Reframing Adaptive Forest Management to Sustain Ecosystem Services Under Climate Change

Developing effective forest management plans to address the threats posed by global climate change has garnered widespread attention worldwide. A prerequisite for successful adaptation is the ability to forecast and understand how climatic changes affect the provision of ecosystem services. Although notable progress has been made in adapting forest systems to climate change, sustaining multiple forest ecosystem services remains a major challenge for forest management. It is, therefore, imperative to develop feasible approaches that not only enhance the adaptive capacity of forests but also optimize the delivery of ecosystem services. In this review, we first synthesize current knowledge on forest ecosystem responses and adaptive mechanisms under changing climatic conditions. We then examine existing forest management strategies and propose a conceptual framework for adaptive forest management that explicitly integrates ecosystem service objectives within the context of climate change. Finally, we highlight key research gaps and suggest priorities for future studies. We strongly advocate that future forest management planning should take the enhancement of multiple ecosystem services as a central objective under evolving climate conditions. The framework proposed in this study offers a novel perspective on adaptive forest management and provides a potential pathway for strengthening human capacity to manage ecosystems sustainably.