A Changing Climate

 Considering Multiple Futures: Scenario Planning to Address Uncertainty in Natural Resource Conservation

In this guide The U.S. Department of the Interior presents a broad synthesis of scenario planning concepts and approaches, focused on applications in natural resource management and conservation. The guide is intended to help natural resource and conservation professionals, including managers, planners, and researchers to:

A Management and Adaptation Planning Guide for Natural Resource Managers. 2006. Pacific Islands Managed and Protected Area Community (PIMPAC) document.

This document was developed for the Pacific Islands Managed and Protected Area Community (PIMPAC) to provide a step by step guide for Marine Managed Area (MMA) management planning. However, given more recent interest in incorporating climate change adaptation concepts into existing planning processes, this guidance has been updated to include guidance on understanding climate change impacts and including adaptation in the planning process.

Marshall, P. and Schuttenberg, H. 2006. A Reef Managers Guide to Coral Bleaching. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, Australia.

A guide to Community Vulnerability and Adaptation assessment and action

A hopeful vision of the future is a world in which both people and nature thrive, but there is little evidence to support the feasibility of such a vision. We used a global, spatially explicit, systems modeling approach to explore the possibility of meeting the demands of increased populations and economic growth in 2050 while simultaneously advancing multiple conservation goals.

This volume brings together rich insights of how biological diversity matters to people and their physical, mental and spiritual health and well-being, particularly in the context of a changing climate. Notably, the volume takes a systemic approach to assembling evidence from the social, natural and health sciences, draws on practical expertise from applied case studies, and discusses findings in the frame of ongoing developments in policy and planning. By understanding the true value and potential of biodiversity for health, we can develop the policies, research and practice to safeguard and secure these crucial contributions from nature to society and to our future. This book helps understand what is at stake and what can be done.

Janishevski, L. and Gidda, S.B. 2010.  Carbon Emissions from Forest Loss in Protected Areas. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) and UNEP; Issue Paper No. 6.

This study combines the best available data on carbon stocks and deforestation with protected area data to estimate the area of forest loss within the protected area network of the humid tropical forest biome during 2000-2005. Regions where protected areas are simultaneously rich in carbon and under pressure from land cover change are identified.

The authors report high carbon density in Papua New Guinea and recommend enhancing management of forested protected areas in this area (along with Australasia).

The ecology of many coral reefs has changed markedly over recent decades in response to various combinations of local and global stressors. These ecological changes have important implications for the abundance of taxa that regulate the production and erosion of skeletal carbonates, and thus for many of the geo‐ecological functions that coral reefs provide, including reef framework production and sediment generation, the maintenance of reef habitat complexity and reef growth potential. These functional attributes underpin many of the ecosystem goods and services that reefs provide to society. In the absence of pervasive stressors, recovery of degraded coral communities has been observed, resulting in high net‐positive budgets being regained.

Cleaner Pacific 2025 - Implementation Plan

Cleaner Pacific 2025 is a comprehensive long-term strategy for integrated and sustainable waste management and pollution prevention and control in the Pacific islands region over the next decade (2016–2025). Cleaner Pacific 2025 provides a strategic management framework to address waste, chemicals and pollutants (WCP) that will reduce the associated threats to sustainable development of the region (Table 1).

Perry, J and C. Falzon. 2014.  Climate Change Adaptation for Natural World Heritage Sites: a Practical Guide.  World Heritage Papers 37.

This guide is intended primarily to:

Climate Change and Ocean Circulation

Scientists are closely monitoring a key current in the North Atlantic to see if rising sea temperatures and increased freshwater from melting ice are altering the “ocean conveyor belt” — a vast oceanic stream that plays a major role in the global climate system.

Climate Change in the Pacific: Scientific Assessment and New Research

Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building corals. However, in a literature review, we find little empirical support for the notion of managed resilience. We outline some reasons for why marine protected areas and the protection of herbivorous fish (especially parrotfish) have had little effect on coral resilience. One key explanation is that the impacts of local stressors (e.g., pollution and fishing) are often swamped by the much greater effect of ocean warming on corals.

Climate Prediction for Small Island Nations: Managing risks, maximizing opportunities

Climate, Carbon and Coral Reefs

Grimsditch, G.D., and Salm, R. V.  2006. Coral Reef Resilience and Resistance to Bleaching.  IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

This IUCN publication has information on the factors affecting tolerance of corals to increased temperatures and mechanisms by which corals can avoid bleaching during periods of warmer temperatures (e.g. ocean currents and upwellings).

The second section of this technical document provides information on ecological and spatial factors affecting resilience of corals. The third section discusses management for coral bleaching (e.g. coral transplanting, MPAs etc.) but does not go into detail. There is a useful table of management handbooks on page 27 for those wanting more details on management.

