Climate change is an existential threat. Mostly framed around human existence, we cannot forget that threat extends to much more than humans. There are few, if any, species of life on Earth that will not be affected by climate change. Many already are. Conservation, with its key function of preserving the natural environment and all that lives within it, is inextricably linked to climate change. Conservation has a central role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation and adaptation exist in tandem in the response to climate change; our most effective responses require elements of each.
Mitigation
Conservation constitutes an integral part of climate change mitigation, before-the-fact actions we take to lessen the impact of climate change on ecosystems. A primary mitigation objective is the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; the transition to ‘net-zero emissions’ demanded by scientists worldwide. Towards this goal, conservation is essential for the protection of carbon sinks, or, ecosystems with the capacity to store significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Biodiversity and Climate Change reports that “about 2,500 gigatons of carbon is stored in terrestrial ecosystems,” such as forests and peatlands. In comparison, the quantity of atmospheric carbon is ~900 gigatons, meaning that carbon sinks currently store almost three times as much carbon as currently exists in the atmosphere. Conservation protects these vital ecosystems from deforestation and land clearing, which both prevents the release of additional emissions and enables these ecosystems to continue to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Concerning forests, two key components of forest conservation are reforestation and afforestation. In recent months, with tree-planting touted as an optimistic avenue for emissions reductions, a number of organisations have sought to increase the Earth’s tree coverage. A notable project is the Bonn Challenge, which intends to restore 350 million hectares – an area of land equivalent to half the size of Australia. AHTEG notes that growing forests have the “greatest potential” for carbon storage, making tree planting an essential mitigation effort for conservationists and citizens alike.
Land use interventions constitute another component of conservation with significant effects on climate change. Land trusts, of which conservation groups are key voices, participate in decision-making processes around the use of land. Through research and subsequent influence, conservation groups are able to ensure natural ecosystems are preserved, allowing natural mitigation processes to continue, or that land is used in a way conducive to emissions reduction.
At the community level, conservation plays an essential role in educating and engaging communities in efforts to preserve natural ecosystems. The flow-on effects of community education include influence on environmental and climate change policy, as well as greater efforts at the individual level to pressure corporate actors and governments to better protect the ecosystems we rely on for our survival.
Adaptation
With climate change already transforming the world we live in, our response must include adaptation measures in addition to mitigation. ‘Adaptation’ refers to the capacity of our society and the Earth’s ecosystems, which exist interrelatedly, to respond to already occurring climate changes. The consequences of these are far reaching; from the melting of sea ice at the North and South Poles, literally disappearing the habitats of polar-dwelling animals, to the warming of ocean temperatures, resulting in extreme coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. The role of conservation in climate change adaptation is paramount to the survival of much, if not all, of the world’s flora and fauna.
Conservation organisations contribute to coastal defence, or the maintenance and protection of coastal ecosystems, which offer natural resistance to flooding and erosion. As sea level rise already threatens low-lying communities, such as the Island Nations of the Pacific, conservation of these areas will become increasingly important. Nature-based approaches also eliminate the negative outcomes of infrastructural and technological mitigation measures, such as the construction of sea walls, which interfere with marine and coastal ecology.
Similarly, conservation protects natural water management systems. As climate change alters weather patterns, droughts are expected to become longer in duration, straining both ecosystems and agricultural environments in affected areas. This is already an observed trend; Australia’s central-eastern agricultural areas are experiencing their worst drought in a decade, while Africa and the US mid-west are in the grips of severe drought. Water is set to become an increasingly scarce resource. Conservation of waterways such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and floodplains is vital to preserve water supply to communities worldwide, and constitutes an important form of climate change adaptation.
With its focus on maintaining and working with the natural environment, conservation-based climate change adaptation is more accessible to rural and poor communities – communities who will bear the brunt of climate change’s worst outcomes, despite contributing significantly less to the problem in comparison to wealthy nations. This makes the contributions of conservation invaluable adaptation strategies for these communities, who can reduce the severity of climate change’s impact through maintenance of the natural environment, rather than relying on costly, resource-intensive infrastructural or technological measures.
All of this is, of course, barely a snapshot of the fundamental role conservation plays in climate change mitigation and adaptation. As the planet continues to warm, and the effects of climate change become more destructive and more far-reaching, today’s conservation practices will no doubt be challenged. For this reason, it is imperative that conservationists adapt to changing conditions in practice, remaining flexible to the needs of threatened ecosystems in order to best protect them.