The Complicated Truth About Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

By Eilif Ursin Reed Just like the swimming polar bears have become symbols for disappearing sea ice in the Arctic, the remote atolls of the Pacific and the Indian Ocean have become emblematic for the consequences of sea level rise. It just makes plain sense that islands on which the highest elevation is sometimes less than [...]

Educating the coast’s youngest about Climate Change Adaptation

  In this third and final installment of a three part series on WWF’s Latin American and Caribbean Program’s coastal adaptation projects in Costa Rica, Valerie Guthrie discusses the community’s efforts to educate and actively involve Junquillal’s youngest inhabitants in WWF’s  adaptation work. Communities matter. This is the foundation for our work helping sea turtles and the [...]

Sea level rise at Junquillal – modeling future coastlines, and what it means for people and sea turtles

In this second installment of a three part series on WWF’s Latin American and Caribbean Program’s coastal adaptation projects in Costa Rica, Ana Fonseca, the Latin America and Caribbean lead with WWF-LAC, together with Carlos Drews discusses the community’s efforts to adapt – both for the turtles and themselves. The fortunes of coastal communities like Junquillal are [...]

Video: Marianne Fish on Coastal Adaptation with a Species Focus

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US As part of ClimatePrep.org’s continuing feature on sea turtles and adaptation, we interviewed Marianne Fish, Program Leader for Marine and Coastal Adaptation with WWF – Latin America and the Caribbean. She spoke about incorporating adaptation into existing conservation efforts, “no regrets” strategies, and how sea turtles are a focal species for adaptation [...]

Community Solutions for Sea Turtle and Coastal Protection

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US Junquillal Beach in the north Pacific of Costa Rica is a representative example of many places in Latin American and the Caribbean where wildlife and communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change. In 2005, with the support of the community, WWF started the project “Conservation of Pacific Leatherbacks” (in Spanish, [...]

Progress in Pakistan: An Interview with Hammad Naqi Khan of WWF-Pakistan

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US Hammad Naqi Khan is Director of Programs at WWF – Pakistan and an expert on field-based environmental and water resource management projects. We caught up with Hammad during a recent conference in Washington, where he told us how WWF – Pakistan is working to prepare government and local communities to face the [...]

Saving Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches in a Changing Climate: Junquillal, Costa Rica

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US Marine turtles and their nesting beaches are threatened by sea-level rise and nest overheating resulting from climate change. A WWF project in Junquillal beach, Costa Rica, joined forces with the community to lead the implementation of adaptation measures such as coastal planning in consideration of sea-level rise, flood risk reduction, restoration of [...]

Building Mangrove Resilience

Community members, Fiji © Joanna Ellison

by Jonathan Cook, WWF-US For the past six months, I have managed a WWF project, supported by the Global Environment Facility and United Nations Environment Program, that tries to address the significant adaptation challenges facing a fascinating but often neglected ecosystem: mangrove forests. Mangroves – the guardians of tropical coastlines – are among the many ecosystems [...]