Bringing Restoration and Climate Change Adaptation Together

By Dr. Nathaniel Seavy and Tom Gardali, PRBO Conservation Science PRBO Conservation Science is a non-profit organization with a mission to conserve birds, other wildlife, and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach.  PRBO’s highest priority is to develop and promote conservation practices that address the challenges of rapid environmental change. Since the early 1980’s, [...]

Conducting Interdisciplinary Adaptation Research: Lessons Learned from a Rock Lobster Vulnerability Assessment

By Dr. Gretta Pecl, University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, The Australian Marine Adaptation Network I was trained as a biologist in the traditional university-style: a focus on one-discipline. Most of my research over the 15 years since this formal training ended has focused on understanding the growth and movements of marine species. [...]

Identifying Opportunities & Assessing Vulnerability: Essential Characteristics of Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US Last August I found myself in a dark room at a conference facility outside of Delhi, listening to what was meant to be an adaptation talk.  The speaker was supposed to be walking us through adaptation options for conservationists and natural resource planners in India, but with only 15 minutes left [...]

An Interview with Dr. Jared Diamond

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US We recently had the great pleasure of meeting with New York Times bestselling author Jared Diamond (Collapse; Guns, Germs, & Steel) for a wide-ranging conversation, and will post a video of that interview soon. However, to set the stage for our meeting we wrote to Dr. Diamond with some initial questions. This [...]

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 [...]

VP of Philippines “Adaptation to climate change must be the national priority”

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US Jojo Binay, the newly elected Vice President of the Philippines, spoke at the close of the Asian Development Bank’s Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) this past week. Apart from being his first major policy speech, his remarks at the energy-focused event are noteworthy in that they focused heavily on adaptation. “The unique [...]

In the news: The UN on the pivotal role of water

By Eliot Levine, WWF-US A recent UN policy brief discusses why water-related climate change adaptation is critical for achieving sustainable development around the world. As significant water shortages already exist, water is the medium through which climate impacts are going to be felt most immediately and most severely by many people. “Adaptation to climate change is urgent. Water plays [...]

Farming with the Titimangsa: Losing Weather (and Water) in Time

By Nikolai Sindorf, WWF-US In 1997 I went to the western part of Java in Indonesia to perform research on agricultural water management. Java is one of the most densely populated regions and high-yielding rice paddy lands in the world. The focus of my research was how rice farmers dealt technologically and organizationally with ongoing [...]

Notes from Copenhagen: Adaptation support key

The world’s wealthy nations have a long way to go on the key negotiating element of climate change adaptation at Copenhagen, WWF warned today “climate change adaptation mechanisms and measures and especially finance must be a key part of any successful deal reached at Copenhagen, but it is an issue starved of attention, commitments and [...]

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 [...]