Adaptation

The evidence for the role of using protected areas in ecosystem-based adaptation strategies

sue stolton equilibrium research

The challenge• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

estimates that 60% of global ecosystem services are degraded

but• Ecosystem-based adaptation the use

of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of adaptation strategies to help us cope with the adverse effects of climate change

The predictions• Health impacts spread of disease

vectors, heat waves, lack of clean water• Food shortages and crop failures• Water shortages and reduced

hydropower potential• ‘Natural disasters’: flooding, storms,

drought, wildfire, insect spreads, ocean acidification

The role of protected areas• Protect: maintain ecosystem integrity,

buffer local climate, reduce risks and impacts from extreme events such as storms, droughts and sea-level rise

• Provide: maintain essential ecosystem services that help people cope with changes in water supplies, fisheries, disease and agricultural productivity caused by climate change

Ecosystem integrity

• Floods: providing space for floodwaters to disperse and absorbing impacts with natural vegetation

• Landslides: stabilising soil and snow to stop slippage and slowing movement once a slip is underway

Protected areas can help to reduce the impact of all but the largest natural disasters

• Storm surges: blocking storm surges with coral reefs, barrier islands, mangroves, dunes and marshes

• Drought and desertification: reducing grazing pressure and maintaining watersheds and water retention in soil

• Fire: limiting encroachment into fire-prone areas, maintaining traditional management systems

Natural resources

• Water: both purer water and (especially in tropical montane cloud forests) increased water flow

Protected areas are proven tools for maintaining essential natural resources and services, which in turn can help increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of livelihoods in the face of climate change

• Fish resources: marine and freshwater protected areas conserve and rebuild fish stocks

• Food: by protecting crop wild relatives to facilitate crop breeding and pollination services; providing sustainable food supplies for communities

• Health: ranging from habitat protection to slow the expansion of vector-borne diseases that thrive in degraded ecosystems to access to traditional medicines

How to deliver• Understanding: encourage protected area

managers to assess values and benefits• Planning: consider vital ecosystem services

as well as biodiversity in gap analysis• Restoration and connectivity: major

potential to restore ecosystem integrity• Resilience: improve ecosystem resilience

particularly when ecosystem services are under threat

• Economics: realise the theoretical – goods and services from an effectively managed representative protected area network could have a value of US$4,400-5,200 billion a year

• Integrate: ensure protected areas included in national and local adaptation strategies and management plans

Our challenge• Integrity: ensure that protected areas are

capable of delivering potential services• Adaptive management: protected area

managers need to consider climate impacts and climate solutions in their planning and management

• Trade-offs: guidance on how we manage for biodiversity and climate adaptation

• Policy: linking biodiversity and climate change policy will help direct

Remember the message• Ecosystem-based adaptation uses

biodiversity and ecosystem services in an overall adaptation strategy

• Ecosystem-based adaptation strategies uses the sustainable management, protection and restoration of ecosystems to maintain services that help people cope with the effects of climate change

• Protected areas are ideally placed to build ecosystem resilience and deliver ecosystem-based adaptation strategies