Adaptation 2009
Adaptation 2009: Safeguarding Fish, Wildlife and Natural Systems in the Face of Climate Change, was convened by the Wildlife Habitat Policy Research Program (WHPRP) and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) on February 18-19, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, DC.
Participants included more than 130 professionals working on management, policy and research related to wildlife and climate change. These leading “thinkers and doers” came from across the U.S., representing a broad diversity of expertise and balanced participation by non-governmental organizations, federal and state agencies, academia, and the private sector.
The conference breakouts were organized around four major natural systems, including: forests, grasslands and shrublands, freshwater ecosystems, and coasts and estuaries. The "Adpatation 2009" conference made significant progress toward meeting its objectives:
Conference Objectives:
1. Demonstrate progress in research, management and policy approaches to climate change adaptation for wildlife and natural systems, and identify unmet needs.
2. Identify priority management and policy changes required at national and state levels to enable natural resource agencies to address climate change.
3. Develop estimates of the scale of adaptation funding required to safeguard fish, wildlife and natural systems in a warming world.
4. Connect leading thinkers in conservation practice and science with top experts on climate impacts and adaptation to foster knowledge sharing and networking.
This document provides a synthesized version of the “nuts-and-bolts” of what happened at Adaptation 2009.
A series of five fact sheets that summarize major findings coming out of the Adaptation 2009 Conference.
Pre-Conference Materials:
To ensure that all participants started with a common foundation of information, discussion drafts and executive summaries of two reports were provided. These included a literature review conducted by NWF, as well as a survey of 68 professionals in the field, conducted by Defenders of Wildlife, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and NWF. The two related documents assessed the current status of understanding of climate change adaptation for natural systems and efforts already being put into practice.
Sponsors:
Adaptation 2009 was made possible through generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