Our rapidly warming climate is threatening coral reefs as thermal anomalies trigger mass coral bleaching events. Deep (or “mesophotic”) coral reefs are hypothesised to act as major ecological refuges from mass bleaching, but empirical assessments are limited. We evaluated the potential of mesophotic reefs within the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and adjacent Coral Sea to act as thermal refuges by characterising long-term temperature conditions and assessing impacts during the 2016 mass bleaching event. We found that summer upwelling initially provided thermal relief at upper mesophotic depths (40 m), but then subsided resulting in anomalously warm temperatures even at depth.

Green, A., White, A., Kilarski, S. (Eds.) 2013. Designing Marine Protected Area Networks to Achieve Fisheries Biodiversity and Climate Change Objectives in Tropical Ecosystems: A Practitioners Guide. The Nature Conservancy, and the USAID Coral Triangle Support Partnership, Cebu City, Philippines.

This guide provides a set of biophysical principles to help practitioners design networks of marine protected areas to achieve fisheries sustainability, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.

Explaining Ocean Warming

(460 pages!)

An expedition in 2002 to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the Republic of Kiribati documented an extensive and delicate community of staghorn and tabular Acropora colonies...

Full Pdf

This Pacific Sustainable Development Report 2018 (PSDR) is the first quadrennial Pacific progress report on sustainable development. The report outlines high level trends on progress to date, as well as baseline information. The regional report complements national monitoring and reporting and since 2015, three Pacific Islands Forum member countries (Samoa, Kiribati and Australia), have completed their Voluntary National Review processes, and reported to the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. (HLPF). Fiji, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu are reporting to the 2019 HLPF on sustainable development. The PSDR 2018 highlights the need for increasing the pace of progress towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

Global Climate Change Alliance

The GCCA was established by the European Union (EU) in 2007 to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with developing countries, in particular least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS).

Green Climate Fund

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. The human impact on our planet is unprecedented. Long-term changes in the earth’s climate system are significant. The Green Climate Fund was established with a mission to advance the goal of keeping the temperature increase on our home planet below 2 degrees Celsius. 

There are plenty of ways we can all positively impact the environment. If we want to stop climate change, we all need to take steps to make our lives environmentally-friendly. The following practices are an easy introduction to green living. Simple acts, such as saving water or planting a garden, give children and pre-teens an opportunity to impact their world today for a better tomorrow. Each tips offers a chance to open up the conversation as to why everyone has to do their part for the betterment of the earth

Full Paper (Pdf)

The oceans are facing more threats now than at any time in history. Yet a nascent industry is ramping up to exert yet more pressure on marine life: deep sea mining. A handful of governments and companies have been granted licences to explore for deep sea mining in ecologically sensitive waters, and the industry is positioning its development as inevitable, but deep sea mining isn’t happening anywhere in the global oceans – yet. Opening up a new industrial frontier in the largest ecosystem on Earth and undermining an important carbon sink carries significant environmental risks, especially in light of the biodiversity and climate crises facing the natural world and specifically our ocean.

Information and Knowledge Management for Climate Change (IKM4CC) Guidelines: complete set

The five IKM4CC Guidelines provide detailed advice on a range of information management topics and practices.  The guidelines are relevant to information managers, information officers and any other people involved in collecting, storing, describing or sharing climate change-related information.

The guidelines include theory and practice and provide practical resources and examples from the Pacific.  Topics covered by the guidelines include:

Islands of the Future: Building resilience in a changing world

Twenty years down the road from the Barbados Programme of Action (1994) and ten years after the Mauritius Strategy (2004), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are in Apia, Samoa to take stock and define future priorities at the Third International Conference on SIDS, from 1 to 4 September.

Learning About Climate Change the Pacific Way: a Guide for Pacific Teachers

A picture based education resource for students, teachers and facilitators.

It introduces Pasifika as an imaginary island that is nowhere but everywhere. Pacific learners and explorers can find local buildings, plants, animals, people and geographical features they can relate to. The guides have been produced for Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Tuvalu in close partnership with these countries. The information is also relevant to all Pacific Island countries and territories.

Legal Frameworks for Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lifou Declaration (3rd Oceania 21 Summit, Loyalty islands, New Caledonia, 30 April 2015)

MIT Climate CoLab (www.climatecolab.org) is an online crowdsourcing platform of over 58,000 members from around the world, sourcing innovative proposals on addressing climate change.  Topic areas include land use, agriculture, and forestry, reducing emissions from the buildings and industrial sectors, creating sustainable ground and air transportation systems, smart zero-carbon cities, and many more.

McLeod, E and Salm, R.V. 2006. Managing Mangroves for Resilience to Climate Change. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland

This report provides information for managers regarding the potential impacts of climate change to mangrove forests (e.g. impacts of changes in temperature, CO2, rainfall, storms frequency, sea level rise).

