Quick Guide to Climate-Smart Conservation

Climate change already is having significant impacts on the nation’s species and ecosystems, and these effects are projected to increase considerably over time. As a result, climate change is now a primary lens through which conservation and natural resource management must be viewed. How should we prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats? What should we be doing differently in light of these climatic shifts, and what actions continue to make sense?

This Quick Guide to Climate-Smart Conservation offers an introduction to designing and carrying out conservation in the face of a rapidly changing climate, including a high level summary of some of the key points emerging from the climate-smart guidance and a brief introduction to the four overarching themes, the key characteristics, and the steps of the climate-smart conservation cycle.