Climate change poses a complex threat to conservation management, including for threatened species and protected places. Change in climate will not be smooth. Extreme events and seasonal conditions need to be considered alongside long-term climate projections so immediate demands and pressures are addressed and species can adapt to long-term climate change. Management decisions will also need to consider a complex environment of limited resources, political and social expectations, competing pressures, knowledge gaps, and a range of plausible futures.
This project will use a climate lens to develop improved decision-making processes for conservation. Long-term climate sets the future objective and informs adaptation choices, while short-term actions and climate variability (and extremes) influence how, and if, the future objective is met. We will build a database of adaptation options for species and habitats and a ‘decision tree’ to help government and on-ground managers select likely options for long-term adaptation. A second component will support conservation managers to negotiate short and medium-term climate challenges on the pathway to the long-term future. The project will co-develop and test a set of regionally specific climate situational reports with stakeholders to provide short- and medium-term information to improve the effectiveness of on-ground interventions.
This project complements other Climate Systems Hub projects, the Climate Adaptation Initiative, and other cross-hub initiatives by providing practical examples demonstrating how to use climate information in conservation management decision-making.
For more information
Please contact the the project lead: Alistair Hobday, CSIRO
