Credit: Austin Neil
Helping protected areas adapt to a changing climate, or is it the other way around?
Why consider climate change in Protected Area management practice?
Field experience and research tell us that it is urgent to tackle nature and climate breakdown. It is also widely accepted that human societies’ behaviours are exerting an overwhelming destructive force on the natural world.
Although bleak, this acknowledgement holds reasons for optimism as solutions to both crises overlap. They call for better integrated land management, well implemented protection and more restoration to develop large and well-connected natural ecosystems.
Protected areas have a central role to play in tackling climate change
How is the EUROPARC helping managers adapt to climate change?
As an active partner of LIFE Natur’Adapt, EUROPARC is engaging its community of members into integrating climate change adaptation in their management practices.
With the help of a dedicated task force, EUROPARC is:
- Developing a policy brief for decision makers;
- Organising exchanges among peers;
- Sharing existing knowledge and experience.
Read more about the Task force
How to get started? Check our selected resources
EUROPARC Task Force on Climate Change, the LIFE Natur’Adapt Project team as well as our members, have produced and gathered a number of interesting resources for managers who would like to start looking at climate change from a management perspective.
In this section you will find existing methodologies and information on adaptation in protected areas in the form of webinars, articles and reports.
New – PROTECTED AREAS & CLIMATE CHANGE White Paper
This White Paper details recommendations for better integration of climate adaptation in policy and practice for Protected Areas in Europe. It was developed within the Natur’Adapt project and calls upon European decision-makers and national authorities to facilitate the co-design of integrated, long-term and large-scale environment management and spatial planning. Within this process, Protected Areas should play an essential role. The White Paper provides four recommendations on how to make the most of our protected spaces in Climate Adaptation planning.
New – WORKING TOGETHER TOWARDS CLIMATE RESILIENCE
The EUROPARC Task Force on Climate Change has released a discussion paper on “Protected Areas and the European Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation and Biodiversity” This paper is a modest contribution by the EUROPARC Task force on Climate Change to accelerate the transition towards a nature-inclusive and climate-resilient society. Through a couple of suggestions, it aims at kick starting a dialogue to bridge the gap between climate change adaptation and nature conservation communities.
Stay tuned
If you wish to stay up to date with what is going on about climate change in the federation
We would love to hear from you
If you have any experience in or questions about climate change adaptation in and around protected areas, please, let us get in touch!
Olivier de Sadeleer
Project Manager LIFE Natur’Adapt
EUROPARC
About LIFE Natur’Adapt
In Europe, Réserves Naturelles de France, EUROPARC and eight partners have come together in a LIFE Climate Action project to transform the challenge of adapting to climate change in protected areas into an opportunity to innovate. Natur’Adapt aims at triggering a transition towards the adaptive management of protected areas while laying the foundations of a dynamic collective learning process.
