• The State of Marine and Coastal Adaptation in North America: A synthesis of emerging ideas
  

EcoAdapt has initiated what is thought to be the first comprehensive survey and assessment of coastal and marine climate change adaptation activities and projects in continental North America. We are looking at past, current, and proposed activities and preparing a synthesis report of the state of coastal and marine adaptation action in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the goal of facilitating and inspiring the use of adaptation tools as creative new approaches to resource management. This project's findings will be featured on the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE), an online adaptation destination, which is described in detail below. These efforts are supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

For regular updates on this project, please visit our blog at: http://climate-adaptation.blogspot.com/.

Please share your marine and coastal climate change adaptation experience with us, either by sending an e-mail to adaptationsurvey@EcoAdapt.org, or taking a 10 minute online survey. Look for us at major marine and coastal conservation conferences in 2010 for innovative workshops on climate change adaptation.

• Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)- Your Online Adaptation Destination

Expected Launch Summer 2010: www.cakex.org (Visit now for a peek at the thinking behind the site)

The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) is a joint effort by EcoAdapt and Island Press to create an innovative community of practice on climate change adaptation. CAKE is intended to support individuals interested in developing the discipline of adaptation to climate change by:


• Facilitating the identification of important information and its accessibility
• Building a community via an interactive online platform
• Connecting practitioners to share knowledge and strategies
• Networking with other relevant materials around the web.

CAKE will support the changes that conservation has to make to keep up with the changing planet. CAKE is an online adaptation destination that provides:


• Detailed case studies of adaptation efforts already underway
• A directory of adaptation-interested people
• A virtual library of resources that can support your adaptation efforts
• Advice for conservation and information exchange
• Postings about upcoming events, job opportunities, and relevant deadlines
• Links to the tools, data, and other portals that are available to support and build the adaptation community

Supported by the Kresge Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CAKE is partnering with a full spectrum of other programs and organizations.

• Building Adaptation into Western North American Conservation

With support from the Wilburforce Foundation, EcoAdapt is working to catalyze, support and synthesize adaptation efforts by Wilburforce grantees and in the broader conservation community of western North America. This includes five main activities for 2009/2010:

1. A survey of terrestrial adaptation efforts to date in western U.S. states and Canadian provinces to coordinate with the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Environment (CAKE- see above),
2. Network building for western state adaptation efforts,
3. Support of Alaska grantee adaptation efforts through collaboration in two regional workshops with Wilburforce, the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy and the Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning (held in July 2000),
4. Rapid analysis of adaptation strategies with the Yellowstone to Yukon initiative; and
5. A climate camp to facilitate adaptation effort development in British Columbia.

• Climate Savvy: Conservation and Resource Management in a Changing World

With the support of the Kresge Foundation, EcoAdapt’s adaptation experts are writing Climate Savvy: Adapting Conservation and Resource Management to a Changing World, an overview of approaches and tools for assessing and reducing vulnerability to climate change. The book provides a framework for practitioners to evaluate options and settle on the most appropriate option for their organization and setting, and includes a discussion of philosophical as well as practical issues involved in adapting conservation and natural resource management to climate change. Graduate-level and upper division undergraduate classes will find it a useful and timely textbook.

• From Planning to Action: Advancing Climate Change Adaptation for Florida's Coral Reefs

EcoAdapt is working to improve the sustainability of Florida’s coral reefs by leading the development of a Florida Coral Reef Climate Change Action Plan with key partners. When climate change impacts are combined with current traditional coral reef threats, such as comprised water quality, boat groundings, and overfishing, it becomes clear that resource managers need creative adaptation management strategies to cope with compounding stresses the changing climate will bring. Our goal is to create a plan that will build resilience for coral reefs while the magnitude of climate change is addressed through greenhouse gas reductions in Florida, the United States, and throughout the world. The success of this Action Plan is based on our partners and stakeholders within the Florida Reef Resilience Program, (www.FRRP.org). This work is supported by the Royal Caribbean Ocean Fund.

• Assessing Implications of Global Climate Change for Mountain Gorillas in the Albertine Rift

The Virunga Bwindi region hosts the world’s only remaining population of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), one of the most critically endangered species on earth. Over the past three decades and more, intensive research efforts have yielded a wealth of information about the ecology and biology of this species yet little is known about the likely impacts of climate change on the mountain gorilla.

 

With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, EcoAdapt joins its partners, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP) to coordinate and implement a multinational effort to reduce the vulnerability of mountain gorillas and ensure that this unique species and its habitat persist through the inevitable changes anticipated as a result of climate change.

 

Look for the final report after June, 2010, on the IGCP web page http://www.igcp.org/.