Expert views on biodiversity conservation in an era of climate change

Published Date
February 2010, Vol.20(1):192–207, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.10.005
Adaptive Capacity to Global Change in Latin America

Author 

• hannon Hagerman ^a,,
• Hadi Dowlatabadi ^a,b,c,
• Terre Satterfield ^a,
• Tim McDaniels ^a,

• aInstitute for Resources Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
• bDepartment of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
• cResources for the Future, (RFF), Washington, D.C., USA

Received 9 April 2009. Revised 18 September 2009. Accepted 11 October 2009. Available online 12 November 2009. 

Abstract

Adapting conservation policy to the impacts of climate change has emerged as a central and unresolved challenge. In this paper, we report on the results of 21 in-depth interviews with biodiversity and climate change adaptation experts on their views of the implications of climate change for conservation policy. We find a diversity of views across a set of topics that included: changing conservation objectives, conservation triage and its criteria, increased management interventions in protected areas, the role of uncertainty in decision-making, and evolving standards of conservation success. Notably, our findings reveal active consideration among experts with some more controversial elements of policy adaptation (including the role of disturbance in facilitating species transitions, and changing standards of conservation success), despite a comparative silence on these topics in the published literature. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to: (a) identifying future research and integration needs and (b) providing insight into the process of policy adaptation in the context of biodiversity conservation.

Keywords

Biodiversity conservation

Climate change impacts

Uncertainty

Policy change

Expert elicitation

Social–ecological systems

Protected values

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  Corresponding author at: Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory, 4th Floor, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada. Tel.: +1 604 715 3444; fax: +1 604 822 9250.

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