Global initiatives such as REDD+, afforestation, reforestation, and restoration place forests at the centre of climate action. Yet these measures are highly context dependent and can create synergies and trade-offs across carbon sequestration, water availability, biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and human well-being.
Afforestation can enhance carbon sequestration, reduce erosion, regulate soil moisture, and support atmospheric moisture recycling, while in some contexts reducing streamflow, altering surface albedo, or changing groundwater recharge. Forest change can also affect evapotranspiration, precipitation recycling, and downwind water availability, highlighting the importance of green water processes and governance across spatial scales, administrative boundaries, and sectors.
The long-term effectiveness of forest-based climate action also depends on the capacity of forests as social–ecological systems to cope with, adapt to, and transform in response to disturbances and changing conditions. Compound and cascading disturbances, including drought, wildfire, heat, pests, and land-use pressures, can interact with institutional constraints and competing societal demands to undermine resilience.

This session aims to advance understanding of how forests can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation while maintaining or strengthening social–ecological resilience under changing hydroclimatic and societal conditions. We welcome interdisciplinary studies, modelling approaches, case studies, governance analyses, and decision-support tools addressing trade-offs, compound and cascading risks, and green water governance, including:

· Social–ecological resilience, including adaptation, learning, participation, and cross-sectoral and cross-scale governance of the forest-water nexus
· Forest–water–climate interactions, including soil moisture, evapotranspiration, moisture recycling, and blue–green water linkages
· Co-benefits and trade-offs of forest-based mitigation for carbon sequestration, water availability, biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and society
· Forest disturbances, compound and cascading impacts, institutional capacity, and adaptation
· New indicators, scenarios, and decision-support approaches for resilient forest management
. Forest–green and blue water governance, including monitoring, transboundary dependencies, cross-scale coordination, and cross-sectoral decision-making.