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Preface by Lord Nicholas Stern


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1

In 2000 a conerence organised in Bangkok by WWF and

the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas agreed

that there was an urgent need to identiy and quantiy the

wide range o social and environmental benefts oered

by protected areas. The WWFArguments or Protection

project was developed in response. The project aims to:

Identiy and where possible quantiy the wide range

o benefts derived rom protected areas

Increase support or protection

Develop new interdisciplinary partnerships

Identiy innovative fnancing mechanisms

Broaden and strengthen protected area

management strategies

Since 2003 the project has created the worlds largest

inormation source on the wider values o protected

areas. Six reports have been published to date(see www.panda.org/protection/arguments) and a

new simple-to-use tool, the Protected Area Beneft

Assessment Tool (PA-BAT), has been developed,

feld-tested and is now being implemented.

The published reports are:

Running Pure: The importance o orest protected

areas to drinking water

Food Stores: Using protected areas to secure crop

genetic diversity

Beyond Belie: Linking aiths and protected areas

to support biodiversity conservation

Saety Net: Protected areas and poverty reduction

Natural Security: Protected areas and hazard mitigation

Vital Sites: The contribution o protected areas to

human health

The project has worked with a number o partners

including: The World Bank; UN International Strategy or

Disaster Reduction; World Health Organisation; University

o Birmingham; Alliance o Religions and Conservation,

and many protected area agencies. This new report in theseries continues the relationship with the World Bank and

has been carried out in collaboration with UNDP and many

members o the PACT 2020: Protected Areas and Climate

Turnaround Alliance.

At the IUCN Council Meeting held rom 8-10 March 2008,

climate change was acknowledged to be the greatest

threat to biodiversity and the global system o protected

areas was noted as one o the most powerul solutions.

This was the genesis o PACT 2020: Protected Areas and

Climate Turnaround, ormally launched at the IUCN World

Conservation Congress in 2008 and supported by IUCNs

Innovation Fund.

PACT 2020 involves a partnership led by IUCNs World

Commission on Protected Areas, together with the IUCN

Secretariat, IUCN members and international organizations,including The Nature Conservancy, WWF International, the

Wildlie Conservation Society, Conservation International,

the Wild Foundation, Fauna and Flora International, the

Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance, The World

Bank, United Nations Development Programme and UNEP

World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

PACT 2020 aims to Ensure that protected areas and

protected area systems are recognised as an important

contribution to climate change adaptation/mitigation

strategies for biodiversity and human livelihoods.

Activities include developing:

A situation analysis leading to the articulation o a

compelling case and action plan or protected areas as an

integral element o climate change adaptation/mitigation

Guidance and project proposals are developed or

regional implementation programmes

A policy action plan championed by IUCN is agreed by

key stakeholdersProtected area and climate change policy interventions

are designed and undertaken at global and national levels

A unctional communications/learning network is

developed

This publication is one o the frst products o this

collaboration, and will be a primary input into the PACT

2020 Protected Areas and Climate Change Summit held

in November 2009 in Granada, Spain, hosted by the Junta

de Andaluca.

Arguments or Protection

PACT 2020:

Protected Areas and Climate Turnaround


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Protected areas helping peoplecope with climate change

Natural Solutions

Nigel Dudley, Sue Stolton,Alexander Belokurov, Linda Krueger,Nik Lopoukhine, Kathy MacKinnon,Trevor Sandwith and Nik Sekhran

A report unded and commissionedby IUCN-WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS,

The World Bank and WWF


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Copyright: WWF, 2010

ISBN: 978-2-88085-308-2

Published by IUCN-WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS,The World Bank and WWF.

Suggested citation: Dudley, N., S. Stolton, A. Belokurov,L. Krueger, N. Lopoukhine, K. MacKinnon, T. Sandwith andN. Sekhran [editors] (2010); Natural Solutions: Protectedareas helping people cope with climate change, IUCN-WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS, The World Bank and WWF,Gland, Switzerland, Washington DC and New York, USA

Reproduction o this publication or educational or othernon-commercial purposes is authorised without prior writtenpermission rom the copyright holder provided the sourceis ully acknowledged. Reproduction o this publication orresale or other commercial purposes is prohibited withoutprior written permission o the copyright holder.

The designation o geographical entities in this book, andthe presentation o the material, do not imply the expressiono any opinion whatsoever on the part o participatingorganisations concerning the legal status o any country,territory, or area, or o its authorities, or concerning the

delimitation o its rontiers or boundaries.

The authors are responsible or the content o this report.The views expressed in this publication are those o itsauthors and do not necessarily represent those o IUCN-WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS, The World Bank and WWF.

Designed by millerdesign.co.ukPrinted by Doveton Press, Bristol UK


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Preace

Responses to climate change must now ocus on reducing greenhouse gasemissions enough to avoid runaway impacts (avoiding the unmanageable) and

on addressing the impacts that are already with us (managing the unavoidable).Managing natural ecosystems as carbon sinks and resources or adaptation isincreasingly recognised as a necessary, ecient and relatively cost-eectivestrategy. The Stern Review on the Economics o Climate Change recommendedthat governments develop policies or climate sensitive public goods includingnatural resource protection, coastal protection and emergency preparedness.

The worlds protected area network already helps mitigate and adapt to

climate change. Protected areas store 15 per cent o terrestrial carbonand supply ecosystem services or disaster reduction, water supply, oodand public health, all o which enable community-based adaptation. Manynatural and managed ecosystems can help reduce climate change impacts.But protected areas have advantages over other approaches to naturalecosystem management in terms o legal and governance clarity, capacityand eectiveness. In many cases protection is the only way o keeping carbonlocked in and ecosystem services running smoothly.

Without the investment made in protected areas systems worldwide, thesituation would be even worse. Increasing investment through a partnershipo governments, communities, indigenous peoples, non-governmentalorganisations and the private sector would ensure greater protection o theseessential services. Evidence suggests that protected areas work: even sincethis report was completed, a new World Bank review shows how tropicalprotected areas, especially those conserved by indigenous peoples, loseless orest than other management systems*.

But these co-benets or climate, biodiversity and society are oten missedor ignored. This book clearly articulates or the rst time how protected areascontribute signicantly to reducing impacts o climate change and what isneeded or them to achieve even more. As we enter an unprecedented scaleo negotiations about climate and biodiversity it is important that thesemessages reach policy makers loud and clear and are translated intoeective policies and unding mechanisms.

Lord Nicholas Stern

Chair o the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment,IG Patel Proessor o Economics & Government, London School o Economics and Political Science

* Nelson, A. and K. Chomitz (2009); Protected Area Eectiveness in Reducing Tropical Deorestation: A global analysis o the impact oprotection status, Independent Evaluation Group, Evaluation Brie 7, The World Bank, Washington DC


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4

Preface 3

Acronyms/abbreviations and glossary 6

Executive summary and key policy statements 7

Contents

Section 3

Adaptation The role of protected areas 45

Reducing impacts o natural disasters 46

Saeguarding water 51

Providing clean water 54Supporting marine and reshwater fsheries 58

Saeguarding crop wild relatives and land races 62

Addressing health issues under climate change 65

Biodiversity conservation and maintaining ecosystem resilience 68

Section 2

Mitigation The role of protected areas 29

Mitigation potential o protected areas 30

Forests and mitigation 31

Inland wetlands, peat and mitigation 34

Marine and coastal ecosystems and mitigation 37

Grasslands and mitigation 41

Soils and mitigation 43

Section 1

Introduction 13

The consequences o climate change or nature, natural resources and the

people who depend on them 14

International and national responses how policy makers view the role

o protected areas 19

The potential o the worlds protected areas system to address climate change 22Why protected areas? 25

Ways in which protected areas assist climate change mitigation and adaptation 28


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5

Acknowledgements and references 103

Acknowledgements 104

Reerences 106

Authors biographies Inside back cover

Section 6

Policy recommendations 101

Recommendations or ensuring protected areas become a vital part onational and international policy instruments 102

Section 5

Implications of climate change for protected area

design, management and governance 87Likely climate change impacts on protected areas 88

Planning and managing protected areas under climate change 93

Governance implications o using protected areas or climate change

mitigation and adaptation 98

Section 4

Opportunities to use protected areas to address climate change 71

Opportunities to expand the protected areas system, integrate it into broaderconservation strategies and national and local climate change mitigation and

adaptation plans 72

Financing eective protected area networks 78

The use o protected areas as tools to strengthen REDD schemes 80


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Acronyms, abbreviations

and ormula

CBD Convention on Biological DiversityCDM Clean Development MechanismCH4 MethaneC CarbonCO2 Carbon dioxideEBA Ecosystem-based adaptationGEF Global Environment FacilityGHG Greenhouse gasesGt Gigatonne (1,000,000,000 tonnes or 1 million

metric tonnes)IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeIUCN International Union or Conservation o NatureMg Megagram (1,000,000 grams)

Mt Megatonne (1,000,000 metric tonnes)REDD Reducing Emissions rom Deorestation and

DegradationPoWPA Programme o Work on Protected Areas (o the

CBD)Tg Teragram (1,000,000,000,000 (one trill ion) grams)TNC The Nature ConservancyUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate ChangeWCPA World Commission on Protected Areas (o IUCN)WCS Wildlie Conservation SocietyWWF World Wide Fund or Nature

Glossary

Adaptation: Initiatives and measures to reduce the

vulnerability o natural and human systems against

actual or expected climate change eects. Various

types o adaptation exist, e.g. anticipatory and

reactive, private and public, and autonomous

and planned1.

