Climate change Climate change
and protected and protected
areas areas
Issues challenges and opportunities Issues, challenges and opportunities
Nigel Dudley
Opportunities and challenges
Pirin National Park, Bulgaria
This talk draws on a forthcoming report
Protected areas can Protected areas can
Store carbon
Capture new carbon - sequestration
P id f b d d i
Provide resources for ecosystem-based adaptation
But at the same time they also themselves
f i h f li h
face serious threats from climate change
Storage
Major carbon stores in forest, peat, grassland, mangroves,
p g g
sea grass and soil
Estimates for the amount of carbon stored in tropical p forests range from 170-250 tonnes carbon/hectare
Urho Kekkosen National Park, Finland
Storage
Major carbon stores in forest, peat, grassland, mangroves,
p g g
sea grass and soil
All these are of major importance in Asia importance in Asia
Kinabatangan Nature Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia
Storage
Major carbon stores in forest, peat, grassland, mangroves,
p g g
sea grass and soil
But carbon stores are also being lost very quickly in the being lost very quickly in the
region
Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Malaysia
Storage
Protected areas are the most effective tool yet found for maintaining carbon in natural
y g
vegetation
Research by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre shows far less carbon Monitoring Centre shows far less carbon lost in protected areas than in other forests in tropical countries
Oulanka National Park, Finland
Sequestration
Both young and old forests also capture significant p g amounts of carbon dioxide, as do peatlands, grasslands and
i t
many marine ecosystems
Recent research in the Amazon, Congo Basin and in boreal forests all show that old-growth forests continue to seq este ca bon sequester carbon
Bwindi National Park, Uganda
Sequestration
The success of sequestration from commercial forests depends on what p the timber is used for…
Uruguay
Carbon storage and sequestration
There is a huge potential to protect natural ecosystems to help store carbon – and to y p supply many other important goods and services
Degraded peatland in west Kalimantan, Island of Borneo, Indonesia
Carbon storage and sequestration
But on the other hand, many ecosystems risk switching from being sinks to sources of g g carbon due to degradation and climate change Forest loss and degradation, drying out of Forest loss and degradation, drying out of peatlands and other inland waters, conversion of mangroves, increased grass and forest fires, loss of organic matter from soil in farmed areas, decline of seagrass beds…
Degraded peatland in west Kalimantan, Island of Borneo, Indonesia
Carbon storage and sequestration
Protected areas can provide a ready- made delivery mechanism for carbon made delivery mechanism for carbon storage and sequestration:
Existing legal structure, policies, staff and capacity
capacity
Suitable for voluntary carbon markets
Suitable for REDD and related schemes if
Suitable for REDD and related schemes if recognised by UNFCCC
Carbon storage and sequestration
To qualify for REDD, forest protected areas (and eventually perhaps peat and areas (and eventually perhaps peat and others) are likely to have to show:
Some additionality: new protected areas where deforestation is likely or improved
where deforestation is likely or improved management effectiveness
No leakage: e g through switching
No leakage: e.g. through switching logging to other forests
Care of social issues
Care of social issues
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Using natural ecosystems to help us adapt to climate change:p g
Di t iti ti
Disaster mitigation
Food and water security
Health
Brahmaputra River, Assam, India
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Protected areas can help:
Disaster mitigation: protecting against floods landslides typhoons drought after- floods, landslides, typhoons, drought, after- effects of earthquakes
Food and water security: protecting
Food and water security: protecting crop wild relatives, fisheries, water quality and sometimes supply
and sometimes supply
Health: malaria control, medical herbs and pharmaceutical drugs
and pharmaceutical drugs
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Cloud forests can increase net water supply net water supply
Ecosystem-based adaptation
17 per cent of Swiss forests are protected explicitly for avalanche protected explicitly for avalanche
protection
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Ecosystem services often provide popular ways of provide popular ways of
introducing protection
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Completed: reports on drinking
water, faiths, agrobiodiversity, poverty reduction, disaster mitigation and
health; an assessment tool.
In preparation: a report on climate change and a book summarising the series
series
Challenges
Protected areas face new challenges:
Climate change: additional stresses on protected areas losing habitat and species protected areas – losing habitat and species, more extreme climate events
Human pressure: using resources as
Human pressure: using resources as crops fail and living space is lost
Extra demands: climate responses as
Extra demands: climate responses as well as biodiversity, recreation etc
Challenges
This means a huge shift in management
Adaptive management: responding at individual protected areas and the PA system individual protected areas and the PA system
Contributing to climate response
strategies: through storage sequestration strategies: through storage, sequestration and ecosystem based adaptation
Providing leadership: in many places
Providing leadership: in many places protected area staff will know more than anyone else about adaptation
anyone else about adaptation
Questions to be answered
We still need to know more about
Sequestration: what happens in different ecosystems
ecosystems
REDD etc: new tools needed to implement schemes
schemes
Capacity building: how to help protected area staff to contribute fully to climate
area staff to contribute fully to climate response strategies
A proposal: The CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas should be deployed as a major p y j mitigation and adaptation tool by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Yasuni National Park, Ecuador
