Our Work Safeguarding Wildlife and Ecosystems from Global Warming

Rapid climate change is putting more than a century of conservation achievements at grave risk, and will have profound implications for the very fabric of the nation's natural systems. Safeguarding our wildlife and ecosystems in the face of global warming has become an urgent priority for conservation and resource management communities. Referred to as climate change adaptation, this work will largely define a new era of conservation in America and around the world.

Climate change adaptation involves steps we can take to prepare for and cope with the impacts of climate change. These actions can range from enhancing the resilience of fish and wildlife strongholds to creating movement corridors that enable plant and animal species to shift their ranges in response to changing climate patterns.

NWF's global warming safeguards work focuses on:

• Advancing the science and practice of climate-smart conservation and wildlife management.
• Advocating for changes in land, water and resource management policies and laws to better accommodate climate change. 
• Securing dedicated funding  for federal, state and private resource managers to respond to the growing impacts of climate change on our natural resources.
  

Aggressive Action Needed on Two Fronts

The threat that global warming poses to wildlife and ecosystems is well documented. These impacts will not just take place at some distant point in the future: they are here now. Similarly, although climate change is a global process, the impacts are not restricted to distant locales: they are local and increasingly affect our own communities and backyards.

Meeting the challenge of conserving natural ecosystems in the face of this unparalleled threat will require aggressive action on two fronts:

1. We must confront the underlying causes of global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases--referred  to as mitigation.
2. At the same time, however, we must address the impacts of global warming on wildlife and ecosystems through adaptation.

 

Wildlife's Future Remains Uncertain

As our native plants and animals respond to changes brought on by global warming, one thing is clear: the ecosystems of the future will be different, either dramatically or subtly, than those we now know and depend on. Some may even disappear altogether.

Species and ecosystems are often finely tuned to respond to specific and predictable environmental cues, such as seasonal patterns of temperature, precipitation and day length. The synchronization of responses across many plant and animal species is what allows, for instance, song birds to time their nesting with the emergence of protein-rich insects, and flowers to bloom when their pollinators are available. Similarly, species often have very specific tolerances for heat or cold, as well as for drought or flooding.

As global warming alters the local climatic regimes in which our native wildlife evolved and adapted, we will begin to see varying responses. Some species will be able to accommodate the new conditions, others--especially more mobile species--may be able to track the new conditions by moving northward or up in elevation. Still others may have little ability on their own to cope with these new conditions and will decline or may go extinct.
 

Transforming Conservation

Conservation traditionally has focused on preserving pristine or intact landscapes, or on restoring impaired ecosystems to some desired historical condition. A new paradigm for conservation is required that takes insight from the past, but does not attempt to recreate it. Instead, we will be challenged to envision conservation of our lands and waters in an uncertain and climate-altered future. Although most of the tools in the conservationist's arsenal will likely remain the same--for instance, land acquisition and active management--where, when, and how these tools are deployed will need to be considered through a climate change filter.
 

Climate-Smart Conservation

The National Wildlife Federation is taking an active role in helping to develop and advance the emerging field of climate change adaptation, with a particular emphasis on wildlife and natural ecosystems. Much activity and interest surround these developing climate-smart approaches to conservation with adaptation planning efforts underway at local, state, and national levels. As the field of adaptation planning and implementation is still in rapid development, one of the most important things that NWF can do is help to connect scientists and practitioners in order to share information and knowledge, as well as successes and failures.

NWF has established a number of mechanisms to help conservationists and wildlife managers exchange information and share knowledge about climate change adaptation. These include:

• Adaptation 2009 - In collaboration with the National Center for Science and the Environment, NWF convened a major national conference designed to explore management and policy responses to climate impacts on key natural ecosystem types--including forests, grasslands, freshwater systems and coasts. Information on this conference is available by clicking here.
   
• Climate Change and Wildlife Webinar Series - NWF in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a series of web-based seminars ("webinars") on Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change. Presenters have included a number of leading scientists, government officials, and representatives from conservation organizations. Archives of these webinars can be accessed here.
   
