Abstract

Background Climate change is influenced by a number of driving forces, due to human needs and activities, including people’s attitudes to forest and forestry. Thus, the combined society-forest system is under continuous change and the mutual dependency is large and multifaceted. Further, the multiple use features of our forests imply that various and often conflicting interests and goals exist for their management. With the increasing demands for timber, renewable energy, biodiversity, recreational areas together with high hopes on the forests as a mean to reduce climate change effects, these conflicts can be expected to increase. Definitions, property rights, right of use and obligations will become re-negotiated and in this process, the priority of interpretation will affect the outcomes for different stakeholders as well as for the issue of adaptation at large. Pressures on society and forest may reduce the space for adaptation over time, while new adaptive possibilities may emerge. The adaptive capacity of the society-forest system is fundamentally guided by its present state including different interest and stakeholder groups and stakeholder groups. Understanding the present status, values and perspectives about adaptive capacity of different stakeholders as well as historical adaptation perspectives processes are crucial in order to develop adaptive capacity and resilience while considering future changes and uncertainties.