Developing a framework to inform climate change adaptation for global biodiversity

This workshop brought together a multi-disciplinary selection of researchers from CCI and beyond to identify the range of mechanisms by which climate change will impact on species and to determine potential adaptation interventions for each mechanism.

This project was funded by the CCI Strategic Initiative Workshop Fund. This fund provides seed grants for participatory workshops that contribute to the understanding and conservation of biodiversity.

Project Aims

1. Agree a list of mechanisms through which climate change will impact on species
2. Identify a range of adaptation options for conservation
3. Produce a journal paper with accompanying policy-maker summary

Key Activities

This workshop took place on the 18th and 19th July, held at the Judge Business School in Cambridge. It was attended by 23 people and generated interesting debates. The attendees consisted of a range of carefully selected experts, to provide a range of knowledge across taxonomic groups and habitats. Some of the invitees were unable to attend but have agreed to remain involved via email communication and will be adding their thoughts to the workshop outputs.

Conservation Impact

The mechanisms identified on day one have been input to the collaborative fund project ‘Mechanisms Underpinning Climate Change Impacts on Global Biodiversity’. They have been used as part of the key-words for the literature review, and form a framework within which to structure the climate change mechanisms identified in the literature for subsequent reporting. This project has also benefited more widely from the discussions held at the workshop.

The main conclusions from the workshop have been used to produce a policy-focussed summary. An accompanying poster was also produced and presented at the Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference, held in London on the 26^th-29^th March, an international conference with about 3,000 delegates to input to the Rio+20 conference agenda. Both documents may be used to promote the work and thinking to a wider and non-scientific audience.

In addition to these tangible outputs, the discussions held at the workshop developed new linkages between conservation scientists and conservationists, and strengthened existing ones. The benefits of these will be difficult to quantify, but have increased the profile of CCI amongst a range of academics and policy makers around the UK, and more widely.

• CCI-workshop-fund-1-CLIMATE-CHANGE-IMPACTS-Factsheet-28th-Nov-2012.pdf (PDF, 242.11 Kb)

Outputs

1. CCI Policy Brief: Climate change adaptation for biodiversity (2012) 
2. CCI Poster: Climate change adaptation for biodiversity presented at the “Planet under Pressure” Conference in London (March 2012)