Episode 84: Climate change and FSC – Setting the stage, featuring Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General at FSC International, and Valarie Courtois from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative

Title: Episode 84: Climate change and FSC – Setting the stage, featuring Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General at FSC International, and Valarie Courtois from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative Author(s): Worm, Loa Dalgaard Description: Climate change is already reshaping forest ecosystems around the world, with profound implications for how forests are managed, governed, and protected. In this first episode of the Climate Change and FSC mini-series, we set the stage by zooming out and exploring why climate change matters for forests — and why systems like FSC must adapt in response. Host Loa Dalgaard Worm is joined by Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General at FSC International, and Valarie Courtois from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Together, they unpack how FSC understands climate change as both a mitigation and an adaptation challenge, and why accounting for climate risks is becoming essential for sustainable forest management and for societies more broadly. The conversation explores how climate change is already affecting forests on the ground, from increasing wildfire and insect outbreaks to changes in wildlife behaviour and ecosystem stability. It also examines the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation in a forestry context, the economic and social costs of inaction, and the role of incentives, markets, and certification in supporting climate-resilient forest stewardship. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems and global perspectives, this episode highlights why planning for climate change is no longer optional, and how collaboration, leadership, and action across sectors are needed to safeguard forests and the communities that depend on them. This episode opens a three-part series focusing on how climate adaptation is being integrated into forest management standards and on-the-ground practice.