Percepţii ale inginerilor silvici asupra vulnerabilităţilor şi riscurilor ecosistemelor forestiere în contextul schimbărilor climatice [Perceptions of forestry engineers on vulnerabilities and risks of forest ecosystems to climate change]

Abstract

A growing recent literature argues that the adaptation to the climate change depends on the perceptions that the stakeholders have on potential effects of the climate change and the possibilities to counteract these effects. This study focuses on forestry engineers’ perceptions on climate changes and adapting measures. A number of 76 semi-structured interviews were conducted with forest engineers from three counties in North-Eastern Romania (Suceava, Neamţ and Botoşani). The results show that the forest engineers perceived as climate change-related vulnerabilities: the occurrence of drought, the risk of increased windfall, and the insects attacks. However, the climate change-related risk is ranked only as a fifth threat on forest ecosystems stability, far behind the political control over forest administration and law implementation, incoherence of the legislative frame, un-appropriate legislation for private forests and illegal logging. We conclude that climate change adaptation is not a priority of forest management, which is correlated with the fact that more than half of the respondents estimates the impact of climate change on forests as being small or moderate, while one third of the respondents clearly manifest the preference for non-adapting behavior.

Keywords

• forest ecosystem
• climate change-related risks
• forest management adaptation to climate change
• forest engineers’ perceptions
• North-Eastern Romania.