Publisher : Elsevier Ltd.
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2008
Thematic : Climate Change and Biodiversity
Language : English
Note
Climate change creates new challenges for biodiversity conservation. Species ranges and
ecological dynamics are already responding to recent climate shifts, and current reserves
will not continue to support all species they were designed to protect. These problems
are exacerbated by other global changes. Scholarly articles recommending measures to
adapt conservation to climate change have proliferated over the last 22 years. We systematically
reviewed this literature to explore what potential solutions it has identified and
what consensus and direction it provides to cope with climate change. Several consistent
recommendations emerge for action at diverse spatial scales, requiring leadership by
diverse actors. Broadly, adaptation requires improved regional institutional coordination,
expanded spatial and temporal perspective, incorporation of climate change scenarios into
all planning and action, and greater effort to address multiple threats and global change
drivers simultaneously in ways that are responsive to and inclusive of human communities.
However, in the case of many recommendations the how, by whom, and under what
conditions they can be implemented is not specified. We synthesize recommendations
with respect to three likely conservation pathways: regional planning; site-scale management;
and modification of existing conservation plans. We identify major gaps, including
the need for (1) more specific, operational examples of adaptation principles that are consistent
with unavoidable uncertainty about the future; (2) a practical adaptation planning
process to guide selection and integration of recommendations into existing policies and
programs; and (3) greater integration of social science into an endeavor that, although
dominated by ecology, increasingly recommends extension beyond reserves and into
human-occupied landscapes.
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Keywords : UV-B radiation
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
