Ecosystem-based approaches for climate change adaptation are promoted at international, national, and local levels by both scholars and practitioners. However, local planning practices that support these approaches are scattered, and measures are neither systematically implemented nor comprehensively reviewed. Against this background, this paper advances the operationalization of ecosystem-based adaptation by improving our knowledge of how ecosystem-based approaches can be considered in local planning (operational governance level). We review current research on ecosystem services in urban areas and examine four Swedish coastal municipalities to identify the key characteristics of both implemented and planned measures that support ecosystem-based adaptation. The results show that many of the measures that have been implemented focus on biodiversity rather than climate change adaptation, which is an important factor in only around half of all measures. Furthermore, existing measures are limited in their focus regarding the ecological structures and the ecosystem services they support, and the hazards and risk factors they address. We conclude that a more comprehensive approach to sustainable ecosystem-based adaptation planning and its systematic mainstreaming is required. Our framework for the analysis of ecosystem-based adaptation measures proved to be useful in identifying how ecosystem-related matters are addressed in current practice and strategic planning, and in providing knowledge on how ecosystem-based adaptation can further be considered in urban planning practice. Such a systematic analysis framework can reveal the ecological structures, related ecosystem services, and risk-reducing approaches that are missing and why. This informs the discussion about why specific measures are not considered and provides pathways for alternate measures/designs, related operations, and policy processes at different scales that can foster sustainable adaptation and transformation in municipal governance and planning.
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Functioning ecosystems can buffer communities from many negative impacts of a changing climate. Flooding, in particular, is one of the most damaging natural disasters globally and is projected to increase in many regions. However, estimating the value of “green infrastructure” in mitigating downstream floods remains a challenge. We estimate the economic value of flood mitigation by the Otter Creek floodplains and wetlands to Middlebury, VT, for Tropical Storm Irene and nine other floods. We used first principles to simulate hydrographs for scenarios with and without flood mitigation by upstream wetlands and floodplains. We then mapped flood extents for each scenario and calculated monetary damages to inundated structures. Our analysis indicates damage reductions of 84–95% for Tropical Storm Irene and 54–78% averaged across all 10 events. We estimate that the annual value of flood mitigation services provided to Middlebury, VT, exceeds $126,000 and may be as high as $450,000. Economic impacts of this magnitude stress the importance of floodplain and wetland conservation, warrant the consideration of ecosystem services in land use decisions, and make a compelling case for the role of green infrastructure in building resilience to climate change.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in payments for environmental services (PES) for ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA). So far, however, experiences and theoretical analyses of PES specifically for adaptation have not been well documented. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the opportunities and constraints of PES as an instrument for EBA. Specifically, we examine the potential for PES to address key elements for adaptation by focusing on three pathways: the user side, the provider side and institutional and societal change. In addition, we assess whether PES fulfils key requirements for adaptation policy instruments, notably effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy. We find that PES are not a panacea for all environmental services and country contexts, but can be promising adaptation policy instruments where certain preconditions are met and synergies prevail. We conclude on four points especially relevant for the practical scope for PES-adaptation synergies: (i) natural adaptation co-benefits (where the targeted environmental service serves a dual function, e.g. secured water quality and increased adaptive capacity), (ii) piggy-backing (where adaptation benefits are coincidental outcomes), (iii) adaptation-relevant institutional and sectoral spillovers from PES schemes, and (iv) direct payments for adaptation benefits.
Ecosystems provide multiple benefits to people, including climate regulation. Previous efforts to quantify this ecosystem service have been either largely conceptual or based on complex atmospheric models. Here, we review previous research on this topic and propose a new and simple analytical approach for estimating the physical regulation of climate by ecosystems. The proposed metric estimates how land-cover change affects the loading of heat and moisture into the atmosphere, while also accounting for the relative contribution of wind-transported heat and moisture. Although feedback dynamics between land, atmosphere, and oceans are not modeled, the metric compares well with previous studies for several regions. We find that ecosystems have the strongest influence on surface climatic conditions in the boreal and tropical regions, where temperature and moisture changes could substantially offset or magnify greenhouse-forced changes. This approach can be extended to estimate the effects of changing land cover on local, physical climate processes that are relevant to society.
Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and objectives that were established under an implicit assumption of stable climatic conditions. However, projected climatic changes render this assumption invalid. Here, we summarize general principles for management adaptations that have emerged from a major literature review. These general principles cover many topics including: (1) how to assess climate impacts to ecosystem processes that are key to management goals; (2) using management practices to support ecosystem resilience; (3) converting barriers that may inhibit management responses into opportunities for successful implementation; and (4) promoting flexible decision making that takes into account challenges of scale and thresholds. To date, the literature on management adaptations to climate change has mostly focused on strategies for bolstering the resilience of ecosystems to persist in their current states. Yet in the longer term, it is anticipated that climate change will push certain ecosystems and species beyond their capacity to recover. When managing to support resilience becomes infeasible, adaptation may require more than simply changing management practices—it may require changing management goals and managing transitions to new ecosystem states. After transitions have occurred, management will again support resilience—this time for a new ecosystem state. Thus, successful management of natural resources in the context of climate change will require recognition on the part of managers and decisions makers of the need to cycle between “managing for resilience” and “managing for change.”
Vast areas of degraded tropical forest, combined with increasing interest in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity, demonstrate the potential value of restoring tropical forest. However, there is a lack of long-term studies assessing active management for restoration. Here we investigate Above-Ground Biomass (AGB), forest structure, and biodiversity, before degradation (in old-growth forest), after degradation (in abandoned agricultural savanna grassland), and within a forest that is actively being restored in Kibale National Park, Uganda. In 1995 degraded land in Kibale was protected from fire and replanted with native seedlings (39 species) at a density of 400 seedlings ha−1. Sixty-five plots (50 m × 10 m) were established in restoration areas in 2005 and 50 of these were re-measured in 2013, allowing changes to be assessed over 18 years. Degraded plots have an Above Ground Biomass (AGB) of 5.1 Mg dry mass ha−1, of which 80% is grass. By 2005 AGB of trees ⩾10 cm DBH was 9.5 Mg ha−1, increasing to 40.6 Mg ha−1 by 2013, accumulating at a rate of 3.9 Mg ha−1 year−1. A total of 153 planted individuals ha−1 (38%) remained by 2013, contributing 28.9 Mg ha−1 (70%) of total AGB. Eighteen years after restoration, AGB in the plots was 12% of old-growth (419 Mg ha−1). If current accumulation rates continue restoration forest would reach old-growth AGB in a further 96 years. Biodiversity of degraded plots prior to restoration was low with no tree species and 2 seedling species per sample plot (0.05 ha). By 2005 restoration areas had an average of 3 tree and 3 seedling species per sample plot, increasing to 5 tree and 9 seedling species per plot in 2013. However, biodiversity was still significantly lower than old-growth forest, at 8 tree and 16 seedling species in an equivalent area. The results suggest that forest restoration is beneficial for AGB accumulation with planted stems storing the majority of AGB. Changes in biodiversity appear slower; possibly due to low stem turnover. Overall this restoration treatment is an effective means of restoring degraded land in the area, as can be seen from the lack of regeneration in degraded plots, which remain low-AGB and diversity, largely due to the impacts of fire and competition with grasses.
Organisations and governments around the globe are developing methodologies to cope with increasing numbers of disasters and climate change as well as implementing risk reducing measures across diverse socio-economic and environmental sectors and scales. What is often overlooked and certainly required for comprehensive planning and programming are better tools and approaches that include ecosystems in the equations. Collectively, these mechanisms can help to enhance societies’ abilities to capture the protective benefits of ecosystems for communities facing disaster and climate risks. As illustrated within this chapter, decision support tools and approaches are clearly improving rapidly. Despite these advancements, factors such as resistance to change, the cautious approach by development agencies, governance structure and overlapping jurisdictions, funding, and limited community engagement remain, in many cases, pre-requisites to successful implementation of ecosystem-based solutions. Herein we provide case studies, lessons learned and recommendations from applications of decision support tools and approaches that advance better risk assessments and implementation of ecosystem-based solutions. The case studies featured in this chapter illustrate opportunities that have been enhanced with cutting edge tools, social media and crowdsourcing, cost/benefit comparisons, and scenario planning mechanisms. Undoubtedly, due to the large areas and extent of exposure to natural hazards, ecosystems will increasingly become a critical part of societies’ overall responses to equitably solve issues of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Carbon sequestration by forested ecosystems offers a potential climate change mitigation benefit. However, wildfire has the potential to reverse this benefit. In the western United States, climate change and land management practices have led to increases in wildfire intensity and size. One potential means of reducing carbon emissions from wildfire is the use of prescribed burning, which consumes less biomass and therefore releases less carbon to the atmosphere. This study uses a regional fire emissions model to estimate the potential reduction in fire emissions when prescribed burning is applied in dry, temperate forested systems of the western U.S. Daily carbon dioxide (CO2) fire emissions for 2001-2008 were calculated for the western U.S. for two cases: a default wildfire case and one in which prescribed burning was applied. Wide-scale prescribed fire application can reduce CO2 fire emissions for the western U.S. by 18-25% in the western U.S., and by as much as 60% in specific forest systems. Although this work does not address important considerations such as the feasibility of implementing wide-scale prescribed fire management or the cumulative emissions from repeated prescribed burning, it does provide constraints on potential carbon emission reductions when prescribed burning is used.
