1. Climate-Smart Conservation:
Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice

2. What do These Changes Mean
for the Practice of Conservation?

3. Climate Adaptation
• The process of adjustment to actual
or expected climate and its effects
– In human systems, adaptation seeks to
moderate harm or exploit beneficial
opportunities
– In natural systems, human intervention may
facilitate adjustment to expected climate and
its effects
In other words:
• Prepare for …
• Cope with …
• Adjust to …
--- IPCC AR5 (2014)

4. Climate-Smart Conservation
Expert Workgroup
• NGOs
– National Wildlife Federation
– Wildlife Conservation Society
– EcoAdapt
– Nature Conservancy
– Geos Institute
– Point Blue Conservation Science
• State Agencies
– Florida
– Maryland
• Federal Agencies
– Fish and Wildlife Service
– National Park Service
– US Geological Survey
– Environmental Protection
Agency
– NOAA
– US Forest Service
– Army Corps of Engineers

5. Climate-Smart Conservation
in a Nutshell
• Act with intentionality
• Manage for change, not
just persistence
• Reconsider goals, not just
strategies
• Integrate adaptation into
existing work

6. Acting with Intentionality
• Link Actions to Climate
Impacts
– How will actions address key
vulnerabilities?
– What is the logic model/scientific
rationale for actions?
• Show your work!
– Transparency/traceability important
– Whether novel approaches are
indicated
– Or existing approaches and actions
validated

7. Manage for Change
Not Just Persistence
• Stationarity is dead!
– Directional changes exceeding
“historical range of variability”
• Adaptation will largely be
about preparing for and
managing change
• Adaptation is a process,
not an end point

8. Reconsider Conservation Goals
Not Just Strategies
• Goals are the ends; strategies
the means
• Goals are a reflection of human
values and can evolve
• Need for forward-looking rather
than retrospective goals
• Need to align climate-informed
goals and strategies
– Move beyond “climate-retrofits”

9. Key Characteristics of
Climate-Smart Conservation
• Actions linked to
climate impacts
• Forward looking goals
• Broader landscape
context
• Robust in an uncertain
future
• Agile and informed
management
• Minimizes carbon
footprint
• Climate influence on
project success
• Safeguards people and
nature
• Avoids maladaptation

10. Climate-Smart Conservation Cycle
A Generalized Framework for Adaptation Planning and Implementation
Guidance Document Built Around Cycle

11. Step 2. Assess Impacts and Vulnerabilities
Identify key vulnerabilities to serve as basis
for designing adaptation actions
• Key vulnerabilities are those most likely to affect achieving
conservation goals

12. Step 3. Review/Revise Conservation Goals
Determine if modifications are needed in
conservation goals or management
objectives
• Offer framework for reevaluation using the what, why, where,
and when of goals

13. Step 4. Identify Possible Adaptation Options
Identify a broad array of possible adaptation
options for reducing key vulnerabilities
• Offer several frameworks for generating adaptation options

14. Now available at:
www.nwf.org/ClimateSmartGuide

15. Systems Approach to
Geomorphic Engineering
June, 2014
Developed in cooperation with and funded by SAGE, NOAA and USACE.

16. Green/Gray Infrastructure:
Working with Mother Nature

17. Systems Approach to Geomorphic
Engineering (SAGE)
• Merging green and gray
solutions with wisdom
gained from good science,
coupled with foresight
and good judgment.
• A systems approach –
looking at an entire coastal
system, operating as a
whole, not just single
component in isolation

18. SAGE – A Community of Practice
Early leaders influencing the initiative:
- U.S Army Corps of Engineers
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- NGOs and Academic institutions

19. Characteristics of a SAGE Approach
• Living shorelines
• Hybrid green and gray solutions
• Regional scales
• Landscape transformation with
ecosystem adaptation

20. Understanding Resilience
• Pursue and advance a large-
scale comprehensive view
of coastal landscape change
• Understand landscape
transformation AND
ecosystem adaptation
• Achieve a better
understanding of resilience
• Develop robust resilience

21. Sacred Grounds
Gardening for Wildlife
Communities of Faith Certification
Pilot Program in Washington DC area
• Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Synagogue
• Good Shepard Lutheran Church
• East Washington Heights Baptist Church
• Partners: Interfaith Power and Light & National
Park Service and others TBD

22. Four Components of Certification
• Food
• Water
• Cover
• Places to Raise Young

23. Sacred Grounds
Customized for Congregations
Adding 2 new components
Water Conservation
and
Climate Change Adaptation

24. Connecting to Local Water
Conservation Programs
• Congregations = Acreage
• Reach Large Number of Homeowners
• Rebates for stormwater mgmt
• Incentive to use native plants, reduce
impervious area
• Technical Assistance by County/Town
• Water quality and quantity

25. Connecting to Climate Adaptation
• Adaptation in Action
• Local
• On-the-ground
• Gives people something to do = hope
• Water and Wildlife Conservation
• Urban/Suburban Restoration in an era of
climate change

29. NATIVE PLANTS ARE BETTER

30. Black swallowtail on thistle

31. GO NATIVE -- Best Bets:
Mid-Atlantic Herbaceous Plants
• Goldenrod 115
• Asters 112
• Sunflower 73
• Joe pye Weed/Boneset 42
• Black-eyed Susan 17

32. Zebra
swallowtail
on milkweed

33. Beyond the Congregation

37. Adat Shalom Synagogue

38. 2500 native plants