Additionality o emission reductions: Reduction in

emissions by sources or enhancement o removals

by sinks that is additional to any that would occur

in the absence o a project activity designed to

mitigate greenhouse gas emissions2. Joint

Implementation or a Clean Development Mechanism

project activity as dened in the Kyoto Protocol

Articles on Joint Implementation and the Clean

Development Mechanism3.

Carbon sequestration: Carbon sequestration is a

biochemical process by which atmospheric carbonis absorbed by living organisms, including trees,

soil micro-organisms, and crops, and involving the

storage o carbon in soils, with the potential to

reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels4.

Ecosystem-based adaptation: The use o biodiversity

and ecosystem services as part o an overall adaptation

strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse eects

o climate change5.

Ecosystem services (also ecosystem goods and

services): the benets people obtain rom ecosystems.

These include provisioning services such as ood,

water, timber, and bre; regulating services such as

the regulation o climate, foods, disease, wastes, and

water quality; cultural services such as recreation,

aesthetic enjoyment, and spiritual ullment; and

supporting services such as soil ormation,

photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling6.

Equivalent CO2concentration (carbon dioxide): The

concentration o carbon dioxide that would cause the

same amount o radiative orcing as a given mixture o

carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases7.

Leakage: the situation in which a carbon sequestration

activity (e.g., tree planting) on one piece o land

inadvertently, directly or indirectly, triggers an activity,

which in whole or part, counteracts the carbon eects

o the initial activity8. The net change o anthropogenic

emissions by sources o greenhouse gases (GHG)

which occurs outside the project boundary, and which

is measurable and attributable to a project activity

designed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions9.

Mitigation: Technological change and substitution that

reduces resource inputs and emissions per unit o

output. Although several social, economic and

technological policies would produce an emission

reduction, with respect to climate change, mitigation

means implementing policies to reduce GHG emissions

and enhance sinks10. An anthropogenic intervention to

reduce the anthropogenic orcing o the climate system;

it includes strategies to reduce greenhouse gas sources

and emissions and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks11.

Permanence: The longevity o a carbon pool and the

stability o its stocks, given the management and

disturbance environment in which it occurs12

Resilience: The amount o change a system can undergo

without changing state. Resilience is a tendency to

maintain integrity when subject to disturbance13.

Vulnerability: The degree to which a system is susceptible

to, and unable to cope with, adverse eects o climatechange, including climate variability and extremes.Vulnerability is a unction o the character, magnitude,and rate o climate change and variation to which a systemis exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity14.

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Natural Solutions: the argument

Protected areas can contribute to the two

main responses to climate change through:

Mitigation

Store : Prevent the loss o carbon that isalready present in vegetation and soilsCapture : Sequester urther carbon dioxiderom the atmosphere in natural ecosystems

Adaptation

Protect : Maintain ecosystem integrity,

buer local climate, reduce risks andimpacts rom extreme events such asstorms, droughts and sea-level riseProvide : Maintain essential ecosystemservices that help people cope withchanges in water supplies, sheries,disease and agricultural productivitycaused by climate change

Protected area systems have the advantage

that they are already established as ecient,successul and cost eective tools orecosystem management, with associatedlaws and policies, management andgovernance institutions, knowledge,sta and capacity. They contain the onlyremaining large natural habitats in manyareas. Opportunities exist to increase theirconnectivity at landscape level and theireective management so as to enhance theresilience o ecosystems to climate changeand saeguard vital ecosystem services.

Protected areas are an essential part o the global response to climate change.

They are helping address the cause o climate change by reducing greenhouse gas

emissions. They are helping society cope with climate change impacts by maintaining

essential services upon which people depend. Without them, the challenges would

be even greater, and their strengthening will yield one o the most powerul natural

solutions to the climate crisis.

The ollowing section is a summary and an associated policy analysis.The main text includes reerences and data supporting the case.

Executive summary and key policy statements

Opportunities to use protected areas in

climate response strategies need to beprioritised by national and local governments.At a global level, the Convention on BiologicalDiversitys (CBD) Programme o Work onProtected Areas should be deployed asa major climate change mitigation andadaptation tool. The role o protected areasas part o national strategies or supportingclimate change adaptation and mitigationshould also be recognised by the UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). This means:

UNFCCC : recognise protected areas astools or mitigation and adaptation to climatechange; and open up key climate changerelated unding mechanisms, includingREDD and adaptation unds, to the creation,enhancement and eective managemento protected area systemsCBD : renew the Programme o Work on

Protected Areas at COP10 to addressmore specically the role o protectedareas in responses to climate change,in liaison with other CBD programmesNational and local governments :incorporate the role o protected area systems

into national climate change strategies andaction plans, including or mitigation byreducing the loss and degradation o naturalhabitats, and or adaptation by reducing thevulnerability and increasing the resilience onatural ecosystems

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Permanence

Are based around a commitment to permanence andlong-term management o ecosystems and naturalresourcesFocus local, national and international attention on aparticular protected area, adding to the areas protection

Eectiveness

Are proven to work as an eective way o retaining naturalecosystems and ecosystem services especially throughprotected area systems at the landscape/seascape scale

Are supported by management plans, which can acilitaterapid responses to new inormation or conditions relatedto climate changeHave sta and equipment which provide managementexpertise and capacity, including understanding o howto manage ecosystems to generate a range o ecosystemservices vital or climate change adaptationProvide opportunities to bring the experience

developed in planning and managing protected areasto bear on developing broader landscape and seascapescale approaches to climate change mitigation andadaptationCan draw on existing unding mechanisms, includinggovernment budgetary appropriations, and unding romthe GEF and LieWeb

Are backed up by networks o experts ready toprovide advice and assistance, including particularlythe IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas andconservation NGOs

Monitoring, verication and reporting

Are supported by government commitments under theCBD to establish ecologically-representative protectedarea systemsHave organised and populated data sources to setbaselines and acilitate monitoring, such as the IUCNmanagement categories, governance types and RedList, and the UNEP World Conservation MonitoringCentre (UNEP-WCMC) World Database on Protected

Areas (these systems would need some strengtheningto meet UNFCCC needs)

Well managed protected areas can provide a cost eective

option or implementing climate change response strategiesbecause start-up costs have already been met andsocio-economic costs are oset by other services thatprotected areas supply. Protected areas are most eectivewhen they have good capacity, ecient management,agreed governance structures and strong support romlocal and resident communities. Ideally protected areasand conservation needs should be integrated into widerlandscape and seascape strategies.

Protected areas already cover over 13.9 per cent othe worlds land surace and a growing (although still

inadequate) area o coasts and oceans. In many placeswhere population or development pressures are particularlystrong, protected areas saeguard the only remaining naturalecosystems. The best protected areas are inspirationalmodels or the management o natural ecosystems.

