Helping Protected Areas adapt to climate change: Workshop outcomes

Source: Presentation by Véronique Lebourgeois

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During the ONLINE Conference 2020, EUROPARC held 8 thematic workshops to discuss diverse topics related to practice and capacity building in Protected Areas. In case you have not attended, or want to remind yourself of their outcomes, a series of articles summarises the content of some of these workshops.

Experience from 5 French nature reserves

In the Conference Workshop on Climate Change: how can Protected Areas adapt to climate change?, 5 nature reserves shared the experience they gained during the LIFE Natur’Adapt project on climate change adaptation. Each site has been testing and adapting a shared framework methodology to integrate climate change into their planning practice.

Each project manager shared one single key learning that they felt was important for Protected Area managers who are starting to look at this specific challenge.

Concisely, integrating climate change in Protected Area management practices often calls for:

  • further accepting uncertainty as a given factor when planning
  • bridging global climate change trends with local specificities
  • developing systemic large-scale conservation as climate change is affecting the very conditions of life as well as major natural cycles such as water, carbon, soil erosion,… In other words, Nature knows no borders. Protected areas are affected by their surroundings and the other way around.
  • Involving communities from the early stages of the planning exercise to co-design win-win solutions in and out of the area.

These examples show that climate change is yet another pressure on already fragile ecosystems that managers need to take into account. It adds complexity and uncertainty as well as new competencies. In parallel, let us not miss that climate change offers a common ground to work together with stakeholders and improve the implementation of nature conservation measures in and around Protected Areas.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact Olivier de Sadeleer, Project Manager at EUROPARC Federation or to download the workshop presentations below.

Download the presentations

Element of context, LIFE Natur’Adapt’s experiment and prototype methodology – download. Olivier de Sadeleer, Project Manager – LIFE Natur’Adapt, Climate Change Adaptation, EUROPARC.

Integrating climate change into protected area management practices – Key learnings from 5 nature reserves in France:

  • Véronique Lebourgeois, Parc naturel régional du Morvan – Réserve naturelle des Tourbières du Morvan, France – download
  • Iris Lochon, Syndicat mixte du Parc naturel régional des Volcans d’Auvergne – Réserve de Chastreix-Sancy, France – download
  • Juliette Dané, Asters, Conservatoire des espaces naturels de Haute-Savoie – Réserve de Sixt-Passy, France – download
  • Emilien Bastian, LPO – Réserve de Lilleau des Niges, France – download
  • Kenzo Héas, Fédération des réserves naturelles catalanes- Réserve de la Massane, France – download

Want to learn more about climate change? Join our webinar on the 21st of October.

or check our Knowledge Hub:

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