This post was written by Dr Olly Watts, Senior Climate Change Policy Officer
Telescopes and binoculars from fifteen European BirdLife partner organisations were trained on two lammergeiers, or bearded vultures, roosting high on the cliff face of a quiet Alpine valley as dusk fell. We’d come to Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy to make headway in building climate change adaptation into our nature conservation activities across Europe.
Learning about the severity and speed of climate change was sobering to many participants – we have just 17 years at current greenhouse gas pollution levels before we exceed the carbon budget likely to keep us below the 2°C warming threshold. As our own report showed last December, wildlife across Europe is already being affected by climate change. This gathering focused on the positives, the things we can do, and that are being done, to meet the challenge of climate change for nature and for people.
That intertwining, of doing things for nature and at the same time for people, came out strongly in a series of case studies of current action. We learned about adaptation with agriculture in Turkey, with improved flood control along rivers in Belgium, across a mosaic of Mediterranean landscapes in Italy, with wetlands in Slovakia, and on nature reserves across the UK.
A field excursion showed us how rare ibex are faring with climate change, with long-term research by the University of Pavia. Populations initially benefitted from warmer winters, but more recently have fallen because the rich flush of meadow grass is arriving earlier in the season, and the young are now born after it has passed its best. Added to this, hotter summers are causing ibex to move higher in the mountains, where grazing is poorer.
From discussions and ideas hatched at the workshop, we’re planning to develop a small number of large scale adaptation projects involving several partners. We’re aiming to improve our knowledge about how species may use Important Bird Areas across Europe in the future, so we can plan for the species distribution shifts that are already starting to happen. And we’ll continue to learn from each other, across our continent, and work together and in partnerships to develop adaptation as it becomes an increasingly necessary part of the way we do things.
From the small specks of two rather large birds high in the mountains, to partnerships developing adaptation activities across thousands of hectares across Europe for birds and for people. A reminder that our national boundaries are irrelevant to birds and our work often has to transcend them – likely increasingly so as climate change shifts species distribution across countries, even continents.
That this was a very positive meeting even in the face of considerable challenges shows that working together, building relationships and partnerships through our BirdLife partners across Europe, really helps wildlife, people and our environment.
Team work helps
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