Climate Change and Biodiversity: Our Work

The Climate Change and Biodiversity pages are currently being updated and re-designed. The new pages will be online in June 2009.

Bufo periglenes - the golden toad. This species' extinction has been attributed to climate change. © Charles Smith, US Fish and Wildlife Service

UNEP-WCMC aims to put authoritative knowledge on biodiversity and climate change at the heart of decision-making, enabling better links between the climate and biodiversity policy worlds. There is an urgent need for accessible information on the likely impacts of climate change on biodiversity. As measures to address climate change and cope with its effects are increasingly deployed, it is also critical to analyse their possible benefits and risks to biodiversity and ecosystem services. UNEP-WCMC works with a wide range of partners, including members of the Cambridge Conservation Forum climate change group. We are now actively developing projects, seeking new partners and looking for support in order to use our resources in the unfolding debate.

The current priority areas at UNEP-WCMC are:

• Supporting the development of equitable mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries (RED-DC). A successful mechanism could increase the resources available to support forest conservation and sustainable use while supporting people dependent on forest ecosystems
• Supporting countries’ decision making in relation to RED-DC mechanisms and their implementation
• Supporting analysis, modelling and mapping of the potential impacts of biofuel production on biodiversity, in order to minimise negative impacts and to support the development of sustainability criteria.
• Supporting the synthesis and uptake of guidance on practical adaptation to climate change in biodiversity conservation.
• Supporting the sharing and appropriate use of biodiversity data and models in assessing potential impacts of climate change

Polar bears on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea. © Steve Amstrup, US Fish and Wildlife Service

For further information, please contact:Barney.dickson@unep-wcmc.org