A unique challengeClimate change poses an unprecedented level o threat to

lie on the planet. In addition, predictions about the scale and

speed o impact are continually being revised upwards, so

that what was already a serious situation continues to look

even more threatening. The acts are well known. Atmospheric

greenhouse gases are creating warmer temperatures, ice melt,

sea-level rise and an unpredictable climate, with a range o

extremely serious and hard-to-predict consequences. Recent

research shows an increasingly bleak picture. During the

period o writing this report new inormation suggests that:

we may already be too late to prevent widespread collapse o

coral ree systems due to ocean acidifcation; climate change

adaptation will cost US$75-100 billion a year rom 2010

onwards or developing countries according to the World

Bank; and climate change may move aster than expected

with average temperatures rising 4C by 2060 compared

to pre-industrial levels according to the UK Meteorological

Ofce. But serious as the situation has now become, muchcan still be done to reduce the problems created by climate

change. This report ocuses on the role that protected areas

can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change; a set

o options that hitherto has been under-represented in global

response strategies. In the rush or new solutions to climate

change, we are in danger o neglecting a proven alternative.

Why protected areas?A protected area is defned by IUCN as a clearly defned

geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed,

through legal or other eective means, to achieve the long-

term conservation o nature with associated ecosystem

services and cultural values.

Various land use management strategies will be needed to

combat greenhouse gas emissions rom land use change,

and to sustain ecosystem services vital to climate change

adaptation. But protected areas are uniquely positioned to

support national climate change mitigation and adaptation

strategies as they beneft rom existing policies, laws,

and institutions that govern their management and on-the-

ground capacities and expertise. In particular, protected

area systems at national scale:

Governance and safeguards

Have defned borders, which can be used to measure

carbon sinks and storage and ecosystem services

Operate under legal or other eective rameworks, which

provide a stable, long-term mechanism or managing land

and water ecosystems

Have agreed governance structures to meet a wide range

o social and cultural requirements

Are backed by a range o supportive conventions and

agreements (CBD, World Heritage, Ramsar, Man and the

Biosphere, CITES etc) and regional agreements such as Natura

2000 to provide policy rameworks, tools and political supportRecognise cultural and social values o protected areas

and have experience in implementing accessible, local

approaches involving people in a legitimate and eective

way in management

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9

New protected areas may soon be chosen partly

or their carbon storage potential, suggesting a needor new selection tools. Management operations withinindividual protected areas, such as prescribed burning,will also need to consider carbon emissions implicationsand the relationship o such practices to any agreedUNFCCC rules.

Capture: Sequester urther carbon dioxiderom the atmosphere in natural ecosystems

Challenge: Most natural and semi-natural ecosystemssequester carbon dioxide, thus reducing greenhouse

gases. Some o these services are at risk due to habitatdestruction and degradation: i these trends persist, undercredible scenarios, some ecosystems could switch romcarbon sinks to carbon sources over the next ew yearsand specialised management responses are needed toaddress this threat.

Role o protected areas: Protection o ecosystemsusually secures their sequestration potential. When climatechange or other actors continue to undermine carbondioxide capture, even inside protected areas, there is thepotential to modiy management specically to increasesequestration; this includes active restoration andencouragement o natural regeneration. Degraded orestscan have less than hal the carbon value o intact orests.

Implications: Management o some protected habitats,especially inland waters, estuaries and peatlands, mayhave to be tailored to maintain sequestration potential.The role o restoration will increase in some protectedareas, in particular or orests, mangroves and withinnatural and managed grasslands.

Adaptation

Protect: Maintain ecosystem integrity, buerlocal climate, reduce risks and impacts romextreme climatic events such as storms,droughts and sea-level rise

Challenge: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessmentestimates that 60 per cent o global ecosystem servicesare degraded, which: contributed to a signicantrise in the number o foods and major wild res on all

continents since the 1940s. Economic losses romclimate disasters have increased ten-old in 50 years,and natural disasters rom foods, storms, tidal surges,

droughts and avalanches will continue to increase inrequency and intensity.

Role o protected areas: Protected areas can help toreduce the impact o all but the largest natural disasters:

MitigationStore:Prevent the loss o carbon that isalready present in vegetation and soils

Challenge: Ecosystem loss and degradation aremajor causes o greenhouse gas emissions. TheIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimatesthat 20 per cent o greenhouse gas emissions come romdeorestation and other orms o land use change.

Role o protected areas: Protected areas are the mosteective management strategy known to avoid conversion

to other land uses and loss o carbon and to secure carbonin natural ecosystems: research by the UNEP-WCMCshows that tropical orests inside protected areas lose arless carbon than those outside. There are opportunitiesto protect additional high carbon ecosystems and tomanage, and in some cases restore, habitats or carbonretention; such as increasing water levels in peat. Data romthe UNEP-WCMC suggests that there are already 312 Gto carbon stored in the worlds protected area network,or 15 per cent o the worlds terrestrial carbon stock.

Implications: Carbon storage provides arguments orincreasing protected area coverage and or changingmanagement in some protected areas to retain more carbon.

What protected areas can do to respond

to the climate change challenge


Madagascar : around 6 million ha o new protected

areas are being created, responsible or 4 million t

o avoided CO2a year

Tanzania : the Eastern Arc Mountains store over 151

million t C, 60 per cent o which is in existing orest

reserves

Belarus :on-going restoration and protection o

degraded peatlands is leading to an annual reductiono greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 448,000 t

CO2rom peatland res and mineralization

Russian Federation : the protection o 1.63 million

ha o virgin taiga orests and peat soils in the Komi

Republic is ensuring that their store o over 71.5

million t C is protected

Bolivia, Mexico and Venezuela : protected areas

contain 25 million ha o orest, storing over 4 billion t

C, estimated to be worth between US$39-$87 billion

Canada :4,432 million t C is sequestered in 39

national parks, at a value o between US$72-78 billion

Brazil

: protected areas and indigenous lands in theBrazilian Amazon are likely to prevent an estimated

670,000 km o deorestation by 2050, representing

8 billion t o avoided carbon emissions

Examples o storage and capture


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Floods : providing space or foodwaters to disperseand absorbing impacts with natural vegetationLandslides : stabilizing soil and snow to stop slippageand slowing movement once a slip is underwayStorm surges : blocking storm surges with coral rees,barrier islands, mangroves, dunes and marshesDrought and desertication : reducing grazing pressure

and maintaining watersheds and water retention in soilFire : limiting encroachment into re-prone areas,maintaining traditional management systems

Implications: The integrity o ecosystems, communitiesand species, and o the processes that coner resiliencein ecosystems, is an essential actor in protecting againstincreasingly variable climatic extremes. A revised protectedarea gap analysis should consider other vital ecosystemservices as well as biodiversity, and some managementapproaches may need to be modied. Recognition odisaster reduction options will add impetus to increasing

protected areas, in particular or mountains, steep slopesand coastal and inland wetlands.

Provide: Maintain essential ecosystemservices that help people cope with changesin water supplies, sheries, incidence odisease and agricultural productivity causedby climate change

Challenge: Climate change is likely to exacerbate shortageso ood, potable water and traditional medicines and toincrease the spread o certain disease vectors and thus theneed or alternative sources and new products. Food andwater resource shortages will likely be unpredictable andsometimes severe, increasing the costs o humanitarianassistance or the most vulnerable.

Role o protected areas: Protected areas are proven toolsor maintaining essential natural resources and services,which in turn can help increase the resilience and reducethe vulnerability o livelihoods in the ace o climate change:

Water : both purer water and (especially in tropicalmontane cloud orests) increased water fowFish resources : marine and reshwater protected areas

conserve and rebuild sh stocksFood : by protecting crop wild relatives to acilitate cropbreeding and pollination services; providing sustainableood or communitiesHealth : ranging rom habitat protection to slow theexpansion o vector-borne diseases that thrive indegraded ecosystems to access to traditional medicines

Implications: Protected area specialists need to workclosely with relevant national and local level governmentsand technical agencies responsible or managingecosystem services to ensure that they continue to support

livelihoods under conditions o climate change. In somecases, investments in restoring ecosystems within andadjacent to protected areas may be necessary to enhanceecosystem services that serve to reduce the vulnerabilityo human societies to climate change.