Tropical coastal communities face the impacts of climate change with increasing frequency and severity, which exacerbates existing local threats to natural resources and the societies that depend on them. Climate change presents a unique opportunity to reconsider how community-based planning is used to (1) improve overall climate knowledge, both through communicating climate science and incorporating local knowledge; (2) give equal consideration to the social and ecological aspects of community health and resilience; and (3) integrate multisector planning to maximize community benefits and minimize unintended negative impacts. This article describes a tool developed to respond to these opportunities in Micronesia and the Coral Triangle region, Adapting to a Changing Climate: Guide to Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) and Management Planning. It discusses challenges and lessons learned based on the process of the tool development, training with local communities and stakeholders, and input from those who have implemented the tool.
Ecosystem-based approaches provide opportunities for climate policy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to expand the adaptive capacities and resilience of land systems to a changing climate, and to simultaneously protect biodiversity and ecosystems services (ESS). However, knowledge about the economic benefits and cost-efficiency of ecosystem-based approaches is still limited. The objective of this paper is to enhance understanding of synergies and trade-offs between climate policy related measures and nature conservation and how ecosystem-based approaches can contribute to both climate as well as biodiversity and ESS conservation goals, through overall economic analyses to inform balanced decision making. The paper builds upon the current state of knowledge as brought together by contributors to the German national TEEB-study “Natural Capital and Climate Policy – Synergies and Conflicts”. We present options and lessons learned from major land-use sectors of high relevance for ecosystem-based approaches to climate change, namely agriculture, peatlands, forests, wetlands and coastal and marine ecosystems. Based on these assessments, we argue that successful implementation of an ecosystem based climate policy requires effective coordination and coherence between sectors and their respective policies, for example agriculture, forestry and energy. We identify specific targets for an ecosystem-based climate policy and options for achieving this coherent implementation.
The study deals with the problem of evaluating management strategies for pure stands of Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst) to balance adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, taking into account multiple objectives of a forest owner. A simulation and optimization approach was used to evaluate the management of a 1000 ha model Age-Class forest, representing the age-class distribution of an area of 66,000 ha of pure Norway spruce forests in the Black Forest region of Southwest Germany. Eight silvicultural scenarios comprising five forest conversion schemes which were interpreted as “adaptation” strategies which aims at increasing the proportion of Beech, that is expected to better cope with climate change than the existing Norway spruce, and three conventional strategies including a “Do-nothing” alternative classified as “mitigation”, trying to keep rather higher levels of growing stock of spruce, were simulated using the empirical growth simulator BWINPro-S. A linear programming approach was adapted to simultaneously maximize the net present values of carbon sequestration and timber production subject to the two constraints of wood even flow and partial protection of the oldest (nature protection). The optimized plan, with the global utility of 11,687 €/ha in forty years, allocated a combination of silvicultural scenarios to the entire forest area. Overall, strategies classified as “mitigation” were favored, while strategies falling into the “adaptation”-category were limited to the youngest age-classes in the optimal solution. Carbon sequestration of the “Do-nothing” alternative was between 1.72 and 1.85 million tons higher than the other alternatives for the entire forest area while the differences between the adaptation and mitigation approaches were approximately 133,000 tons. Sensitivity analysis showed that a carbon price of 21 €/t is the threshold at which carbon sequestration is promoted, while an interest rate of above 2% would decrease the amount of carbon.
