Highlights

USFWS’s Climate Adaptation Strategy

After two extensive consulting sessions, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has developed a draft “National Fish and Wildlife Climate Adaptation Strategy.” See the website (where several fact sheets and summaries are available) or go straight to the pdf report. An appendix on a 5-Year Action Plan for Implementing the Climate Change Strategic Plan is also available. The Strategy focuses on a “balanced approach” between mitigation, adaptation and engagement, and articulates seven “bold commitments” by the USFWS:

1. 1. Establish Regional Climate Science Partnerships;
   

2. 2. Establish Landscape Conservation Cooperatives;
   

3. 3. Develop new procedures to evaluate agency actions in the light of climate change;
   

4. 4. Engage partners in all sectors in a dialogue “about the consequences of climate change”;
   

5. 5. Become carbon neutral as an agency by 2020;
   

6. 6. Apply Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as the agency’s framework for landscape conservation; and
   

7. 7. Lead the conservation community in addressing climate change through the Adaptation Strategy, creating a National Biological Inventory and Monitoring Partnership, and organizing a National Climate Change Forum.
   

The main website notes that: “As we refine and finalize the draft Strategic Plan based on partner and public feedback in the months ahead, we will move quickly to identify and fill knowledge gaps, expand capability to plan and work with partners, identify the habitats and corridors most important across landscapes, and effectively anticipate and address climate change. The documents will not be final until these processes are completed and they are published in final form.”

Green groups highlight climate change in landscape conservation proposal

Fifteen conservation organizations have drafted a “Program Proposal” on “A Landscape-scale Conservation Initiative for the U.S.” While the document is dated February 1, an updated version is currently being drafted to incorporate information from the America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions. Noting that “open space corridors should conserve whole functioning ecosystems that will be resilient to climate change,” the Program Proposal lists seven “key goals,” the fourth of which is to “assist fish, wildlife and other natural resources and human communities to adapt to climate change. The conservation of large, connected landscapes is a key factor in helping natural systems to be resilient to climate change. Protection of large watersheds and their wetlands is essential to mitigating the impacts of flood and drought that result from changing weather patterns.” The organizations signing on to the proposal are American Rivers, Clean Water Action, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Endangered Species Coalition, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, Izaak Walton League, Land Trust Alliance, National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Trust for Public Land, The Wilderness Society, and World Wildlife Fund.

Important new resource: Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange

Island Press and EcoAdapt recently announced the establishment of the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange, or “CAKE.” The website contains a number of highly valuable resources:

1. •a map-based database of case studies of adaptation projects;
   

2. •a virtual library containing important papers, reports, videos, and books;
   

3. •a directory with names of individuals and organizations working on adaptation;
   

4. •a set of tools to “process climate change information and make adaptation decisions”; and
   

5. •a community section with calendar and blog.
   

CAKE is likely to become the online hub for adaptation efforts aimed at ecosystems and biodiversity; users of the Clearinghouse will find a permanent link to it in the right-hand sidebar.  

New report on Arctic biodiversity trends

The Arctic Council’s Working Group on the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) has released the report Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 as a contribution to the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity (see the main site go directly to the pdf, and find maps & graphics at UNEP/GRID). The report looks at 22 “indicators of change” in the Arctic divided into three sections: Species, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services. The Introduction presents seven “key findings”:

8. 8. Unique Arctic habitats for flora and fauna, including sea ice, tundra, thermokarst ponds and lakes, and permafrost peatlands have been disappearing over recent decades.
   

9. 9. Although the majority of Arctic species examined in this report are currently stable or increasing, some species of importance to Arctic people or species of global significance are declining.
   

10. 10. Climate change is emerging as the most far reaching and significant stressor on Arctic biodiversity. However, contaminants, habitat fragmentation, industrial development, and unsustainable harvest levels continue to have impacts. Complex interactions between climate change and other factors have the potential to magnify impacts on biodiversity.
    

11. 11. Since 1991, the extent of protected areas in the Arctic has increased, although marine areas remain poorly represented.
    

12. 12. Changes in Arctic biodiversity are creating both challenges and opportunities for Arctic peoples.
    

13. 13. Long-term observations based on the best available traditional and scientific knowledge are required to identify changes in biodiversity, assess the implications of observed changes, and develop adaptation strategies.
    

14. 14.Changes in Arctic biodiversity have global repercussions.
    

Coverage can be found at ScienceDaily and the US State Department.

Special Issue of Biological Conservation on climate change

The July issue of Biological Conservation contains a special section on “Conservation planning within emerging global climate and economic realities.” Articles include:

1. •Comprehensive conservation planning to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in Canadian boreal regions under a warming climate and increasing exploitation
   

2. •Conservation strategies in response to rapid climate change: Australia as a case study
   

3. •Predicting survival, reproduction and abundance of polar bears under climate change
   

4. •Dynamic wildlife habitat models: Seasonal foods and mortality risk predict occupancy-abundance and habitat selection in grizzly bears
   

The issue also contains an article entitled “Assessing the potential impacts of climate change and their conservation implications in Japan: A case study of conifers.”

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