Autumn leaves in a temperate orest Nigel Dudley

Global : 33 o the worlds 105 largest cities derive

their drinking water rom catchments within orest

protected areas

Global : 112 studies in marine protected areas ound

that they increased size and population o sh

Kenya : improved shery health through protection

o coral rees is providing dual benets or coral ree

conservation and per capita income or local people

Papua New Guinea : in Kimbe a locally-managed

marine protected area network is being designed,

ocusing on resilience to climate change, to protect

coral rees, coastal habitats and ood security

Global : over 100 studies in protected areas have

identied important crop wild relativesColombia :theAlto Orito Indi-Angue Sanctuarywas

set up explicitly to protect medicinal plants

Trinidad and Tobago : the restoration and

conservation o the Nariva wetlands recognises

their importance as a carbon sink, a high biodiversity

ecosystem and a natural buering system against

coastal storms

Sri Lanka :the Muthurajawella protected area has

food protection valued at over US$5 million/year

Australia :management o Melbournes orested

catchments (almost hal o which are protected

areas) is being adapted in the ace o climatechange scenarios to minimise water yield impacts

Switzerland : 17 per cent o orests are managed

to stop avalanches, worth US$2-3.5 billion per year

Examples o protection and provision

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11

Protected areas are already providing vital climate

change mitigation and adaptation benets. But theirpotential is still only partially realised and their integrityremains at risk; indeed research shows that unlessprotected area systems are completed and eectivelymanaged they will not be robust enough to withstandclimate change and contribute positively to responsestrategies. Increasing protected area size, coverage,connectivity, vegetation restoration, managementeectiveness and inclusive governance would enablea scaling up o the potential o the global protectedareas system as a solution to the challenge o climatechange and as a model or other resource management

programmes. Two issues are critical:

Finances : despite some welcome unding initiatives,analysis shows that support or the global protectedarea network is ar less than hal that needed ormaximum eciency and that some governments arereducing net support at the moment. Further resourcesare needed to maintain and enable an expandedrole or protected areas, including extra capacitydevelopment to meet new challenges and opportunitiespresented by climate change.

More and larger protected areas : particularly in

ecosystems where much carbon is stored and/or

captured and is likely to be lost without protection,

or where important ecosystem services are under

threat particularly tropical orests, peatlands,

mangroves, reshwater and coastal marshes and

seagrass beds, as well as marine ecosystems

Connecting protected areas within landscapes/

seascapes: using management o natural or semi-

natural vegetation outside protected areas or

intervening waters. This can include buer zones,

biological corridors and ecological stepping stones,

which are important to build connectivity to increase

ecosystem resilience to climate change at the

landscape/seascape scale and to increase the total

amount o habitat under some orm o protection

Recognition and implementation o the ull

range o governance types: to encourage more

stakeholders to become involved in declaring andmanaging protected areas as part o community

climate response strategies, particularly through

indigenous and community conserved areas and

private protected areas

Improving management within protected areas :

to ensure that ecosystems and the services that they

provide within protected areas are recognised and

not degraded or lost through illegal use or unwise

management decisions

Increasing the level o protection or carbon stores

within protected areas: by recognising protection

and management aimed at specic eatures that have

high value in carbon storage, or example to maintain

old-growth orest, avoid ground disturbance or drying

out o peat and also using restoration in protected

areas where vegetation has been degraded

Focusing some management specically on

mitigation and adaptation needs: including

modication o management plans, selectiontools and management approaches as necessary

Next steps in building and strengthening

protected area systems


Policy : currently national and international policy

instruments aimed at the twin environmental criseso biodiversity loss and climate change are oten notsuciently coordinated, wasting resources and missingvaluable and complementary policy opportunities.

Financial and policy instruments are needed to addresssix important responses, summarised in the box below.

The two key multilateral environmental agreements theUNFCCC and the CBD are responsible or climate changemitigation and adaptation and ecosystem conservationand management respectively. The UNFCCC explicitly

recognises the relationship between ecosystem resilienceand the vulnerability and resilience o human communities,and the decisions taken within the context o the CBDhave highlighted the threat o climate change on biodiversityand ecosystems. Several steps are needed to improve theeectiveness o protected areas as a signicant tool orclimate change mitigation and adaptation within theimplementation programmes o both conventions, thusenhancing their potential to achieve targeted outcomesat country level, and collectively or the global community.Several initiatives are also required rom national governments.

Six key policy and management developments are needed or protected areasto unction more eectively as a climate change response mechanism


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12 Executive summary and key policy statements

UNFCCCRecognise the role o protected areas as tools orpermanent carbon storage and sequestration and callor the implementation o robust protected areas systemsas a core component o national strategies to achieveland-based emissions reductionsEmphasise the role o ecosystems in climate change

adaptation and incorporate protection o naturalecosystems within national adaptation strategies andaction plans (including National Adaptation Programmes o

Action NAPA) or protection o natural ecosystems as acost-eective alternative to technology- and inrastructure-based adaptation measures and to avoid mal-adaptationPermit nationally appropriate mitigation and adaptationactions that involve the enhancement o protectedareas or national protected area networks to receivenancial and technical assistance through climate-relatednancial mechanisms

CBDRenew the Programme o Work on Protected Areasat COP 10 to address more explicitly climate changeimpacts and response strategies, in liaison with otherCBD programmes

Encourage development o tools and methods tosupport countries to evaluate climate impacts andincrease resilience o their protected areas systems,and ensure that their role in mitigation and adaptationis ully exploredEmphasise the importance o increasing connectivityamong national protected areas and transboundary

protected areas to urther enhance the benets oprotected area networks as a climate changeresponse strategyCultivate political urgency or the development omarine protected areas and protected areas in under-represented biomes

National and local governmentsIncorporate the role o protected area systems intonational climate change strategies and action plans

Address mitigation by reducing the loss and degradationo natural habitats

Strengthen adaptation by reducing the vulnerability

and increasing the resilience o natural ecosystemsEnsure eective management o protected areas toprovide benets to biodiversity and climate changemitigation and adaptation

Evenke reindeer breeder, Siberia, Russian Federation Hartmut Jungius / WWF-Canon


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Section 1Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has laid out in considerabledetail the likely trends in climate and the expected ecological responses.The rst part o this section summarises the latest IPCC thinking on issuesthat relate most closely to protected areas.

The second part looks at how intergovernmental processes, particularlythe UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention onBiological Diversity, have dealt with mitigation and adaptation in relation toprotected areas. Some examples o national government responses are

also included.

Next, protected areas are introduced as a concept. The range o dierentmanagement models and governance approaches is described, along withsome basic statistics about coverage and area.

Finally, and most importantly, this section explains why protected areas areuniquely placed to help conront climate change.


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14 Section 1

Increased runo and earlier spring peak dischargein many glacier- and snow-ed riversWarming o lakes and rivers in many regions, witheects on thermal structure and water quality

There is high condence that changes in marineand reshwater biological systems are associatedwith rising water temperatures and related changes inice cover, salinity, oxygen levels and circulationincluding:

Shits in ranges and changes in algal, plankton andsh abundance in high-latitude oceansIncreases in algal and zooplankton abundance inhigh-latitude and high-altitude lakesRange changes and earlier sh migrations in rivers

There is increasing evidence o climate change impactson coral rees. However it is dicult to separate these romother stresses (e.g. over-shing and pollution). Sea-level riseand human development are also contributing to losses ocoastal wetlands and mangroves and increasing damagerom coastal fooding.

Assessment o managed and human systems isparticularly dicult given that the drivers o change are so

complex, and the condence the IPCC attaches to reportsassessing the impacts on these systems is thereore lower(50 per cent):

In the higher latitudes o the Northern Hemisphereagricultural and orest management impacts includeearlier spring planting o crops, and alterations indisturbances o orests due to res and pestsSome impacts on human health, such as excessheat-related mortality in Europe, changes in inectiousdisease vectors in parts o Europe, and earlier onseto and increases in seasonal production o allergenicpollen in the high and mid-latitudes o the Northern

HemisphereImpacts on human activities in the Arctic, in relation tohunting activities and shorter travel seasons over snowand ice, and in lower-elevation alpine areas, such aschanges in mountain sports activities

The Fourth Assessment Report o the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2007 drawson more than 29,000 observational data series rom 75studies15. The results show signicant changes in manyphysical and biological systems; more than 89 per centare consistent with the projected eects o climate changeon natural systems. Overall the analysis led the IPCC toconclude: Observational evidence rom all continentsand most oceans shows that many natural systems are

being aected by regional climate changes, particularly

temperature increases.

The ollowing section summarises some IPCC conclusionsrelating to natural ecosystems and natural resourcesand outlines the consequences or human communities.Impacts on protected areas, and possible managementresponses, are discussed urther in section 5.

