Climate change - adapting with nature, not against it!
The highest priority for action needs to be the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (through less consumption of and higher efficiency in energy use in all sectors, sustainable development of renewable energy and the protection of carbon sinks like forests and wetlands).
However, even if the most effective measures were taken now without delay, a certain degree of rapid and significant climate change is already unavoidable. In order for people and nature to come well through this unprecendented crisis it is essential to increase the ability of ecosystems to adapt, and to accommodate the need of species and habitats to move into areas with more suitable climatic conditions. In order to achieve this, BirdLife strongly promotes the following key measures:
- increasing efforts in addressing the existing threats to species, sites and habitats, in particular through the full and swift implementation of conservation legislation, like the EU Birds and Habitats Directives and Natura 2000;
- integration of biodiversity conservation into all relevant sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, energy, regional and transport policies etc.); the European Union's action plan to halt biodiversity by 2010 and beyond, needs to be urgently implemented at all levels;
- improving the connectivity and coherence of protected areas networks, like Natura 2000, and where necessary increasing protected areas in number and size;
- improving the "permeability" of the landscape in general, in particular by making land-use (policies) more biodiversity friendly; the reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy into a sustainable Rural Development policy is a key element;
- all climate change adaptation measures, such as flood defence, land-use changes etc. must support, rather than weaken the resilience and diversity of ecosystems - otherwise the problems only get worse, postponed or displaced.
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