Ten strategies are provided for managers to apply in order to promote resilience in mangrove locations. The guidelines inform managers how to assess mangrove vulnerability to sea level rise. This information is of the utmost importance to managers in all Pacific Islands. The authors provide both low-tech and high-tech solutions.

In this article, I explore the knowledge and values that allowed the people of Oceania to develop sustainable use of their marine resources, followed by the demise of these systems after western colonization and the breakdown of traditional societies. The current renaissance of customary stewardship has resulted in not only more effective management, but also a cultural reawakening in many of these island nations. The integration of customary and contemporary management regimes holds great promise for reducing reliance on foreign goods and services, while also improving social cohesion.

Ocean Acidification - a Crash Course

 

Ocean Acidification in the Pacific Islands Region

•CO2 is an acid gas (it produces acid when combined with water)

Each of us adds 4 kg CO2 per day to the ocean (increasing acidity, reducing pH)

The ocean has been experiencing substantial changes in marine physics, chemistry and biology including ocean acidification, rising seawater temperature, ocean deoxygenation and sea level rise. These four, often interacting factors, are expected to increase over the coming decades depending on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is imperative that international decision-makers and stakeholders understand the enormous role the ocean plays in sustaining life on Earth, and the consequences of a high CO2 world for the ocean and society.

Full Paper (Pdf)

Opportunities for improving access to Climate Change Finance

Climate change is the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific. This was reaffirmed last year when Pacific Island Forum Leaders identified climate change as one of the top five regional priorities under the Framework for Pacific Regionalism, and at the same time issued the Declaration on Climate Change Action for the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris. The declaration built upon other high level declarations issued by the region prior to COP21.

Our Changing Oceans: The Challenges Ahead

Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change

Building Resilience to Climate Change in Pacific Communities

The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) Programme is the first major climate change adaptation initiative in the Pacific region.  Since it began in 2009 the Programme has been laying the groundwork for more resilient Pacific communities that are better able to cope with climate variability today and climate change tomorrow. The Programme approaches this from two directions: it is working to enhance adaptive capacity on the ground, and it is driving the mainstreaming of climate risks into national development planning and activities.

Pacific Climate Change Portal

Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC)

The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC), headquartered in Honolulu, but working across the Pacific, integrates local climate models with models of climate-change responses by species, habitats, and ecosystems.  The PICCC was established in 2010 to assist those who manage native species, island ecosystems, and key cultural resources in adapting their management to climate change for the continuing benefit of the people of the Pacific Islands.

Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change 2006-2015

Pacific Islands Ocean Acidification Vulnerability Assessment

Demonstrating the remarkable power of collaboration and big thinking that Palau so often exhibits, in 2016 a diverse partnership produced the nation’s 1st National Environment Symposium. The event brought together conservation groups, national leaders, business owners, and community members for intimate discussion and respectful debate on the successes, challenges, and opportunities facing Palau’s environment. Participants reiterated the importance of the natural environment to Palau’s culture and identity, and agreed that ongoing collective effort will preserve natural resources for future generations. The output of the symposium included better direction and prioritization that will guide improved conservation action by the government and the public alike.

Janishevski, L. and Gidda, S.B. 2010. Protected Areas and Climate Change. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) and UNEP; Issue Paper No. 6

This four page issue paper discusses the importance of protected areas, which while under threat from climate change, provide a natural and economical means of mitigating and adapting to its effects. It describes the need to strengthen protected areas (e.g. in respect of management and governance), and to expand and ensure their connectivity in order to improve the global response to climate change.

Edwards, A.J. (ed.) 2010. Reef Rehabilitation Manual. Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management Program: St Lucia, Australia.

This manual captures the learnings of worldwide research into reef rehabilitation and seeks to reduce the proportion of reef rehabilitation projects that fail.

It provides detailed hands-on advice, based on lessons-learnt from previous experience, on how to carry out coral reef rehabilitation in a responsible and cost-effective manner. Methods described include: constructing and managing nurseries for asexual rearing of corals; rearing coral larvae for reef rehabilitation and methods of coral transplantation.

Rising to the Urgent Challenge: Strategic Plan for Responding to Accelerating Climate Change

 

 

Coral reef ecosystems are seriously threatened by changing conditions in the ocean. Although many factors are implicated, climate change has emerged as a dominant and rapidly growing threat. Developing a long-term strategic plan for the conservation of coral reefs is urgently needed yet is complicated by significant uncertainty associ- ated with climate change impacts on coral reef ecosystems. We use Modern PortfolioTheory to identify coral reef locations globally that, in the absence of other impacts, are likely to have a heightened chance of surviving projected climate changes rela-tive to other reefs. Long-term planning that is robust to uncertainty in future condi-

Choiseul Integrated Climate Change Programme