The Yangtze is the largest river basin in China and home to over 400 million people. In recent history, and especially during 1950s–1970s, extensive lakes and floodplains were reclaimed as polders for agriculture and rural development. Consequently, the flood retention capacity was decreased, many lakes were disconnected from the main channel of the Yangtze by embankments and sluice gates, and eutrophication was common. It is anticipated that there will be a greater frequency of extreme floods and droughts in the basin according to climate change scenarios. WWF commenced a programme in 2002 in partnership with government agencies and local communities to reconnect three lakes (Zhangdu, Hong and Tian-e-zhou) in Hubei Province to the river by opening sluice gates seasonally and improving lake management. The resilience of the lake environment to climate change and the livelihoods of local people were enhanced. The measures assessed here highlight: (a) the need for adaptation programmes to concurrently improve livelihoods and reduce exposure to physical risks; (b) the need to build the capacity of people and institutions; and (c) the value of decentralized adaptation as compared with new infrastructure investments.
Ecosystem-based adaptation provides an opportunity to reduce the vulnerability of human societies through an improved management of marine and coastal ecosystems to continuously provide important ecosystem services on which they depend. An urgent need to develop, implement and fund ecosystem-based adaptation strategies involving coastal communities as a priority response to climate change, is discussed. A tabulated list of adaptation options for maintaining and restoring coastal wetlands and shorelines, is provided. The guiding principles and recommendations for ecosystem-based adaptation are discussed.
The Ecological Protection and Restoration Program (EPRP), initiated in 2005 in the Three-River Headwaters (TRH, the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lantsang rivers) region, is the largest project for nature reserve protection and reconstruction in China. This massive effort was expected to improve the trade-off between grassland productivity and grazing pressure in the region. However, the impacts of EPRP on forage supply and livestock carrying capacity remain poorly understood. Using the Global Production Efficiency Model and grazing pressure index, we investigated the influences of the EPRP by comparing the grassland yield and grazing pressure index before (1988-2004) and after (2005-2012) implementation of the program. Vegetation cover, represented by the annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), increased by 11.2% after implementation of the EPRP. The increase of NDVI, together with increasing temperature and precipitation, led to a 30.3% increase of the mean annual grassland yield in 2005-2012 relative to that in 1988-2004 (694 kg ha(-1) vs. 533 kg ha(-1) dry matter). We show that grazing pressure was largely alleviated by the EPRP due to increased grassland yield and decreased livestock number. This was indicated by a 36.1% decline of the grazing pressure index. The effects of the EPRP varied spatially. As examples, there were larger increases of grassland yield in the southeast of the region dominated by alpine meadow and greater reduction of grazing pressure in the central and eastern parts. Nevertheless, the ecological effectiveness of the EPRP may vary with the measures used and is indicated to be coupled with climate change. This calls for more detailed comparison and attribution analyses to predict the ongoing consequences of the EPRP in order to attain sustainable implementation of restoration practices in the TRH region.
To mitigate impacts of sandstorms on northern China, the Chinese government launched the Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Control Program (BTSSCP) in 2000. The associated practices (i.e., cultivation, enclosure, and aerial seeding) were expected to greatly enhance grassland carbon sequestration. However, the BTSSCP-induced soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics remain elusive at a regional level. Using the Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia for a case study, we examined the impacts from 2000 to 2006 of the BTSSCP on SOC stocks using the IPCC carbon budget inventory method. Results indicated that over all practices SOC storage increased by 1.7%, but there were large differences between practices. SOC increased most rapidly at the rate of 0.3 Mg C·ha–1·yr–1 under cultivation, but decreased significantly under aerial seeding with moderate or heavy grazing (0.3 vs.0.6 Mg C·ha–1·yr–1). SOC increases varied slightly for grassland types, ranging from 0.10 Mg C·ha–1·yr–1 for temperate desert steppe to 0.16 Mg C·ha–1·yr–1 for temperate meadow steppe and lowland meadow. The overall economic benefits of the SOC sink were estimated to be 4.0 million CNY. Aerial seeding with no grazing was found to be the most cost-effective practice. Finally, we indicated that at least 55.5 years (shortest for cultivation) were needed for the grasslands to reach their potential carbon stocks. Our findings highlight the importance and effectiveness of BTSSCP in promoting terrestrial carbon sequestration which may help mitigate climate change, and further stress the need for more attention to the effectiveness of specific practices.
