Adaptive management of natural habitats

Biodiversity provides a wide range of ecosystem services (provisioning, regulation and maintenance, cultural services) which are essential for the human well-being. Among the others, these services play an important role in regulating the climate, thus making a key contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, human activities are responsible for growing pressures and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, and climate change is expected to massively intensify these threats leading to:

• Changes in species abundance and distribution, also as a consequence of modification and loss (e.g. due to sea level rise) of habitats;
• Changes in phenology which may lead to loss of synchrony between species;
• Changes in community composition (changes in the types and abundance of species in an ecosystem due to their varying ability to adapt to shifting conditions caused by climate change);
• Changes in ecosystem processes, functions and services;

Conserving biodiversity and maintaining the nature’s capacity to deliver goods and services is global priority. Given the interconnectedness of biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate change, addressing their impacts in holistic way is crucial for effective conservation. A crucial aspect is adopting an ecosystem-based approach to climate change adaptation and mainstreaming  nature-based solutions in development and conservation policies.

Resilient ecosystems and their related services depend on complex interactions between species and the environment. These interactions are very dynamic and often involve non-linear processes. Managing biodiversity and habitats also requires considering various influencing factors, such as potential climate impacts, evolving socio-economic pressures, and their associated uncertainties. This shift from a static conservation perspective to an adaptive management approach is emphasized in the “Guidelines on climate change and Natura 2000”. The Natura 2000 network, including over 27,000 sites and more than 1 million of km², underscores the importance of adaptive management of natural habitats for these protected areas and the territory they are part of.

Adaptive management of ecosystems and socio-ecological systems is an iterative process that combines management actions with targeted monitoring. This ongoing learning approach, aims to enhance the adaptive capacity of impacted habitats and endangered species of plants and animals. In the context of climate change, adaptive management involves: (i) the analysis of knowledge of potential climate impacts and associated uncertainty, (ii) the design of actions to cope with such impacts, (iii) the monitoring of climate-sensitive species, habitat, ecosystem services and processes to evaluate management effectiveness, and (iv) the redesign and implementation of improved (or new) management actions. For an effective adaptive management of natural systems under climate change conditions, the following strategies shall be taken in consideration:

• Understand natural processes: Understand that natural processes are dynamic and that species are expected to respond individually to climate change effects. Thus, habitat management needs to be flexible, adaptive and specific.
• Adapt conservation priorities: Respond to changing conservation priorities (due to climate change) and learn from experiences at local, regional, national and international levels by adapting conservation targets, mechanisms and plans.
• Mainstream adaptive management: Mainstream the principles of adaptive management of natural habitats within other management plans and land use strategies. This will enable or support the natural development of climate resilient ecosystems, and promote the services they can provide also in the perspective of climate change adaptation.
• Engage stakeholders: Engage relevant stakeholders to illustrate and discuss consequences of different management options for species and ecosystems, also highlighting effects on ecosystem services. An early and transparent stakeholder engagement can increase the acceptance of adaptive management actions for natural habitats that may create some limitations, such as fisheries restriction, restoration of forests or changes in mountain pasture management (e.g. changes in mowing time).
• Monitor results: Establish targeted monitoring of climate change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (e.g. assessing species abundance, migration processes, changes in phenology, etc.) and integrate monitoring results into management processes in order to continually improve decisions.

Commonly recognised actions for adaptive management of natural habitats include:

• Enhancing ecological networks for conservation. An ecological network for conservation (see the Climate-ADAPT adaptation option Improve the functional connectivity of ecological networks) is a system of core habitats connected by ecological corridors, established and restored as needed, to preserve biodiversity in fragmented ecosystems (IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 30). This is particularly important as climate change may induce species to migrate in search of suitable habitats for survival. Ecological networks can be enhanced by expanding, restoring, connecting and preserving core habitats from current and future threats. The establishment and management of protected areas, along with other Effective Area-based Conservation measures (OECMs), plays a key role in preserving ecological networks by protecting ecosystems vulnerable to multiple pressures, including climate change. They also help to protect ecosystems that may naturally buffer specific climate change impacts. For example, in marine and coastal environments, restoration and preservation of seagrasses, saltmarshes, corals and mangroves is relevant for fighting erosion and for attenuating incoming wave energy. Green and blue infrastructure supports the improvement of ecosystem connectivity, especially in urban and sub-urban areas.

• Identifying and protecting key ecological features for ecosystem restoration. The protection of key ecological features requires a landscape- based approach for the management of structural habitat characteristics (e.g forest seral stages), critical habitats (e.g fish spawning sites), and species that play important functional roles (Thurman et al 2024). Key ecological features may relate to a species or community (e.g. a predator that impacts a large biomass or number of species), or to an important habitat type (e.g. that supports high productivity or aggregations of nesting or breeding animals).
• Identifying and protecting Climate Change Refugia. Climate change Refugia are areas characterized by stable local climatic and environmental conditions that persist over time, despite changes at regional and global scales (Ashcroft et al., 2012). While methods for identifying marine refugia are still evolving, they typically rely on climate data, topographic information and the presence of relict species populations that were once more widely distributed (IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 24). In the Mediterranean, Greek researchers have developed a method for identifying refugia, based on large-scale climate stability and small-scale climatic variability within landscapes (Doxa et al.,2022, Science for Environment Policy news article).

• Support gene flow: Promoting genetic diversity may be vital for enhance species’ adaptive capacity, especially when considering species translocation (introduction, re-introduction or restocking) and/or ex-situ conservation. However, species translocation should be carefully evaluated based on long-term risks, social acceptance, and legal constraints.

Establishing a comprehensive monitoring program is essential to track the effectiveness and potential impacts of such measures.