Protected Area managers face enormous challenges: a lack of resources, invasive species, poaching, and development to name to just a few. Now along comes a threat that is bigger than all the previous ones and even interacts with most of them. Climate change is real and an enormous challenge to the our very understanding of the role of protected areas, humanities key conservation tool.
IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas has responded with a timely guidance document for protected areas managers and planners. Their message is that much can be done to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Although we are entering uncharted waters in protected areas management, we have already learned an enormous amount about how to manage these places we love. These past lessons are important and still relevant as we move forward. In our collective future, we will need to stand on this knowledge base and try new things to adapt to a changing future.
The guidance document is composed of 9 chapters, built around an adaptive learning strategy. Case studies are provided to illustrate concepts and there are series of best practices that can be applied to a range of situations. This is part of an larger series of guidance documents developed by the IUCN.
The guidance document is free at https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46685.
