Notes |
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is:
1. Commissioning and supporting scientific research to further our understanding of the likely impacts of climate change on plant and animal species and their habitats, on geological/geomorphological processes, and on the functioning of ecological systems at the landscape scale.
2. Establishing relationships with relevant climate change programmes in governmental and non-governmental organisations in the UK and overseas; where appropriate, seeking to influence the direction of research in these programmes and ensuring complementarity with our own programme.
3. Using the results of scientific research to adapt nature conservation policy and practice to the immediate challenges created by climate change, and strengthening the case for planning the long-term conservation of species and their habitats over wide geographic areas, including: highlighting the critical importance of designated nature conservation sites (international, national and local) in accommodating the ecological effects of climate change; these sites have a crucial role to play in allowing the geographical ranges of species to alter in response to climate change, since it is unlikely to be practicable to retain all of the pre-existing features unchanged; reinforcing the need for approaches to nature conservation management which can accommodate ecological change, both within designated sites and in the wider countryside, in particular providing effective ecological links between areas of semi-natural habitat to facilitate the movement of species as climate changes; working through the country nature conservation agencies to raise awareness of the potential impacts of climate change on coastal habitats, on coastal and marine geomorphological processes, and for the conservation of coastal geological features; promoting the inclusion of climate change impacts in the Biodiversity Action Plan process, especially the planned revision of UK targets in 2005, and in the development of nature conservation objectives;
raising awareness within the nature conservation community, government and other key sectors of the significance of climate change for species and their habitats, and identifying how and when to adapt our approach to nature conservation to reflect future changes; advocating an increase in the level of support for species and habitat management under agri-environment schemes to accommodate the impacts of climate change, and the extension of such schemes to provide links between habitats within fragmented landscapes; producing practical guidance on managing the effects of climate change on species and their habitats, for example, the long-term sustainability of existing systems, the survival of threatened native species, the control of non-native species, the restoration of ecological damage following extreme weather, and the need for adaptive measures to accommodate inevitable geological/geomorphological and ecological changes.
4. Supporting policy measures and cultural changes to reduce the long-term emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and so help mitigate the effects of climate change in the second half of the 21st Century, in accord with sustainable development principles and in support of the Kyoto Protocol (Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. |
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