Forest agencies around the world are expected to manage their forests not only under today’s climatic conditions, but also tomorrow’s. The expected impacts of climate change on particular forests are often highly uncertain, which hampers effective planning. Nevertheless, many agencies are introducing new policies and management measures to respond to the effects or the threats of climate change. This review studies the responses in fourteen countries and classifies adaptation measures under twelve headings, each with a unique set of characteristics. Although forests’ adaptations are clearly still in early stages, the variety of responses discovered gives confidence that solutions are available. Forests around the world are both vulnerable to climate change and a substantial part of a portofolio of mitigation strategies. Forest agencies are expected to deal with these uncertainties through the development of a wide range of adaptation strategies. This report seeks to determine to what extent forest agencies are changing their policies and management operations in response to current and anticipated future climate change. In order to achieve this goal, we summarize the state of the art of forest policy responses regarding adaptation to climate change in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States.