Current impacts

The IPCC assesses that there is very high (i.e. 90 percent) condence* that recent warming is strongly aectingterrestrial biological systems, including:

Earlier timing o spring events, such as lea-unolding,egg-laying and bird migrationPlants and animals shit ranges polewards and

upwards

There is high (80 per cent) condence that natural systemsrelated to snow, ice and rozen ground (includingpermarost) are aected, including the:

Enlargement and increased numbers o glacial lakesIncreasing ground instability in permarost regions androck avalanches in mountain regionsChanges in Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems, includingthose in sea-ice biomes, and aecting top predators

There is also high condence o the eects on hydrological

systems including:

* As with all IPCC reports, a standardised ramework or thetreatment o uncertainties is used when discussing the eectso climate change

The consequences o climate change or nature, natural

resources and the people who depend on them

It is highly probable that climate change isalreadyadversely aectingterrestrial and marine ecosystems and that these changes will increase in rateand severity during the century. This means that ood and water will be lessavailable, natural disasters more requent, human health put at risk, species willbe lost and ecosystems destroyed or degraded. Ecosystems and species inprotected areas will not be exempt rom these aects.

KEY MESSAGESKEY MESSAGES


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15Introduction

Future impacts: The ourth IPCC report has a higherlevel o condence about the projected impacts duringthe 21st century than earlier reports. It concludes thatwarming is expected to be greatest over land and atmost high northern latitudes, and least over the SouthernOcean (near Antarctica) and northern North Atlantic.It projects that:

It is very likely that extreme hot weather, heat waves and

heavy precipitation events will be more requentIncreases in precipitation are very likely in high-latitudesDecreases in precipitation are likely in most subtropicalland regionsTropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) are likely tobecome more intense

It is very likely that increased global average temperatureexceeding 1.5 to 2.5C with related atmospheric CO

2

concentrations will create: major changes in ecosystemstructure and unction, species ecological interactions and

shits in species geographical ranges, with predominantly

negative consequences or biodiversity and ecosystemgoods and services, e.g. water and ood supply.Specically, during this century:

The resilience o many ecosystems is likely to beexceeded by an unprecedented combination o climate

change, associated disturbances (e.g. fooding, drought,wildre, insects, ocean acidication) and other actors(e.g. land-use change, pollution, ragmentation o naturalsystems, overexploitation o resources)The net carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems is likelyto peak beore mid-century and then weaken or evenreverse, thus ampliying climate change

Approximately 20-30 per cent o plant and animal

species are likely to be at increased risk o extinction

Other signicant impacts include:

Coastal areas exposed to erosion due to climate changeand sea-level rise, which will result in many millions opeople experiencing annual fooding events by the endo the centuryThe health o millions o people aected throughincreases in malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases, and cardio-respiratory diseases (the last due to higher concentrationso ground-level ozone); more extreme weather events;and impacts related to the changing distribution o some

inectious diseasesOverall the negative impacts o climate change onreshwater systems will outweigh benets. Changes inprecipitation and temperature will lead to altered runoand water availability. Although runo is projected to

Green Sea Anemones, Olympic coast, Washington DC, USA Fritz Plking / WWF


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16 Section 1

increase by 10-40 per cent by mid-century at higherlatitudes and in some wet tropical areas, benecialimpacts are expected to be oset by the negative eectso increased variability in precipitation and runo. Up to20 per cent o people will live in areas where river foodpotential could increase by the 2080sConversely, there is likely to be a decrease in runo o

between 10-30 per cent in some dry regions at mid-latitudes and in the dry tropics, due to reduced rainalland higher rates o evapotranspiration. Many semi-aridareas (e.g. the Mediterranean Basin, western UnitedStates, southern Arica and north-eastern Brazil) willsuer a decrease in water resources. Finally, increasedtemperatures will aect the physical, chemical andbiological properties o reshwater lakes and rivers,with predominantly adverse impactsSlight increases in crop productivity in mid- to highlatitudes; but decreases at lower latitudes

Regional impacts are also reported. The IPCC attacheshigh or very high condence to all o the impacts below,although the magnitude and timing o impacts will varywith the amount and rate o climate change.

Arica

By 2020, 75-250 million people are projected to beexposed to increased water stressBy 2020, in some countries, yields rom rain-edagriculture could be reduced by up to 50 per centTowards the end o the century, projected sea-level risewill aect low-lying coastal areas with large populations.The cost o adaptation could amount to at least 5-10 percent o GDPBy 2080, arid and semi-arid land is projected to increaseby 5-8 per cent

Asia

By the 2050s, reshwater availability in Central, South,East and South-East Asia, particularly in large riverbasins, is projected to decreaseCoastal areas, especially heavily populated mega-deltaregions in South, East and South-East Asia, will be atgreatest risk due to increased fooding rom the sea and,in some mega-deltas, fooding rom the rivers

Climate change is projected to compound pressuresassociated with rapid urbanisation and industrialisationEndemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoealdisease, primarily associated with foods and droughts,are expected to rise in East, South and South-East Asia

Australia and New Zealand

By 2020, signicant loss o biodiversity is projected tooccur in some ecologically rich sites, including the GreatBarrier Ree and the Wet Tropics in QueenslandBy 2030, water security problems are projected tointensiy in southern and eastern Australia and, in New

Zealand, in Northland and some eastern regionsBy 2030, agriculture and orestry production is projectedto decline over these area, due to drought and reBy 2050, ongoing coastal development and populationgrowth in some areas is projected to exacerbate risks

Fires ... hotter, more severe and morerequent in Australia

Climate change is infuencing the nature and intensity

o Australian bushres such as the disastrous Victorian

res o 7th February 2009 according to bushre

management experts, research organisations16 and

researchers17. The situation will get worse. Climate

change orecasts identiy that the number o extreme

re days will increase between 15 per cent and 65 per

cent by 2020 (relative to 1990) or high global warming

estimates and the number o catastrophic re weather

events will increase rom 12 sites rom 1973 (over 36

years) to 20 sites between 2009 and 202018.

I have been involved in bushre management in Australia

since the 1970s as an on-ground re ghter, a restrategist and as an incident controller or many, many

res, and the intensity and erocity o the February 2009

Victorians exceeded the hottest o the res I have ever

experienced. When we look at the conditions in which

the re burnt, it is not surprising this was the case.

The res were preceded by a severe and protracted

drought which is without historical precedent. In central

Victoria, the 12-year rainall totals were 10-13 per cent

below the lowest on record or any 12 year period

beore 199719. For the capital city Melbourne, a record

breaking heat wave meant maximum temperatures

were above 30 degrees Celsius every day o the 11

days prior to the 7th February (called Black Saturday).

This caused extensive drying and curing o vegetation

matter and orest uels. On Black Saturday, the highest

ever recorded temperature was recorded or Melbourne

(46 degrees Celsius) and the humidity was less than

10 per cent or many hours. Even worse, atmospheric

instability provided an opportunity or massive

convection columns to develop, and consequently

severe re weather phenomena. O the 100 res that

started on Black Saturday, those res infuenced by

an upper atmosphere trough were the worst. Apart

rom a re in South Australia in 2005, these were the

most extreme re weather conditions in the recordedhistory o Australia. The average spread o the re was

12 km/hr (and aster in localised situations), however

re brands ahead o the re, driven by the 100 km/hr

winds were causing spot res up to 35 kilometres down

wind. This extreme spotting eect was unprecedented.

Flames o over 100 metres in length were observed, and

the total amount o heat released has been estimated

to equal 1500 atomic bombs the size o the one used

in Hiroshima20. Regrettably, there were 173 atalities

and 2029 homes lost in the res. It was re weather

behaviour infuenced by climate change, something

more severe than I have ever encountered beore anda portent o re behaviour or Australians or the uture.

