This article is based on episode two of a three-part series on climate change and forests, on the Forests of the Future Podcast. It explores how Climate Vulnerability Assessments are helping FSC Certificate Holders to identify, plan for, and adapt to our changing climate.
Listen to Episode 2 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Castbox
What are climate vulnerability assessments and how can they help forest managers plan for the future?
You may have heard the term Climate Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) mentioned at conferences or industry events—but what do these assessments actually involve, and how are they helping forest managers manage risk and plan for an increasingly uncertain future?
Canada was an early mover in developing robust frameworks for managing climate risks in forests, and our sector continues to lead in this space. We recently sat down with the hosts of the Forests for the Future podcast to talk about just what a CVA is, and why they’re more valuable than ever.
Joining the conversation were Dr. Sheri Andrews-Key, Director Micro-Certificate Programming and Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Micro-Certificate Lead of the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship at The University of British Columbia and Kevin Gillis, Certification Coordinator for Mistik Management Ltd. Both bring extensive experience applying CVAs in the forestry sector.
What are climate vulnerability assessments?
Dr. Andrews-Key explains that CVAs are tools for understanding how climate change affects both forest ecosystems and the people who depend on them. They examine biophysical factors such as temperature and precipitation, how natural systems are responding over different timescales, and the human dimensions—what happens to local communities and land users as forests change.
The information gathered through a CVA helps forest managers identify key risks, prioritize focus areas, and implement adaptation practices that support long-term resilience.
"These tools help bring together a diversity of stakeholders and build capacity for responding to what’s happening in the environment,” Dr. Andrews-Key says. “They’re not perfect or a crystal ball, but they help us manage uncertainty."
What’s involved in a climate vulnerability assessment?
While there are different methodologies, the best practice approach is currently considered to be the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers Guidebook - a framework with different stages that Dr. Andrews-Key describes as “breaking things down into manageable chunks.”
In addition, both Dr. Andrews-Key and Kevin highlight the importance of going beyond Western science. In their work, the pair has relied on climate data and the latest research, but Dr. Andrews-Key notes “there is no substitute for what the land users and the folks on the land base see - their experience, their knowledge” are crucial to informing the report’s observations and recommendations. In particular, incorporating local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge from Indigenous communities provides valuable insights not always captured elsewhere.
The key steps of a climate vulnerability assessment
There are four main phases of the CVA process:
- Organizational readiness assessment
This phase sets the context for the assessment, establishes the project team, and agrees on scope and timelines, while building an understanding of the organization’s capacity to identify and act on identified risks and vulnerabilities.
2. Gathering local knowledge
Assessors examine climatic and non-climatic factors to understand what people are experiencing on the land and how climate impacts are affecting operations and communities.
3. Understanding the management system
This phase examines governance and operational factors such as regulatory requirements, disclosure obligations, and internal policies. It helps assess:
- Where the organization’s greatest climate vulnerabilities and risks lie;
- The organization’s adaptive capacity, including strengths, challenges, and pinch points.
4. Identifying priority areas
Here, companies determine what is feasible to address, building on existing practices and tools such as standard operating procedures or High Conservation Value areas. The final step is developing an implementation and monitoring plan that integrates the CVA into day-to-day operations.
Dr. Andrews-Key stresses that no two CVAs look the same—even companies operating in the same region may develop very different plans. For that reason, ownership of the process is critical.
"If this is done by an outsider and you just get a fancy report at the end, if you haven’t owned it, you’re wasting your money,” she says. “You have to embed it into what you do so it becomes business as usual."
How Mistik got started with climate vulnerability assessments
Mistik has long been known as an innovative leader and early adopter of new approaches. As unusually severe climate events began to increase in the early 2000s, Mistik was taking notice and thinking about the impact on business operations.
"We started thinking about climate change and vulnerabilities as far back as 2006,” says Kevin. After a particularly severe event caught the attention of Mistik’s parent company, leadership recognized that investing in climate risk management was essential. “We have specific duties to the mills to ensure the fibre gets there."
Wildfire risk is the Saskatchewan-based company’s top priority, but the company also manages for large blowdown events, disease, snow press, and ice storm damage. Shorter winters, late freeze, and the increased rainfall that often accompanies warmer winters have become growing concerns.
In 2015, Dr. Andrews-Key and her team approached Mistik about piloting a CVA. The assessment, which is now reviewed annually, has helped the company identify proactive measures to reduce delays and inefficiencies. For example, Mistik now builds roads a year in advance to reduce pressure during heavy rains and has developed permanent stockpile sites near highways so fibre can still reach mills during adverse weather.
Working with Mistik helped refine the CVA process so it could be tailored to individual organizations. Since that first project, Dr. Andrews-Key notes that a significant portion of forest companies are now incorporating CVAs into their operations.
“Forest managers are really good at adaptation. They adapt all the time. But the framework allows a more formalized way of capturing this knowledge, so it can be used as a training tool for new practitioners coming in, and for the organization itself so it can continue to learn from it,” Dr. Andrews-Key says.
What’s next for CVAs?
FSC Canada has identified CVAs as a beneficial tool to be included as guidance in its standard, and they have already been incorporated as guidance in the FSC’s forest management standard in the US.
Both Dr. Andrews-Key and Kevin strongly advocate for incorporating climate vulnerability assessments into the FSC Standard, arguing that this would strengthen sustainability reporting and monitoring. Adopting CVAs as a normative approach shouldn’t be complex, says Kevin, as existing FSC requirements align well and contribute to a CVA process. The small additional effort could have an outsized impact on forest resilience and supporting healthy communities.
“Measurability is really important. The impacts are different now than what they were 20 years ago on soil, water, species at risk. Getting CVAs into the standard would ensure that none of those three things suffer,” says Kevin.
Dr. Andrews-Key agrees. “FSC has always been a leader in innovation and ensuring the forest and land are treated in a sustainable way. With the advances in climate research over the last decade, it’s time to see that written into the standard.” she says.
Listen to Episode 2 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Castbox
Forest for the Future is the podcast where we explore the ideas, challenges, and solutions shaping the future of forests and society.
This podcast series is a collaboration between FSC Canada and FSC Denmark. It has been made possible through Environment & Climate Change Canada funding.