Climate Change Has an Influence on Biodiversity in Protected Areas All Around the World

A new analysis offers insights for designing climate-smart conservation policies by examining the worldwide network of protected areas and assessing the potential for alterations in where plants and animals occur as a result of climate change.

The findings highlight the necessity for comprehensive conservation programs that span international borders in order to conserve at-risk species.

Climate change in protected areas

(Photo : Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

They predict a number of species to move out of certain protected areas and into others as their ranges vary in response to climate change, says lead author Sean Parks, a research biologist with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, as per ScienceDaily.

The scientists discovered that certain species that are now protected may need to traverse international borders to obtain more favorable climatic conditions.

They may encounter physical hurdles, such as border walls, as well as non-physical impediments, such as varying conservation regulations in various places and nations, as they travel.

Under a 2°C warming scenario, climate conditions are predicted to alter more than a quarter of the current worldwide network of land-based protected areas.

According to the report, more than a third of protected territories might experience changing climates.

Understanding these swings from known to unknown climate conditions inside protected areas assists the worldwide conservation community in forecasting planning needs and making more smart investment decisions with limited conservation money.

Read more: Heatwave Prompted by Climate Change May Cause Shortage of Christmas Tree This Year

Protected areas for sustainable development

Protected areas are widely recognized as critical instruments for achieving sustainable development and combating climate change.

Protected areas provide critical ecological, social, and economic benefits, such as clean water, carbon sequestration, genetic reservoirs, disaster mitigation, and soil stabilization, in addition to protecting our cultural legacy.

Protected areas are critical instruments for coping with climate change.

Protected area networks, when adequately maintained, may provide resilience to catastrophic catastrophes as well as links across landscapes that allow plants and animals to travel, as per IUCN.

The Protected Area Climate Change Specialist Group (PACCSG) was formed in response to the 6th World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, which emphasized the importance of transitioning from passive-isolated protection of nature to a cooperative and engaging approach involving many sectors.

The PACCSG draws on the experience and contributions of numerous climate change experts and practitioners to create long-term plans, as well as short-term activities, focused at three major goals:

1.       Increase Educate The population of Climate Change and its Effects on Protected Areas and Ecosystems in Nearby Areas- This goal's desired results are that populations in and near PAs understand how climate change affects these landscapes and seascapes, biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods.

2.       Promote Protected Area Managers' Capability to Respond to Climate Change-  The development and dissemination of best practice guidelines and tools will be desired outcomes so that PA management can quickly access and apply current knowledge and resources toward reinforcing PA development and coordination under a changing climate, now and in the future, to protect and link core aspects and procedures as landscapes transform and adapt to climate change.

3.       Integrate natural solutions, particularly protected areas, into sectoral strategies, plans, and programs for climate change mitigation and adaptation- This goal's desired outcomes are that all sectors of society adopt protected areas as natural solutions in their climate change responses, and those new coalitions are formed to collaborate across protected areas, business, climate science, cultural boundaries, and geographies to integrate Protected Areas into mitigation and adaptation strategies at all levels.

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