We would like to thank David L. Hawksworth for enabling and continuously supporting this special issue. We are very grateful to all the participating colleagues of our conference and to all
the authors and reviewers for their valuable contributions to this special issue. Finally, we want to
acknowledge the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
(BMU) for funding the conference on ‘‘Forest Biodiversity in a Changing Climate: Understanding Conservation Strategies and Policies’’ and the research project ‘‘Forests and Climate Change’’ (FKZ 3508 83
0600) through the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).