Climate Change and the Biodiversity Nexus
Climate change is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges that we are facing globally and it is a rapidly growing threat to biodiversity and development in Africa. The rapid rate at which biodiversity loss is taking place further reduces the resilience of both nature and people.
This discussion kicked off day 5 of the IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress. The high- level panel session on ‘Climate Change and the Biodiversity Nexus’ discussed the strong linkages between climate change and biodiversity bringing out the fact that the two cannot be addressed in isolation but rather need to be viewed as one supporting the other.
The key message at the heart of the panel was that Protected and Conserved Areas should be at the center of climate solutions that support biodiversity. They play a crucial role in the maintenance of essential ecosystem services that can increase resistance, and resilience and reduce the vulnerability of livelihoods against climate change.
Another key message that came to the forefront is that effective and equitable management of protected and conserved areas can underpin a more sustainable and resilient global economy with net zero emissions and contribute substantially to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The panel also highlighted how crucial it is for communities that live in, around protected, and conserved areas to be fully be included by national governments in policy-making, implementation, and benefit sharing as they are the ones who possess the true understanding of the benefits that can be derived from protecting these ecosystems.
