From Climate Change Challenges to Adaptation Solutions. Outcomes of a workshop on management of biodiversity under climate change organised by the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and the Australian Capital Territory Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate

[摘要] On 16 November 2011, the ACT Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate convened an expert technical workshop to scope out a range of climate adaptation responses for biodiversity that the ACT may wish to prioritise for further research and planning work over the next 5-10 years.The workshop was supported by a background paper prepared by the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship and the workshop was facilitated by CSIRO.Potential adaptation responses were explored by workshop discussion groups for four key themes: weeds and other invasive species; interactions between fire, water and grazing; management options for particular species, communities and ecosystems; and designing landscapes for general resilience to climate change.Discussion groups also noted some of the initial steps involved in implementing potential responses and ranked them according to priority.This report summarises the proceedings, discusses the potential responses raised by participants, and synthesises priorities across themes.Three areas of activity emerged as priorities across themes, and are thus the types of actions likely to achieve multiple benefits for biodiversity under a changing climate:Develop an integrated landscape design and management planTo eventually produce a large network of connected patches of high quality native vegetation, focusing in the lower-lying portions of the environment which are most likely to act as refuges.Build a significant urban component in the biodiversity strategyWith separate actions designed to buffer reserves, to substantially increase the nativeness of urban areas, and to provide refuges for fire-sensitive and wetland species/ecosystems.Commence underpinning actions that will be required to support more transformative adaptation responses at larger scales in the futureTo build cross-jurisdictional cross-border relationships, and relationships between government, scientists, and the public.However, it was also clear that the difference between an existing approach to managing biodiversity and a climate adaptation response might be in the magnitude and precise detail of how the approach is implemented.Thus, CSIRO suggests that as these or other adaptation responses are explored further, objectives should be clearly defined in terms of primary or secondary adaptation responses (as explained in section 3 and more fully in the background paper), and any proposed actions should be designed specifically to achieve the stated response, not just to achieve general biodiversity benefits.Finally, it is important to remember that climate adaptation is a journey that will take time.While incremental change in management may be appropriate in the short term, we may need to radically change our approaches to biodiversity management in the future as climate continues to change.This document (combined with the background paper) provides an initial set of achievable ideas to explore, as well as some thoughts on how to begin preparing for future, more significant changes in policy and management.

[发布日期] 2011-12-16 [发布机构] CSIRO

[学科分类] 地球科学(综合)