Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change by the Biodiversity Sector in Southern Africa (Robert Scholes, CSIR Division of Water, Environment and Forest Technology, South Africa)

The project aims to develop, test and promote tools for planned adaptation in the biodiversity conservation sector. This involves developing more realistic ways of predicting the response of plant, animal, bird and reptile species to a changing climate in the presence of a changing and fragmented landscape. The project will analyze a range of adaptation options to determine which are the most effective, cost-efficient, and robust. Three case studies, selected for their different environments and data limitations, will be used as demonstrations of the techniques. Training and awareness-raising, particularly among professional biodiversity managers and policy-makers within the South African Development Community, is an important part of the project.

Countries and sectors: South Africa, with applicability to southern Africa and elsewhere. The core sector is biodiversity conservation in both the public and private sectors; including partial integration with the Agriculture, Tourism and Water Supply sectors insofar as they impact biodiversity conservation options.