Assessing Community Responses to Climate Change and Impacts to Biodiversity: A 3-year study in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Date: Monday, July 24, 2023 | 3:15 – 3:30 PM
Venue: AD 12

Overview

Climate change has direct impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity, but may also indirectly impact nature through human adaptation responses which are less understood. Through its thematic working group, Managing Global Change Impacts on Biodiversity (GCI), the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG)  has documented coping responses of human communities to climate change in 11 African countries (Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe) and the potential impacts of these responses on biodiversity to provide knowledge that can guide adaptation strategies towards improving conservation outcomes under future climatic conditions. Together with communities, ABCG has identified options, prioritized and initiated on the ground projects to address climate-driven impacts on livestock, agriculture and fisheries communities. 

The session will discuss this new conservation planning approach and methodology being used to co-identify and co-design nature-based actions to improve the resilience of people and nature to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.

Evelyn Namvua, Communications and Engagement Specialist, Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group; Nikhil Advani, PhD – Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Director – Climate, Communities and Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund; David Williams, African Wildlife Foundation; Chris Zganjar