When Climate Demands New Goals: From Resistance to Resilience to Transformation

The two biggest challenges for conservation in light of climate change are:  1) quantifying the benefits of nature as a buffer protecting vulnerable people and 2) knowing when our conservation plans and goals need to be totally reworked in the face of changing climate.  The Nature Conservancy has begun to address both of these questions and uncovered lessons that warrant serious attention.  First, if we consider cost-benefits and jobs, it appears that the restoration of damaged coastal ecosystems could be a win-win for people and storm protection. Second, there is a real reluctance on the part of conservationists to face some of the realities of climate change, and consider radically reshaping their management goals for species and for ecosystems. Preliminary though these findings may be -they point the way to what should be research and management priorities going forward.