» Water and forests: a "convenient truth"
30 e 31 de outubro 2008 . Barcelona

Forest and water related issues are of utmost importance; forests are crucial to the sustainable management of water ecosystems and resources and, at the same time, water is a key factor for the sustainability of forest ecosystems. This interrelation is nowadays even more enhanced in a context of global change with increased temperature, uncertain future rainfall, and uncertain effects of changes in land use; last but not least there will be an increasing growing demand for water from our society. Despite this, water and forest management objectives still are commonly dealt in a sectorial way, without considering the interrelated implications between these two key ecosystems and resources. In addition, despite a significant advance in scientific understanding of forest and water interactions based on almost a century of research in forest hydrology, uncertainty, and in some cases confusion, persists because of difficulties sometimes in translating research findings between countries and regions, between different geographic scales, between different forest types and species, and between different forest management regimes. There has also been a failure to effectively communicate results to policy makers and planners and to challenge entrenched views. Therefore, there is an urgent need to (i) improve the understanding of the bio-physical interactions between forests and water in different situations and contexts and recognizing concrete caveats with respect to uncertainties in our knowledge about the interactions; (ii) to develop effective and efficient models for managing forests and water resources with an integrated approach; (iii) to provide more comprehensive knowledge to policy makers on the forest/water interface in the framework of different policy initiatives (e.g. the EU Water Framework Directive and the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests).


Organization: EFI - European Forest Institute

Objectives

   to improve the understanding of the future rainfall prospects under different climatic scenarios;
   to improve the knowledge on the water processes in trees and forests;
   to improve the understanding of the trade-off between water quantity and quality, and forest cover and 
   management practices at different scales;
   to improve the understanding of the water demand by society and the socio-economic impacts of 
   different policies and management practices;
   to provide a global perspective as well as a specific Mediterranean Regional insight on the issues 
   above-mentioned.


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