Native woodland adaptation to climate change has been identified as an area that needs further investigation. ClimateXChange’s work in this area has so far had three outputs:
A workshop on Native Woodlands Adaptation to Climate Change in August 2012. The workshop brought together key stakeholders to explore what we know about the risks to native woodlands from climate change, their capacity to respond, and appropriate management responses. It also considered the scope for providing greater support for woodland managers in relation to climate change, and outlined some of the key issues that will need to be addressed to enhance native woodlands’ adaptive capacity.
- An Issues Paper, which develops some of the ideas from the workshop in order to stimulate further discussion and promote agreement about what the further policy-making, management and research priorities should be. The Issues Paper sets out the main issues around: the consequences for native woodlands of climate change; their capacity to respond; and possible management strategies, and poses some open questions to stimulate discussion.
- A report exploring how the principles of the Flexible Adaptation Pathways approach could be applied to native woodland adaptation. The report lists a comprehensive set of options for biodiversity adaptation in Scottish native woodlands.
This presentation was given to a workshop organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development. It covers the purpose of the indicators and their relationship with policy development.
The workshop discussed a new framework for tracking the social impacts of efforts to adapt to climate change in Africa and South Asia.
Useful links
No-regret actions are cost-effective now and under a range of future climate scenarios and do no involve hard trade-offs with other policy objectives. Low-regret actions are relatively low cost and provide relatively large benefits under predicted future climates. Win-win actions contribute to adaptation whilst also having other social, economic and environmental policy benefits, including in relation to mitigation.
These types of actions can be identified across a range of sectors. For example, reducing leakage from water utility infrastructure can both improve water efficiency and help address drought risk.
The Scottish Government asked for a brief on no-regret, low-regret and win-win actions supported by some ‘on-the-ground’ examples that might be used in the Scottish Adaptation Programme to inspire similar actions.
Terminology needs to be clear, understood and inclusive both in research and policy documents. What is the best term to use to describe how we are responding to and managing the consequences of a changing climate?
This brief looks at how the term ‘adaptation’ is used and how appropriate it is in different contexts. This is particularly important in relation to communicating the impacts of climate change to the general public and for motivating action. The Scottish Government asked for this brief to stimulate thinking around the language that could be used in the Scottish Adaptation Programme.
This brief sets out key principles and features for a good adaptation strategy, based on an international review of adaptation strategies. The summary was provided to the Scottish Government as a follow up to the international review and to inform the development of the Scottish Adaptation Programme.