Approaches to the conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe in the context of climate change

In Europe, forests have been expanding in terms of area and timber stock over the past 50 years and subsequently they have acted as a carbon sink while they have been recovering from previous eras of deforestation. National adaptation strategies to climate change and other policies have been formulated in many European countries to harness the potential of forests and the forestry sector for mitigating climate change. However, the impacts of climate change on forests, and especially on their genetic diversity have not been given a proper consideration in these policies. For these reasons, the EUFORGEN Steering Committee established a working group on climate change and the conservation of forest genetic resources that made several recommendations for action presented in this report