Source: Graeme L. Worboys

CASE STUDY


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17Introduction

summer base stream fows, exacerbating competitionor water resourcesThe number, intensity and duration o heat waves arepredicted to result in adverse health impacts in citiesCoastal communities and habitats will be stressed byclimate change, development and pollution

Polar Regions

Changing snow and ice conditions will harminrastructure and traditional indigenous ways o lie

In both polar regions specic ecosystems andhabitats are projected to be vulnerable to speciesinvasionsReductions in thickness and extent o glaciers,ice sheets and sea ice, and changes in naturalecosystems will damage many organisms includingmigratory birds, mammals and higher predators

Small Islands

Sea-level rise is expected to exacerbate inundation,storm surge, erosion and other coastal hazardsBy mid-century, climate change is expected to

reduce water resources in many small islands, e.g.in the Caribbean and Pacic, so that they becomeinsucient to meet demand during low-rainall periodsWith higher temperatures, increased invasion by non-native species is expected to occur

Europe

Climate change is expected to magniy regionaldierences in the quantity and quality o naturalresources and assetsNegative impacts will include increased risk o fashfoods, coastal fooding and erosionMountainous areas will ace glacier retreat, reducedsnow cover, and extensive species lossesIn southern Europe, climate change is projected toreduce water availability, hydropower potential, summer

tourism and crop productivity

Latin America

By mid-century, increases in temperature andassociated decreases in soil water are projected to leadto a gradual replacement o tropical orest by savannahin eastern AmazoniaSimilarly, areas o semi-arid vegetation will tend to bereplaced by arid-land vegetationThere is a risk o signicant biodiversity loss throughspecies extinction in many areasChanges in precipitation and disappearance o glaciers

are projected to signicantly aect water availability

North America

Warming in western mountains is projected to causedecreased snow-pack, more winter fooding and reduced

WECOULDGETRIDORMOVE

ICEPICANDPUTSOLUTIONS

UNDERHERE-ORADDANOTHER

PIC.

Water is a precious resource in Nairobi, Kenya Martin Harvey / WWF-Canon


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18 Section 4Section 1

Addressing climate change requires major and undamental changes in the

way that we live, do business and interact with each other. The overwhelmingpriority is to reduce emissions o greenhouse gases and to increase rates ocarbon sequestration.

This report looks at one important part o any rational response strategy: theuse o protected areas as a tool to conserve natural and semi-natural

systems; both to capture and store carbon rom the atmosphere and

to help people and ecosystems adapt to the impacts o climate change.

O course protected areas are not a complete solution, nor should reliance onthem be used to replace or undermine eorts to reduce emissions at source.But they are an essential though so ar oten neglected part o the strategy.

Glacier carving, Spitsbergen, Norway Steve Morello/WWF-Canon

SOLUTIONS


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19Introduction

Protected areas have already been widely recognised as apractical mitigation and adaptation strategy by governments

and inter-governmental bodies. This chapter reviews someexisting responses rom policy makers.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: TheIPPC calls or the use o protected areas as an element inenhancing both mitigation and adaptive capacity, and inreducing emissions and vulnerability to climate change21.The IPPC report ocused in particular on the role o orestprotection and management in terms o limiting climateimpacts, proposing that some 65 per cent o the totalmitigation potential is located in the tropics and about50 per cent o the total could be achieved by reducingemissions rom deorestation22. The report identied thatorest-related mitigation activities are likely to be relativelylow cost and can create important synergies with climatechange adaptation and sustainable development, withsubstantial co-benets in terms o employment, incomegeneration, biodiversity and watershed conservation,renewable energy supply and poverty alleviation23. TheIPCC report on orestry concluded: Whileregrowth otrees due to eective protection will lead to carbon

sequestration, adaptive management o protected areas

also leads to conservation o biodiversity and reduced

vulnerability to climate change. For example, ecological

corridors create opportunities or migration o fora and

auna, which acilitates adaptation to changing climate24(our emphasis). In terms o mechanisms to achieve thesewin-win situations, the IPCC notes that the orest policies,measures and instruments shown to be environmentallyeective include:

Financial incentives (national and international) toincrease orest area, to reduce deorestation, andto maintain and manage orestsLand use regulation and enorcement 25

This combination o agreed approaches to landmanagement backed up by nancial incentives is

precisely the model advocated in the current report.

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: TheUNFCCC has not yet reerred specically to protectedareas and is currently in the middle o intense negotiations

about meeting emission reductions. However, its 2007Bali Action Plan set the roadmap or the Copenhagennegotiations and specically called or more actionon mitigation and adaptation strategies a call that is

beginning to be answered by many countries (see table1). In June 2009, United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) released a report urging the UNFCCC and othersto take greater account o the role o natural ecosystemsin carbon sequestration26.

International and national responses how policy

makers view the role o protected areas

The IPCC has identied protected areas as essential in mitigating andadapting to climate change. Other intergovernmental bodies have repeatedthis message, particularly the CBD. National governments are alreadystarting to include protected areas as tools within their own climateresponse strategies. But there is much, much more to do.

KEY MESSAGES

Fir trees and beech trees in autumn, Finland Mauri Rautkari /

WWF-Canon


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20

Country Document Details

Australia National

Biodiversity and

Climate Change

Action Plan (2004-

2007)31

The plan was developed to coordinate activities o dierent jurisdictions to address the

impacts o climate change on biodiversity. It includes strategies and actions related to

protected areas including the development o new reserves incorporating assessment

o climate change impacts (Strategy 5.2 and related actions) specically in relation to

marine protected areas (Strategy 4.2 and 4.5).

Brazil National Plan on

Climate Change

(2008)32

The plan denes actions and measures aimed at mitigation and adaptation to

climate change. It has 7 specic objectives, 2 related to orests including: Seek

or sustained reduction in deorestation rates, in all Brazilian biomass, in order to

reach zero illegal deorestation. Actions include: identication o public orests tobe protected, preserved and managed, and creation o an Amazon Fund to raise

nancial resources nationally and internationally or the reduction o deorestation,

sustainable use and conservation, especially in the Amazon orest.

China National Climate

Change Program

(2007)33

The programme outlines objectives to 2010. Natural resource conservation is

mentioned twice; section 2.3.4 states: To combat climate change, it is necessary

to strengthen orest and wetland conservation to enhance capacities or

climate change adaptation; and to strengthen orest and wetland restoration

and aorestation to enhance capacities or carbon sequestration.Section

3.3.2: Through strengthening the natural orest conservation and nature

reserve management and continuously implementing key ecological restoration

programmes, establish key ecological protection area and enhancing natural

ecological restoration. By 2010, 90% o typical orest ecosystems and national keywildlie are eectively protected and nature reserve area accounts or 16% o the

total territory; and 22 million hectares o desertied lands are under control.

Finland National Strategy

or Adaptation to

Climate Change

(2005)34

The protected area network in the Alpine and eastern zones should be sucient to

adapt to climate change as there is an opportunity to: control land use eciently

to reduce the human-induced stress and thus promote the conservation o alpine

habitat types and the habitats o species. However protected areas in southern

Finland are less extensive and the possibilities or the protected areas to provide

species with opportunities or adaptation/transition are restricted. Responses

include: a more extensive international evaluation and development o the network

o protected areas, or example, within the Barents cooperation.

India National ActionPlan on Climate

Change (2008)35

The plan identies 8 core national missions running through to 2017 and directsministries to submit detailed implementation plans to the Prime Ministers Council

on Climate Change. The National Mission or Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem

includes: aims to conserve biodiversity, orest cover, and other ecological values

in the Himalayan region, where glaciers that are a major source o Indias water

supply are projected to recede as a result o global warming.

Mexico Special Program

on Climate

Change (2009

review drat)

The programmes objectives are to develop and solidiy guidelines contained in the

previously released National Strategy on Climate Change (ENACC). It covers energy

generation; energy use; agriculture, orests, and other land uses; waste; and private

sector, and contains 41 mitigation objectives and 95 related targets, most by 2012.

It includes plans to preserve, widen, and connect protected areas, build ecosystem

resilience and design, pilot and implement REDD projects36.

South Arica A national climatechange response

strategy or South

Arica (2004)37

The strategy concludes with 22 key actions relating a range o issues rom CDMprojects to health protection and promotion measures to counter climate change;

and includes an action to: Develop protection plans or plant, animal and marine

biodiversity.

Table 1: National climate change responses using protected areas

Convention on Biological Diversity: The CBD hasrecognised the role o protected areas in addressingclimate change in its Programme o Work on Protected

Areas (PoWPA): 1.4.5 Integrate climate change adaptationmeasures in protected area planning, management

strategies and in the design o protected area systems.More explicitly, its Subsidiary Body on Scientic, Technical,and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), called at SBSTTA11 (Recommendation XI/14) or guidance or promotingsynergy among activities addressing biological diversity,

Section 1


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21Introduction

The main ndings rom the study o the economics o ecosystems and biodiversity(TEEB) will be published in 2010; however a summary report on climate change,released in 2009 as an input to the Copenhagen climate negotiations, highlightssome urgent issues or policy makers.