• Climate Change and Wildlife Action Plan Workshops - Federally mandated State Wildlife Action Plans are now available for all U.S. states and territories and collectively provide a nationwide blueprint for conservation action. Because most of these plans do not consider the effects of climate change, NWF is working with states and local partners to hold a series of workshops designed to help states incorporate climate change into these important plans. 
   
• Vulnerability Assessment Guidance - Developing effective adaptation plans requires an understanding of the likely impacts from climate change on particular species and habitats. NWF, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and with support from the Department of Defense, has convened an experts working group to develop guidance on Wildlife and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments.

 

Work in Our Regional Offices

The National Wildlife Federation's regional offices have begun putting climate change safeguards strategies into place as part of their wildlife protection and ecosystem restoration activities.

Climate impacts vary considerably from one region of the country to another, and accordingly, strategies for responding to these threats will differ. For example, while sea-level rise is affecting ocean coastlines and threatening to inundate sensitive coastal marshes and sand beaches, water levels in the Great Lakes are projected to drop, affecting shoreline habitats in a very different way.

Regional offices with particularly active safeguards initiatives underway include the Northeast, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and Pacific Northwest.

Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic Regional Center

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary, stretching more about 200 miles along the mid-Atlantic seaboard. Once among the Earth's most biologically productive water bodies, at the time of European colonization the bay was overflowing with oysters and teeming with waterfowl and other wildlife. Over the years, however, a combination of urbanization, loss of forest cover, poor agricultural practices, and over-fishing have dramatically reduced the health of the Chesapeake ecosystem. Rapid climate change, and particularly climate-induced sea level rise, now poses perhaps the most significant threat to bayside imperiled species and habitats and addressing these impacts will constitute one of the greatest conservation challenges of our time.

NWF's Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic Regional Office is working to safeguard the region's unique ecosystems and wildlife resources in several ways. In Virginia, for instance, NWF is working with our affiliate, Virginia Conservation Network, and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to incorporate climate change into the state's wildlife action plan, and begin implementing priority climate change adaptation activities.

Specific activities include:

• Convened two stakeholder workshops that focused on the impacts of climate change on Virginia's fish and wildlife and brought together a wide array of leaders from the state's conservation and wildlife management communities.
• Developed a strategy to begin protecting the states species of greatest conservation need from climate change that will be appended to the Virginia Wildlife Action Plan.
• Re-engaging and expanding the Virginia Teaming With Wildlife Coalition.
• Initiating work to conduct climate vulnerability assessment that will inform a more in depth adaptation planning process.

Based on the success of our work in Virginia, NWF is also initiating work in North Carolina designed to assist the state incorporate climate change into its state wildlife action plan. Together with our affiliate, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission we are planning to host a workshop to address protecting wildlife from climate change in the state.

 

Great Lakes Regional Center

The Great Lakes already are feeling the effects of climate change: more extreme weather patterns, emerging diseases, and increases in water temperatures. We must work to curb greenhouse gas pollution but concurrently help the Great Lakes deal with these effects of climate change. As one of the first groups in the region to actively focus on climate adaptation, NWF is working to determine priorities, create strategies, and move policies that protect wildlife and human communities, reduce costs, and safeguard the Great Lakes from climate change.

Here are some of the ways that NWF's Great Lakes Regional Center is working to safeguard 20% of the world's freshwater and its diverse ecosystems:

• Convened a stakeholder workshop in Michigan to develop a strategy for protecting the state's species from climate change, which will be appended to the Michigan State Wildlife Action Plan.
• Working with the Healing Our Waters® Coalition of over 100 groups to develop and implement climate-ready strategies for ecosystem restoration.
• Building relationships with regional scientists in order to call for 'actionable' science that could be applied to Great Lakes decision-making.
• Responding to and advising on policy related to management of water levels.
• Compiling and presenting safeguard success stories throughout the region.