July 31, 2026
This guide is adapted from the Australian Government’s Climate change toolkit for World Heritage properties in Australia (the toolkit). The toolkit was developed to support climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning for World Heritage properties in Australia.
It provides a 4-step method to scoping an approach, identifying climate change impacts, considering vulnerability and risk, and planning for adaptation. This method is suitable for managers of other heritage places and protected areas.
This guide can assist managers of other protected areas with assessing climate risks, by using a similar approach.
This short guide can be used by managers of other heritage places and protected areas, to help them use the toolkit and to incorporate their site’s key values and relevant climate data for their region. The reader will need to access the full toolkit for more detailed guidance.
This guide focuses on protected areas and ecological communities more generally and their key ecological attributes and provides a protected area example in the text with accompanying tables on impact, vulnerability and possible future adaptation actions.
