New $2 Million network to help threatened ecosystems and societies adapt to the impacts of climate change

MarketWatch: Recognizing the significant impacts climate change is already having on both nature and people, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced it is providing $2 million to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to develop a new Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network. The Network will serve as a resource for conservation groups, governments, international agencies, and others working to make vulnerable ecosystems more resilient and help human communities adapt sensibly to changing climates.

"The scale and urgency of climate change demands global cooperation and innovation to help animal and human populations adapt to our changing planet," said Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation. "Mitigation is a necessary but insufficient response. We can no longer afford to dismiss adaptation as 'giving in' or worry that it will reduce incentives for addressing the root causes of climate changes. This creative new network will nurture the emerging field of adaptation science, helping to build knowledge and catalyze new ideas."

…The Network will take a targeted, localized approach to climate change adaptation, focusing initially on the developing world, where climate impacts are generally more acute and response capacity more limited. Climate change assessments funded by the MacArthur Foundation have already been carried out in eight hotspots in the developing world, providing a starting point for addressing biodiversity adaptation challenges in those regions. Projects include using geographical information systems to determine how a rise in sea level will impact coastal ecosystems and communities in the Caribbean, Madagascar, and Melanesia, and developing models to determine how specific species' elevational distribution will change in the Andes, the Himalayas, and Africa's Albertine Rift. The Network will organize similar assessments in other parts of the world to develop critical baseline information for prioritizing adaptation needs…..