The TEEB Climate Issues Update40 highlights three

issues o particular importance to be considered

by policy-makers in Copenhagen:

Urgent consideration o the imminent loss o1.

coral rees due to climate change, which will

result in serious ecological, social, and economic

consequences.

An early and appropriate agreement on2. orest

carbon to mitigate climate change.

The recognition o the cost-benet case or public3.investment in ecological inrastructure (especiallyrestoring and conserving orests, mangroves, riverbasins, wetlands, etc.), particularly because o itssignicant potential as a means o adaptation toclimate change.

The paper also stresses that including orests as a major

mitigation option would set an important precedent and

a potential platorm or the development o other

payments or ecosystem services. To this end TEEB

recognises that a successul global agreement would

mark societys entry into a new era which mainstreams

the economics o ecosystems and biodiversity: not

just demonstrating ecosystem benefts, but capturing

them through priced rewards. Such an agreement

would mark the beginnings o the change in the

global economic model that TEEB is recommending

in all its reports.

However, as the report notes: we cannot manage what

we do not measure. The measurement o carbon

sequestration (fow) by orests is relatively well

established and accurate, whereas the measurement

o carbon sequestration by soil, water and other biota

(fows) and the stock o carbon are less developed and

not standardised; and the assessment o linkages across

ecosystems services remain weak. Thus to implement

such an agreement will require the reliable global

measurement and accounting or carbon storage

and sequestration in a variety o ecosystems.

The paper also notes the importance o ensuring that a

global orest carbon agreement includes the assessment

o conservation success. TEEB suggest indicators o

conservation eectiveness may include:

Eorts to develop non-agricultural income-generating

activities in orest dependent communities

Improving the management o existing protected

areas by increasing stang and equipment as well

as agreements with orest communities

Expanding protected areas through new legislation

Promoting independent verication o protected area

management

Overall, in economic terms the TEEB report notes that:

Direct conservation, e.g. via protected areas, or

sustainable use restrictions, are means o maintaining

our ecological inrastructure healthy and productive,

delivering ecosystem services. Very high beneft-cost

ratios are observed, so long as we include amongstbenefts a valuation o the public goods and services o

ecosystems, and compute social returns on investment.

desertication, land degradation and climate changeandcalled or a range o responses27. It is likely that the reviewo the PoWPA scheduled or late 2010 will increase theemphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation withinprotected area policies; these issues eatured very stronglyat recent meetings to plan the uture o the PoWPA28. Inaddition, the CBD and UNFCCC already have a joint working

group looking at synergies between the two conventions29.

Other international conventions: Many other internationalagreements include discussion o climate change,such as the Millennium Declaration and its MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG), the World Summit onSustainable Development and its Johannesburg Plan orImplementation, the World Heritage Convention (whichexplicitly looks at the role o protected areas in mitigation)30and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

National responses: An increasing number o governments

are drawing on protected areas as tools or combating

climate change, although the large majority are still notincluding them in their National Adaptation Programmeso Action. Table 1 outlines some examples o nationalinitiatives.

Due to its complexity and the array o causes, impactsand responses, climate change requires synergy between

many international instruments38, co-operation betweendierent government departments within countries andthe involvement o dierent stakeholder groups. Atpresent, this is requently not happening. Governmentsare ocusing on brown solutions (emissions reductionsetc.) and not always considering the knock-on eectsto the green or blue solutions (carbon stored interrestrial vegetation or in the seas and oceans). Forexample, a narrow ocus on emission reductions hasencouraged biouel production, which i not properlyplanned requently results in additional carbon beinglost rom terrestrial systems. More integrated approaches

are urgently required39.


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22 Section 1

What are protected areas?

Although there are two global protected area denitions,rom IUCN and the CBD, it is recognised that they convey

essentially the same message.

IUCN denition :A clearly dened geographical space,recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal

or other eective means, to achieve the long-term

conservation o nature with associated ecosystem

services and cultural values41.CBD denition :A geographically dened area whichis designated or regulated and managed to achieve

specic conservation objectives.

Protected areas range rom places so strictly preservedthat human visitation is banned or strictly controlled, toprotected landscapes and seascapes, where biodiversityprotection takes place alongside regulated traditional(and in some cases modern) production activities otenwith resident human communities. Management can rest

The potential o the worlds protected areas

system to address climate change

Protected areas are essential or maintaining natural ecosystems in perpetuityand already provide critically important ecosystem unctions. They usenumerous management approaches and governance types, acilitating thedevelopment o a resilient, worldwide network.

with the state, local government, not-or-prot trusts,companies, private individuals, communities or indigenouspeoples groups. Over time protected areas have developed

rom rather top-down, centrally managed designations toar more inclusive, participatory and varied managementsystems, An internationally recognised typology describesdierent approaches, recognising six categories omanagement objective and ourgovernance types; thesecan be used in any combination as shown in gure 1.

Modern protected areas ocus explicitly on the conservationo biodiversity although most have other roles in terms oproviding social and cultural values, which are also refectedin management. An increasing number o governmentsconsciously try to include all national ecosystems and specieswithin the protected area system, on a scale large enoughto support populations o resident plant and animal speciesin the long-term. The IUCN Species Survival Commissionreports that 80 per cent o mammal, bird and reptile andamphibian species are already represented in protected areas.

Map o the global protected area network

KEY MESSAGESKEY MESSAGES


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23Introduction

IUCN category(managementobjective)

IUCN Governance type

A. Governance by

governments

B. Shared governance C. Private governance D. Governance by

indigenous peoples

and local communitiesFederalornationalministry

oragencyincharge

Localministryoragencyin

charge

Managementdelegatedby

thegovernment

Transboundaryprotected

area

Collaborativemanagement

(variouspluralistinfuences)

Collaborativemanagement

(pluralistmanagementboard)

Declaredandrunbyprivate

individual

Declaredandrunbynon-

protorganisations

Declaredandrunbyor-

protindividuals

Declaredandrunby

indigenouspeoples

Declaredandrunbylocal

communities

I Strict nature or

wilderness protection

II Ecosystem protection

and recreation

III Protection o natural

monument or eature

IV Protection o habitats

and species

V Protection o

landscapes or seascapes

VI Protection and

sustainable resource use

Figure 1: Matrix o IUCN protected area management categories and governance types

Most protected areas do not work in isolation but need tobe inter-connected through biological corridors or othersuitable habitats. Protected areas thus orm the core omost national or regional biodiversity conservationstrategies but are not the only conservation tool.

A global system: There are some 120,000 designatedprotected areas* covering 13.9 per cent o the Earthsland surace; marine protected areas cover 5.9 per cent oterritorial seas and 0.5 per cent o the high seas 42. Thereare also an unknown number o protected areas outside

the state system, including indigenous and communityconserved areas, which in some countries may providecomparable coverage to those protected areas set up bythe state43. These together represent a huge investment bygovernments, trusts, local communities, indigenous peoplesand individuals to protect land and water or conservationpurposes. Most protected areas were created duringthe twentieth century; the establishment o the worldsprotected areas estate represents the astest consciouschange in land management that has ever occurred.Despite this rapid growth, some ecosystems remain poorlyprotected, including or example grasslands, inland waters

and the marine environment. Opportunities or urtherprotection will inevitably decrease over time as availableland and water becomes scarcer.

* As listed by the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA)

Purpose: Protected areas are the cornerstones o nationaland international biodiversity conservation strategies.They act as reuges or species and ecological processesthat cannot survive in intensely managed landscapes andseascapes and provide space or natural evolution anduture ecological restoration. Protected areas are embeddedwithin landscapes and seascapes, oten orming the coreo remaining natural ecosystems and in this way contributeto the composition, structure and wider unctioning oecosystems well beyond their own borders.

Protected areas also provide a wide variety o moreimmediate human benets. People both those livingnearby and at a national or international level gainrom the genetic resources ound in wild species,ecosystem services, recreational opportunities providedby wild spaces and the reuge that protected areas cangive to traditional and vulnerable human societies. Mostpeople believe that we have an ethical obligation to preventspecies loss due to our own actions. Flagship protectedareas are as important to a nations heritage as, say,Notre Dame cathedral or the Taj Mahal, and many haveirreplaceable cultural and spiritual values alongside their

rich biodiversity.

