Organiser: The Wildlife Trusts
The two themes that this session will touch on are:
- Innovative tools and standards
QUESTION: How will the IUCN tools support the implementation of future
actions, not only in relation to the knowledge they generate, but also in related communication, decision-making, awareness raising and other societal activities? - Securing investments in nature
QUESTION: what actions are needed to help secure the investments needed to achieve the targets?
Speakers:
- Kathryn Brown, Director of Climate Change and Evidence, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts
- Debbie Tann, Chief Executive, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
Abstract
The past 12 months have been unprecedented in terms of climate change trends globally. Climate scientists who monitor these trends have reported that both land and sea surface temperatures broke records by large margins, particularly in the second half of 2023, which also became the hottest year on record. The size of the jump in temperatures both on land and sea has not been recorded in the observed record before. Globally and regionally, we have witnessed catastrophic impacts in many countries, from extreme heatwaves, to flooding, to wildfires.
There is a significant gap in understanding and applying adaptation actions to help maximise the resilience of the natural environment to climate change, particularly in the context of short-term extreme changes for which modelled projections are not available. In the UK, we base our conservation activity to boost resilience on the ‘Lawton principles’ – bigger, better, more joined-up habitats. This has been the standard approach for the past 15 years, but we are starting to come up against unprecedented changes that require more transformational approaches.
Should conservationists be stepping back from trying to maintain habitats in a past state, and take a more flexible approach? How can we welcome beneficial new species while managing those invasive species that pose a threat? At what point do we stop trying to conserve and let some sites go, for example, coastal habitats that will be lost to sea level rise? These are difficult questions and sharing knowledge regionally is key to understanding what is and isn’t working as we all trial approaches across Europe and Asia. This session will include some scene setting from The Wildlife Trusts on some of the approaches we are trialling to manage extreme heat, wildfire, drought and flood. The remainder of the session will be interactive to hear from participants as to how they are managing these extreme risks and what they have found works, that should be rolled out more widely. We’d like to use the findings from this session to put to the IUCN Climate Crisis Commission to enable a discussion on how IUCN could better support adaptation efforts globally, building on all of the work done to date.