites (BERMS) • Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EOSD)

7. Regional Impacts of Climate Change TheNorth British Columbia Atlantic Canada Ontario and Quebec The Prairies

8. Adaptation Measures • Adaptation: adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. Adaptation will take the form of changes in forest sector management and practices such as: • Adapting harvesting schedules • Choosing tree species adapted to new site conditions • Developing species that are more tolerant to droughts, insects, diseases

9. Good forest management can help toincrease the amount of carbon stored in forests • Canada’s forests hold large stocks of carbon stored in trees, soil and peat. Wood products also store carbon. • Forest management practices can affect how much carbon is absorbed by a forest, how long it is stored and how much of it is emitted back into the atmosphere. • Sustainable forest management practices can result in reduced emissions and increased carbon stored in the forest. Creating new forests and reducing the permanent loss of forests also reduce concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. • Forest and agricultural management sinks/sources may be used to help meet Canada’s Kyoto goals (emission reduction targets).

10. Mitigation Measures • Mitigation: a human intervention to reduce sources or to enhance sinks or reduce greenhouse gases. • Forest management offers a wide variety of climate change mitigation measures: • High yield forest plantations • increased wood supply improving competitiveness • improved capacity to store carbon • Biotechnology • Fire management

11. Agriculture  n Water (x 1) Coastal $ Economic (x 2) Communities n Agriculture (x 2) Integrated Assess. n Forestry (x 1) Energy/Industry Forestry Fisheries  Hazards  Health P Permafrost Terrestrial  Water Sea Ice  Tourism Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program National Projects P P   P             adaptation.nrcan.gc.ca

12. Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: a Canadian Perspective Chapters on nine key sectors including Forestry Spruce Budworm Modeling “fire-smart” landscapes

13. Summary • Some degree of climate change is unavoidable • it will impact Canada’s forests (and many other sectors) • adaptation will be required along with mitigation • forests play a key role in both • adaptation must be managed horizontally, as decisions in one sector will have implications in many others • NRCan has a key role to play in science and policy aspects of climate change impacts and adaptation