Furness, Ella
Research
Climate change: Assessing the Adaptive Capacity of Community Forests
Community Forests Organizations (CFOs) have been developed in BC to manage forests according to the needs and desires of local communities, in order to maximize the economic, social and environmental benefits of forestry. The ecological effects of climate change in many of these communities are expected to be significant, and likely to have a detrimental effect on the health of the forests. The study is concerned with what CFOs need to have in place to adapt. 'Adaptive capacity' is a term used to describe an ability to adapt to change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, adaptive capacity depends upon governance, access to economic and physical capital, social networks, human skills and knowledge, technology, and guiding values. This study investigates the importance of each of these components of adaptive capacity, in order to ascertain which of these factors most need to be present for a CFO to adapt.
If we can identify which factors are of pivotal importance for a community forest in adapting to climate change we will be able to assist the organizations in focusing their resources in the most efficient way to continue delivering community benefits in a changing climate.
I was a community worker, working with small organizations similar in structure to community forests, then I decided to get a practical skill and trained as cabinet maker. After doing that for a while, I combined both and set up a workshop as part of a community wood recycling organization. I came back to school because I wanted to learn more about community forest organizations, and be able to THINK all day.
I googled forestry and it was the first place to come up! It looked great, had a massive range of courses, a great reputation for research, relatively affordable fees and Vancouver looked progressive, open and interesting.
Canadians are incredibly welcoming, polite and generous. Vancouver has great music, everyone loves coffee, it's multicultural and open minded, the drivers stop for you when you cycle (and it's great for cycling incidentally). The costs of living is very high. It rains twice as much here than in England (really!). The houses are beautiful and made of wood. You'll fall in love with the city.
I cycled an hour to school and back every day from October to April. It was wet and dark, but it made me feel alive and I made myself a medal to celebrate at the end of April. My friends Sara and Doug getting married on the beach. Going on a march to ask for more affordable housing in the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver Public Library. The concert in Stanley park to celebrate Vancouver's 125 birthday.
I like working out how to make things better, and reading - both of which are useful for research! I also love food, and running, and music, and hiking and jumping into cold water, yoga, soccer, and cycling. Oh, and I also like lying around staring at the trees. After working for the Alex Fraser Research Forest in Williams Lake I also love measuring trees and taking Greyhound buses.
I think I may just be a highly educated cabinet maker. I want to take what I've learned here and apply it to working in a community organization - to implement the research, and to do that I want to be part of a community organization managing forests or woodland sustainably, making furniture from the trees and aiming to benefit people on low incomes in the wider community with training or experience in cabinet making or forestry.
