Reconsidering Conservation Goals in Light of Climate Change

Clear and appropriate goals are essential for successful climate adaptation, as with conservation more generally. Conservation practitioners are often eager to move immediately from an assessment of climate impacts and vulnerabilities to deliberation about strategies and management actions that might ameliorate those impacts. Without pausing to reconsider whether existing goals and objectives continue to make sense given the projected impacts, the resulting actions may not produce meaningful and enduring climate adaptation benefits, or may even be counterproductive. Revising goals, whether in subtle or substantial ways, may or may not be needed; asking the question, however, is essential. This talk will review the importance of reconsidering conservation goals in adaptation planning, and describe a process for carrying out such a climate-informed review focusing on a reconsideration of the what, why, where, and when of goals and objectives. In particular, considering the spatial and temporal aspects of goals and objectives helps to more clearly identify the suitability of various landscape-scale conservation actions. Indeed, well-articulated, climate-informed goals are the foundation for identifying, evaluating, and selecting suitable adaptation strategies and actions, and for measuring the effectiveness of those actions.