As part of our wider commitment to developing the UK’s agricultural and forestry sectors, Dr Thomas will be presenting at the CLA’s 2019 Summit, held on July 2^nd 2019 at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London. The topic for discussion this year is ‘Climate Change – Risk or Opportunity’ and will be presented by business leaders, academics and industry experts. The aim of the summit is to arm landowners with the facts around climate change and to highlight how to adapt and build in resilience to existing business whilst exploring future opportunities. As part of the expert line up, Dr Thomas will be presenting an overview of his recent research into climate change, co-authored with Prof Büntgen of Cambridge University, and how this is expected to affect forestry both in the UK and globally.

The seminar will broadly discuss the impact climate change has already had on forestry and how it might be further affected in future based on current climate change predictions.

The discussion will consider not only the threats to the UK forestry sector and what landowners will need to consider in order to minimise risks such as floods, droughts and diseases but also what benefits may be achieved. As climate change will have an impact of forestry and agricultural sectors globally, Dr Thomas will explore some of the ways in which the UK could adapt and develop opportunities – with one of the opportunities being the development of non-timber forestry products such as truffles. The traditional habitats for large scale truffle cultivation in southern Europe are becoming less viable for truffle production yet the effect of climate change will make the UK climate more suitable, particularly for species such as the Périgord truffle, providing the opportunity for a UK truffle industry worth millions annually.

The seminar will also consider how the forestry sector can be a solution to slowing climate change through carbon sequestration, demonstrating how this could be feasible with a UK wide focus on tree planting.  

For more information on the CLA’s Summit and details of the other speakers at the event, visit the CLA Website: https://www.cla.org.uk/summit2019