ClimatePrep

This story is part of a series on adaptation in the Danube-Carpathian region.

 “For this freshwater strategy meeting, we should invite someone from the climate group, you know, to see what they have got to say.”

“Ok, let’s see who we can contact.”

This is more or less how it all started in the summer of 2008. We had a WWF-DCP (Danube-Carpathian Program) freshwater strategy meeting to come up with a transformational goal and ideas for our work on the Danube river of central and eastern Europe over the next five years. This river has been the ancient source of life, livelihoods, and culture for millennia in Europe. Today, it crosses the boundaries of 19 nations — arguably the most politically complicated river basin the world.

WWF-DCP tries to be the “vision keeper” for the Danube across all of those countries.

Fishermen on a boat carrying wood. Danube Delta, Romania Project (c) WWF-Canon / Michel GUNTHER

Climate change is something we hadn’t incorporated into our vision as of yet. So we invited John Matthews, WWF-US freshwater climate change adaptation specialist, to present on climate change adaptation (CCA). He singlehandedly changed the way I looked at the world with his hour-long presentation.

One sentence I remember most vividly from this presentation is, “We need to learn how to take decisions in the face of great uncertainties.” He was the first one I heard saying that CCA is not about consulting accurate climate models and deducting your strategies based on available scientific data, but rather finding a new way of planning and non-precise decision making for all of our conservation work – in other words allowing for adaptation as we continue collecting more information on how climate change will impact the Danube region.

The questions that grab me most up to now include:

-How do we plan the conservation work for the future in the midst of missing info?

-How would one go about, and what would be included, in a vulnerability assessment for the Danube region?

-What do we have to start measuring now to get a better understanding of what is happening in our region due to climate change?

-How can we assess the adaptive ecosystem qualities and capacities of our region?

-How can we enhance the resilience of the systems so that they can “help themselves”?

-How can we start integrating CCA strategies into our present work plans and strategies?

These questions are not easy to answer, but they are some of the most important questions we have to start tackling when thinking about our future program strategies for the region.