Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Forestry - Briefing Note 10

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is the utilization of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of a strategy to aid people in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. Forests are important ecosystems for adaptation efforts, being home to some 300 million people and most of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, including plants, fungi, and both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. These organisms form complex ecosystems whose services provide clean air and water, food, timber, and other resources to humans, supporting some 1.6 billion livelihoods. Over millennia, forests have also moderated changes in climate by sequestering carbon and serving as carbon sinks. However, a range of human activities leading to deforestation and forest degradation have eliminated forest ecosystems across vast areas of the planet, releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and compounding threats from climate change to forests and the services they provide.