Planting trees seems like sensible choice when it comes to mitigating climate change, but crucial aspects of the relationships between trees and climate have so far been overlooked in climate research, the new review Trees, forests and water: cool insights for a hot world concludes. The authors suggest that the global conversation on trees, forests and climate needs to be turned on its head: the direct effects of trees on the climate via rainfall and cooling may be more important than the well-studied effects through the global carbon balance. Yet, current climate policy tends to focus on carbon.

Speakers

Aster Gebrekirstos, ICRAF and Erlangen University
Cindy Morris, France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)
Daniel Murdiyarso, CIFOR, Bogor Agricultural University
David Ellison, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Douglas Sheil, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Elaine Springgay, FAO
Jan Pokorný, ENKI, Czech Republic
Meine van Noordwijk, ICRAF and Wageningen University
Michael Marshall, ICRAF
Victoria Gutierrez, WeForest
Vincent Gitz, FTA, CIFOR