Climate adaptation of biodiversity conservation in managed forest landscapes.

Activities aiming at conserving biodiversity in managed forest landscapes need to be complemented with a new set of tools given the emergent threat from rapid climate change. Most frameworks for adaptation of biodiversity conservation to climate change include two major strategies that focus on: 1) actions to increase the capacity of species and communities to resist the changes and 2) actions to guide the transformation of communities given the inevitable changes of environmental conditions. We briefly summarize concrete actions that policymakers and managers can take. Under the "resistance strategy", we give advice on how to identify and protect climate refugia for forest species, how to reduce effects of drought, where to create buffer zones and when to actively remove competitors. For the "transformation strategy", we suggest to enhance conditions for forest species that are favored by the new climate, but currently disfavored by forest management, and we discuss the importance of an increased connectivity across the landscape. Finally, we suggest to apply a landscape perspective and simultaneously manage for both retreating and expanding species. The two different strategies should be seen as complementary ways to maintain a rich biodiversity in future forest ecosystems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.