The Caatinga is a botanically unique semi-arid ecosystem in northeast Brazil whose vegetation is adapted to the periodic droughts that characterize this region. However, recent extreme droughts events caused by anthropogenic climate change have challenged its ecological resilience. Here, we evaluate how deforestation and protection status affect the response of the Caatinga vegetation to drought. Specifically, we compared vegetation responses to drought in natural and deforested areas as well as inside and outside protected areas, using a time-series of satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climatic data for 2008–2013. We observed a strong effect of deforestation and land protection on overall vegetation productivity and in productivity dynamics in response to precipitation. Overall, deforested areas had significantly lower NDVI and delayed greening in response to precipitation. By contrast, strictly protected areas had higher productivity and considerable resilience to low levels of precipitation, when compared to sustainable use or unprotected areas. These results highlight the importance of protected areas in protecting ecosystem processes and native vegetation in the Caatinga against the negative effects of climate change and deforestation. Given the extremely small area of the Caatinga currently under strict protection, the creation of new conservation areas must be a priority to ensure the sustainability of ecological processes and to avoid further desertification.
Global biodiversity hotspots contain exceptional concentrations of endemic species in areas of escalating habitat loss. However, most hotspots are geographically constrained and consequently vulnerable to climate change as there is limited ability for the movement of species to less hostile conditions. Predicted changes to rainfall and temperature will undoubtedly further impact on freshwater ecosystems in these hotspots. Southwestern Australia is a biodiversity hotspot and, as one of the first to experience significant climate change, is an example and potentially a global bellwether for issues associated with river restoration. In this hotspot, current and predicted water temperatures may exceed thermal tolerances of aquatic fauna. Gondwanic aquatic fauna, characteristic of southwestern Australia, are typically cold stenotherms and consequently intolerant of elevated temperatures. The hotspot in southwestern Australia is geographically restricted being surrounded by ocean and desert, and many important national parks are located on the extreme south coast, where the landscape is relatively flat. Consequently, fauna cannot change their distribution southwards or with altitude as a response to increasing temperatures. Therefore, any mitigation responses need to be in situ to produce a suitable biophysical envelope to enhance species’ resilience. This could be through “over restoration” by increased riparian replanting at a catchment scale. A rule-of-thumb of a 10% increase in riparian cover would be required to reduce water temperatures by 1°C. These restoration techniques are considered applicable to other global biodiversity hotspots where geography constrains species’ movement and the present condition is the desired restoration endpoint.
Human-driven changes in the global environment pose an increasingly urgent challenge for the management of ecosystems that is made all the more difficult by the uncertain future of both environmental conditions and ecological responses. Land managers need strategies to increase regional adaptive capacity, but relevant and rapid assessment approaches are lacking. To address this need, we developed a method to assess regional protected area networks across biophysically important climatic gradients often linked to biodiversity and ecosystem function. We plot the land of the southwestern United States across axes of historical climate space, and identify landscapes that may serve as strategic additions to current protected area portfolios. Considering climate space is straightforward, and it can be applied using a variety of relevant climate parameters across differing levels of land protection status. The resulting maps identify lands that are climatically distinct from existing protected areas, and may be utilized in combination with other ecological and socio-economic information essential to collaborative landscape-scale decision-making. Alongside other strategies intended to protect species of special concern, natural resources, and other ecosystem services, the methods presented herein provide another important hedging strategy intended to increase the adaptive capacity of protected area networks.
The combined effects of climate change and habitat loss represent a major threat to species and ecosystems around the world. Here, we analyse the vulnerability of ecosystems to climate change based on current levels of habitat intactness and vulnerability to biome shifts, using multiple measures of habitat intactness at two spatial scales. We show that the global extent of refugia depends highly on the definition of habitat intactness and spatial scale of the analysis of intactness. Globally, 28% of terrestrial vegetated area can be considered refugia if all natural vegetated land cover is considered. This, however, drops to 17% if only areas that are at least 50% wilderness at a scale of 48 × 48 km are considered and to 10% if only areas that are at least 50% wilderness at a scale of 4.8 × 4.8 km are considered. Our results suggest that, in regions where relatively large, intact wilderness areas remain (e.g. Africa, Australia, boreal regions, South America), conservation of the remaining large-scale refugia is the priority. In human-dominated landscapes, (e.g. most of Europe, much of North America and Southeast Asia), focusing on finer scale refugia is a priority because large-scale wilderness refugia simply no longer exist. Action to conserve such refugia is particularly urgent since only 1 to 2% of global terrestrial vegetated area is classified as refugia and at least 50% covered by the global protected area network.
