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Dr. Ralf Petercord Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Protection NRW Department of Forestry, Climate Change in Forests, Timber Industry Requirements for Hunting in a Climate Change In the coming years, the effects of climate change will become increasingly clear. As is to be expected, the condition of the forests will change dramatically. Against this background, the current damage to the spruce stands was only the beginning of these changes. The speed of climate change will overwhelm the natural adaptation of the forests, so that active silvicultural action is required to enable the establishment of new genetic origins and tree species. Existing damaged areas must be reforested and forests with low vitality must be restructured. The aim is to create structured mixed stands of tree species suitable for the location, which arise from natural regeneration, but also from planting and sowing as a regeneration process. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 350,000 hectares of forest area will be affected in the coming years. The financing costs for forest ownership will be immense, at around 1.5 billion euros. Currently, the total number of hoofed game in North Rhine-Westphalia is too high to be able to carry out the necessary forest conversion without game protection measures. It is foreseeable that the current hunting practices will not be sufficient to adequately remedy the current situation. As a result, additional financial expenditure for mechanical or chemical game protection will be necessary, or new hunting concepts and strategies will be required.