Although protected areas exhibit huge variety, they arealso all bound to certain obligations, as captured inthe CBD and IUCN denitions. They are all identiable,


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24 Section 1

Biome Area (km2) % o area protected

Temperate grasslands, savannahs and shrub lands 10,104,060 4.1

Boreal orests / taiga 15,077,946 8.5

Tropical and subtropical conierous orests 712,617 8.7

Mediterranean orests, woodlands and scrub 3,227,266 10.2

Tropical and subtropical dry broadlea orests 3,025,997 10.4

Deserts and xeric shrub lands 27,984,645 10.8

Temperate broadlea and mixed orests 12,835,688 12.1

Temperate conier orests 4,087,094 15.2

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannahs and shrub lands 20,295,424 15.9

Tropical and subtropical moist broadlea orests 19,894,149 23.2

Montane grasslands and shrub lands 5,203,411 27.9Mangroves 348,519 29.1

Flooded grasslands and savannahs 1,096,130 42.2

Table 2: The ecological representativeness o the global protected areas estate in 2009: progresstowards the CBD 2010 target44

geographically-dened areas*, which are recognisedas being protected. Such recognition usually takes theorm o government laws but can also be in the ormo sel-declared community decisions or the policies otrusts or companies. Protected areas also need to bemanaged; this management could include the decisionto leave the area entirely alone but might also include

active restoration in cases where the area has previously* The boundaries o protected areas can in certain circumstancesvary over time, or example i areas are designated no-go atcertain times o year to protect spawning sites or sh but remainopen at other times but these cases are exceptional.

suered degradation, or other measures to maintainecosystem integrity (e.g. by controlling alien invasivespecies). Critically, protected areas are designed tomaintain their values in the long-term, i.e. they are nottemporary designations that can be set aside or changedbut represent a long-term commitment to the soundmanagement o ecosystems and ecological processes and

the protection o species. It is precisely because protectedareas involve the recognised, long-term protection andmanagement o areas to maintain natural ecosystemsthat they are so suitable as a means to mitigate andadapt to climate change.

Grasslands, Bosnia and Herzegovina Michel Gunther / WWF-Canon


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25Introduction

Governance and saeguards

Have dened borders, which can be used to measure

carbon sinks and storage and ecosystem servicesOperate under legal or other eective rameworks, whichprovide a stable, long-term mechanism or managing landand water ecosystemsHave agreed governance structures to meet a wide rangeo social and cultural requirements

Are backed by a range o supportive conventions andagreements (CBD, World Heritage, Ramsar, Man andthe Biosphere, CITES etc) and regional agreements suchas Natura 2000 to provide policy rameworks, tools andpolitical supportRecognise cultural and social values o protected areasand have experience in implementing accessible, localapproaches involving people in a legitimate and eectiveway in management

Permanence

Are based around a commitment to permanence andlong-term management o ecosystems and naturalresourcesFocus local, national and international attention on aparticular protected area, adding to the areas protection

Eectiveness

Are proven to work as an eective way o retaining

natural ecosystems and ecosystem services especiallythrough protected area systems at the landscape/seascape scale

Are supported by management plans, which can acilitaterapid responses to new inormation or conditions relatedto climate changeHave sta and equipment which provide managementexpertise and capacity, including understanding o howto manage ecosystems to generate a range o ecosystemservices vital or climate change adaptationProvide opportunities to bring the experience developedin planning and managing protected areas to bear on

developing broader landscape and seascape scaleapproaches to climate change mitigation and adaptationCan draw on existing unding mechanisms, includinggovernment budgetary appropriations, and unding romthe GEF and LieWeb

Much o this report ocuses on the role o naturalecosystems in helping human communities to mitigate

and adapt to climate change. In theory, any natural orsemi-natural ecosystem can be managed to assistmitigation and adaptation to climate change, whatever itsgovernance system: e.g. unused lands, indigenous landsor those set aside as strategic reserves. So too can manymanaged ecosystems. Governments and other land ownerswill need to be creative in nding ways to recognise andmaintain ecosystem values within all natural and culturalhabitats. Indigenous peoples and local communities otenrecognise the values o natural systems and may havebeen managing to sustain these values or millennia45.

However, many traditional management systems arebreaking down due to outside pressure. These includepopulation pressure and demands or access to naturalresources, and sometimes due to social changes withincommunities. As the ecosystems deteriorate, theirservices are also degraded or lost. The global economicsystem can exacerbate this process, unless it isimplemented within a strong national and internationalpolicy ramework.

Although it is well established that natural systems havehigh values, these usually accrue in a dispersed orm tomany people in a community and even more tenuously

to the national or global community in terms o ecosystemservices. For an individual or company, it is oten moreprotable to use the resources in a non-renewable way.For instance a orested watershed may benet downstreamcommunities by providing clean water with a high marketvalue, but the individual owning the land can oten makean immediate prot by selling the timber even i by doingso water quality regulation and provisioning services arecompromised. Protected areas oer means to maintainthe global and local benets o ecosystems, and in boththe short- and long-term.

Protected areas are in a unique position compared withother governance systems or land and natural resourcemanagement in terms o the contributions they can make inthe dual areas o climate change mitigation and adaptation.More specically, protected areas:

Why protected areas?

Although many natural and managed ecosystems can help to mitigate oradapt to climate change, protected areas oer several advantages: recognition(oten legal); long-term commitment to protection; agreed management andgovernance approaches; and management planning and capacity. They areoten the most cost eective option. In many situations they contain the onlynatural or semi-natural habitats remaining in large areas.

KEY MESSAGES


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26 Section 1

Are backed up by networks o experts ready to provideadvice and assistance, including particularly the IUCNWorld Commission on Protected Areas and conservationNGOs

Monitoring, verication and reporting

Are supported by government commitments under the

CBD to establish ecologically-representative protectedarea systemsHave organised and populated data sources to setbaselines and acilitate monitoring, such as the IUCNmanagement categories, governance types and Red List,and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre(UNEP-WCMC) World Database on Protected Areas(these systems would need some strengthening to meetUNFCCC needs)

Well managed protected areas can provide a cost eectiveoption or implementing climate change response strategies

because start-up costs have already been met andsocio-economic costs are oset by other services thatprotected areas supply. Protected areas are most eectivewhen they have good capacity, ecient management,agreed governance structures and strong support romlocal and resident communities. Ideally protected areasand conservation needs should be integrated into widerlandscape and seascape strategies. The best protectedareas are inspirational models or maintenance andmanagement o natural ecosystems. In many places wherepopulation or development pressures are particularly strong,protected areas are the only remaining natural ecosystemsand thus play a particularly critical role in regulating thesupply o ecosystem services.

This report describes the climate change benets that welldesigned and managed protected area systems can provideand looks at the steps needed to ensure that such a systemis developed and managed eectively on a global scale.

Do protected areas work eectively in protecting

ecosystems and the carbon that they contain?

The utility o protected areas in maintaining ecosystemunctions and supplying ecosystem services depends on anumber o actors including: the integrity o lands outside

the boundaries o the protected area, and thus the valueadded provided by the protected area; the eectivenesso the protected area in buering land rom human-induced threats; and any displacement eect the creationo the protected area may have on land uses, that mightundermine ecosystem unction elsewhere.

Research on protected area eectiveness has ocusedon potential benets in terms o reductions in outrighthabitat loss, as well as habitat degradation. One large-scale study looked at anthropogenic threats acing 92protected areas in 22 tropical countries, and concluded that

the majority o protected areas are indeed successul inprotecting ecosystems. Specically they do so by stoppingland clearance, as well as preventing illegal logging,hunting, re and domestic animal-grazing compared toun-protected areas47. A survey o 330 protected areas

around the world using a consistent methodology, carriedout by WWF and The World Bank, ound biodiversitycondition consistently scoring high48. A global metastudy,coordinated by the University o Queensland, assessedmanagement eectiveness evaluations rom over 2300protected areas and ound that 86 per cent met their owncriteria or good management49. Another major study rom2008 assessed the eectiveness o protected areas interms o avoided land-cover clearance, using a metadataanalysis that incorporated 22 countries and 49 dierent

locations. The research concluded that protected areas hadlower rates o land-clearing compared to their surroundings,

and lowered rates within their boundaries ollowing the

initiation o protection50. Another recent report compared

multiple protected area management types (using IUCNs

protected area categorisations) across our tropical areas: the

Amazon, the Atlantic Coast, West Arica, and the Congo. The

methodology included an assessment o natural vegetation

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