The Convention on Biological Diversity requires that member nations establish protected area networks that are representative of the country’s biodiversity. The identification of priority sites to achieve outstanding representation targets is typically accomplished through formal conservation assessments. However, representation in conservation assessments or gap analyses has largely been interpreted based on a static view of biodiversity. In a rapidly changing climate, the speed of changes in biodiversity distribution and abundance is causing us to rethink the viability of this approach. Here we describe three explicit strategies for climate change adaptation as part of national conservation assessments: conserving the geophysical stage, identifying and protecting climate refugia, and promoting cross-environment connectivity. We demonstrate how these three approaches were integrated into a national terrestrial conservation assessment for Papua New Guinea, one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Protected areas identified based on representing geophysical diversity were able to capture over 90% of the diversity in vegetation communities, suggesting they could help protect representative biodiversity regardless of changes in the distribution of species and communities. By including climate change refugia as part of the national conservation assessment, it was possible to substantially reduce the amount of environmental change expected to be experienced within protected areas, without increasing the overall cost of the protected area network. Explicitly considering environmental heterogeneity between adjacent areas resulted in protected area networks with over 40% more internal environmental connectivity. These three climate change adaptation strategies represent defensible ways to guide national conservation priority given the uncertainty that currently exists in our ability to predict climate changes and their impacts. Importantly, they are also consistent with data and expertise typically available during national conservation assessments, including in developing nations. This means that in the vast majority of countries, these strategies could be implemented immediately.
Replanting native vegetation is a broadly accepted method for restoring degraded landscapes. Traditionally, seed used for restoration has been locally sourced to avoid introducing maladapted plants and to minimize the risk of outbreeding depression. However local adaptation is not universal and is disrupted by, for example, climate change and habitat fragmentation. We established a common garden experiment of ca. 1500 seedlings sourced from one local and two non-local provenances of Eucalyptus leucoxylon to test whether local provenancing was appropriate. The three provenances spanned an aridity gradient, with the local provenance sourced from the most mesic area. We explored the effect of provenance on four fitness proxies after 15 months, including survival, above-ground height, susceptibility to insect herbivory, and pathogen related stress. The local provenance had the highest mortality and grew least. The local provenance also suffered most from invertebrate herbivory and pathogen related stress. These results provide evidence that no advantage would be gained during the establishment of Eucalyptus leucoxylon at this site by using only the local provenance from within the range we sampled. Our results suggest that incorporating more diverse seed mixes from across the aridity gradient during the restoration of Eucalyptus leucoxylon open woodlands would provide quantifiable benefits to restoration (e.g. 6–10% greater survival, 20–25% greater plant height, 16–45% more pathogen resistance during establishment). We demonstrated these restoration gains by embedding a common garden experiments into a restoration project, and we recommend this approach be more widely adopted because it provides an effective way to facilitate adaptive management options for restoration stakeholders based on empirical evidence.
The new forest management stewardship of Quebec acknowledges the importance of integrating climate change consequences into forest management. However, forest professionals do not know how they could take climate change into account into their decision-making. This paper proposes the assessment of climate change vulnerability for three ecosystem-based forest management (EBFM) projects in Quebec: the Tembec project in the Abitibi region, the Triad project in the Mauricie region, and the Laurentian Wildlife Reserve project. The objectives were to identify: i) climate change vulnerabilities affecting forest ecosystems and forest management, ii) adaptation options to decrease these vulnerabilities, and iii) current EBFM practices impeding or facilitating the integration of climate change adaptations in forest management. Several features of EBFM, like promoting ecosystem resilience and using an adaptive management framework, may facilitate the integration of adaptation measures into the current forest management approach. We present climate change adaptation as a piece of the puzzle that would facilitate the achievement of EBFM objectives.
