Adaptation The evidence for the role of using protected areas in ecosystem-based adaptation strategies sue stolton equilibrium research

The challenge Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimates that 60% of global ecosystem services are degraded but Ecosystem-based adaptation the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of adaptation strategies to help us cope with the adverse effects of climate change

The predictions Health impacts spread of disease vectors, heat waves, lack of clean water Food shortages and crop failures Water shortages and reduced hydropower potential ‘Natural disasters’: flooding, storms, drought, wildfire, insect spreads, ocean acidification

The role of protected areas Protect: maintain ecosystem integrity, buffer local climate, reduce risks and impacts from extreme events such as storms, droughts and sea-level rise Provide: maintain essential ecosystem services that help people cope with changes in water supplies, fisheries, disease and agricultural productivity caused by climate change

Ecosystem integrity Floods: providing space for floodwaters to disperse and absorbing impacts with natural vegetation Landslides: stabilising soil and snow to stop slippage and slowing movement once a slip is underway Protected areas can help to reduce the impact of all but the largest natural disasters

Storm surges: blocking storm surges with coral reefs, barrier islands, mangroves, dunes and marshes Drought and desertification: reducing grazing pressure and maintaining watersheds and water retention in soil Fire: limiting encroachment into fire- prone areas, maintaining traditional management systems

Natural resources Water: both purer water and (especially in tropical montane cloud forests) increased water flow Protected areas are proven tools for maintaining essential natural resources and services, which in turn can help increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of livelihoods in the face of climate change

Fish resources: marine and freshwater protected areas conserve and rebuild fish stocks Food: by protecting crop wild relatives to facilitate crop breeding and pollination services; providing sustainable food supplies for communities Health: ranging from habitat protection to slow the expansion of vector-borne diseases that thrive in degraded ecosystems to access to traditional medicines

How to deliver Understanding: encourage protected area managers to assess values and benefits Planning: consider vital ecosystem services as well as biodiversity in gap analysis Restoration and connectivity: major potential to restore ecosystem integrity Resilience: improve ecosystem resilience particularly when ecosystem services are under threat

Economics: realise the theoretical – goods and services from an effectively managed representative protected area network could have a value of US$4,400- 5,200 billion a year Integrate: ensure protected areas included in national and local adaptation strategies and management plans

Our challenge Integrity: ensure that protected areas are capable of delivering potential services Adaptive management: protected area managers need to consider climate impacts and climate solutions in their planning and management Trade-offs: guidance on how we manage for biodiversity and climate adaptation Policy: linking biodiversity and climate change policy will help direct

Remember the message Ecosystem-based adaptation uses biodiversity and ecosystem services in an overall adaptation strategy Ecosystem-based adaptation strategies uses the sustainable management, protection and restoration of ecosystems to maintain services that help people cope with the effects of climate change Protected areas are ideally placed to build ecosystem resilience and deliver ecosystem-based adaptation strategies