The Ecological Society of America (ESA) released a position statement: Ecosystem Management in a Changing Climate at approximately the same time that the Wilderness Network put out a report Climate Disruption and Connectivity, already reviewed here. The two overlap, but ESA presents a wider range of issues though in less detail than WN. In fact, ESA gives suggestions for limiting climate change, before it gives suggestions for adapting to climate change.
Under limitation or mitigation, the statement notes that management strategies can help limit climate change either by accelerating the uptake of carbon or by preventing the release of stored carbon; but it warns that the less that strategies alter natural environments the better. Low-alteration strategies should be top priority. Management-intensive strategies must be critically evaluated. The ecological implications of geo-engineering must be recognized; and long-term risks of actions must be taken into consideration.
Adaptation strategies should include taking additional steps to protect water quality and quantity, enabling natural species to migrate across human-dominated landscapes, improving the capacity to predict extreme events such as wildfires and major storms, and managing collaboratively at the ecosystem level.
To a conservationist, ESA’s statement seems eminently sensible. One can only hope that the principles will be followed, and that the statement will turn out to be more than a wish list. Representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and abroad, the society has a better chance than many of impacting policy.
The Ecological Society of America’s statement is available at http://www.esa.org/pao/policyStatements/pdfDocuments/Ecosystem%20Management%20in%20a%20Changing%20Climate.pdf in a Changing Climate.pdf.
–Mary Byrd Davis
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