Climate change and land use/land cover change (LULCC) are associated with local vulnerability, defined as the intrinsic tendency of a system to be negatively affected by an event or phenomenon, but this can be ameliorated by ecosystem conservation. In Mexico, extensive Wildlife Management Units (eWMUs) are environmental policy instruments designed to promote ecosystem conservation and rural development via the sustainable use of wildlife by local populations. However, evidence of the successful reduction of LULCC by eWMUs is contradictory, and there has been no investigation into their potential as an action to promote climate change adaptation. In this study, we focused on the overall patterns of LULCC associated with eWMU throughout the country and examined strengths and weaknesses of eWMUs as policy instruments to address climate change. In particular, we analyzed how differences in areas with eWMUs influence LULCC and assessed how eWMUs could contribute to reducing vulnerability, particularly in double exposure municipalities. We calculated the percentage of eWMUs per municipality from official information and estimated LULCC from vegetation changes between 2002 and 2011. We then used the Kruskal-Wallis test to find statistically significant differences in vegetation changes based on the percentage of eWMUs and performed between-group comparisons using a post hoc Dunn test. Although Mexico has 2456 municipalities, only 37% have eWMUs. Furthermore, 64% of Mexico’s municipalities have lost vegetation cover, whereas only 36% have either gained vegetation or remained stable. In municipalities that recorded changes to the vegetation, those changes were, overall, minimal and involved less than 10% of the total area of those municipalities. In general, municipalities with less than 10% of their total area dedicated to eWMUs experienced higher vegetation losses than those with more than 10% of their total area dedicated to eWMUs. We detected twelve double exposure municipalities, i.e. they are vulnerable to climate change and lost more than 10% of their vegetation. Double exposure municipalities dedicated less than 2% of their total area to eWMUs as well. Our results suggest that incremental increases in the area dedicated to eWMUs may reduce LULCC and protect vegetation, particularly in double exposure municipalities. Based on the literature, some ecological, economic and socio-cultural factors may determine the success of eWMUs and strongly impact LULCC. Therefore, additional efforts must be made to enhance our understanding of ecological and climatic processes; habitats must be monitored using a standardized methodology; biological, cultural, economic and institutional diversity must be incorporated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of eWMUs; and agreements must be established to strengthen social organization and human capital. Taking all this into account, we suggest that reducing vulnerability and improving double exposure areas by increasing the number and interconnectedness of eWMUs could represent an effective strategic approach at the municipal level to address LULCC and climate change.
Second-growth forests represent the greatest potential resource for forest management and large-scale ecological restoration in many regions. In south-central Chile, second-growth forests include those dominated by Nothofagus obliqua, N. dombeyi, Drimys winteri, and a mixture of evergreen species, especially hardwoods. This article examines the influence of fire and logging on the establishment patterns and development of second-growth forests in south-central Chile. We characterize the size structure and composition of these four types of forests with sampling plots. The identification of the type of disturbance and its date of occurrence was determined from evidence such as fire scars and even-aged pulses of tree establishment. The size, structure and species composition of these forests indicate an intermediate state of development with an average density and basal area ranging from 1294 to 5038 trees ha-1 and from 59 to 85 m2 ha-1, respectively. Logging and/or devastating fires that occurred in the early decades of the 1900s promoted the relatively rapid establishment and growth of pioneer species (Nothofagus obliqua, N. dombeyi, D. winteri). In the Mixed Evergreen second-growth forests, mid-shade or shade tolerant species (e.g., Gevuina avellana, Eucryphia cordifolia, Amomyrtus luma, and A. meli) became established mostly through vegetative sprouting. Fires and logging have been pervasive factors in determining the structural and compositional uniformity of the native forests of south-central Chile. Ecological restoration at a landscape level, either by ecological processes (i.e., a reduction in fire frequency) and/or the structure and composition of second- growth forests, provide a relevant approach to accelerating the generation of attributes of old- growth forests, therefore meeting manifold societal demands for forest goods and services.
Anthropogenic change (climate change and habitat fragmentation) is driving a growing view that local seed collections may need to be supplemented with nonlocal seed as a strategy to bolster genetic diversity and thus increase evolutionary potential of plantings. While this strategy is becoming widely promoted, empirical support is limited, and there is a lack of accessible research tools to assist in its experimental testing. We therefore provide the Provenancing Using Climate Analogues (PUCA) framework that integrates the principles of the climate-adjusted provenancing strategy with concepts from population genetics (i.e. potential inbreeding in small fragmented populations) as both a research and operational-ready tool to guide the collection of nonlocal seed. We demonstrate the application of PUCA using the Midlands of Tasmania, Australia, a region that is currently undergoing large-scale ecological restoration. We highlight multiple nonlocal seed sources for testing by identifying actual species distribution records that currently occupy environments similar to that projected to occur at the restoration site in the future. We discuss the assumptions of PUCA and the ecological considerations that need to be tested when moving nonlocal genotypes across the landscape.