Nature needs us to do more to cope with climate change

Different news on climate change: a new climate risk assessment for the UK is published today, by the Committee on Climate Change. Yes, it’s rather gloomy reading – yet also a spur to action.  There’s a lot that we can do to avert the worst of the problems,  we just need to  get on with it. And doing so is a good investment – it’ll cost us a lot less now, than if we put things off into the future.

Nature has been telling us to crack on with adaptation for some years now. Our animals and plants have shown a clear climate signal going back 30 years.  The new report reinforces this urgency across our  society and infrastructure - and highlights six areas needing more action for nature.

First up, we need to address the vulnerability of species and habitats to changing climatic conditions. The CCC recommends more action to reduce existing pressures, improve the size and condition of habitats, restore degraded ecosystems, and deliver coherent ecological networks. This is core nature conservation really – but factoring climate change into conservation planning and site management, as well as just thinking about the present day. 

It also reinforces a focus on our special sites for nature – bigger, better, more and more connected – sites are needed, as Sir John Lawton recognised in his influential 2010 report. This is a mantra we’ve taken to heart at the RSPB – and not just for our nature reserves, but also for wider conservation action across the landscapes in which our reserves sit. Our UK protected areas are a cornerstone of nature conservation and they are proving their worth in adapting to climate change too: places for species to colonise in the general advance north, havens for wildlife facing increasingly adverse conditions at the southern end of their ranges, and effective nature ‘factories’ with healthy populations producing lots of dispersing individuals to occupy new areas of climate suitability.

Today we have an effective site network across Europe, a legislative requirement through the Nature Directives. You’ll have read elsewhere our work to maintain this across Europe and now we must also ensure that we retain the UK’s commitment to our part of the network, as Brexit raises questions about whether we leave the conservation safety net of the European community.

Next, some good news: opportunities from colonising species. We’re already seeing black-winged stilts and little bitterns arriving on RSPB wetlands reserves, among other places in southern England. Yet colonisation is much broader that a handful of iconic bird species arriving in our country: it’s also part and parcel of the northward shift of nature, which is already lagging behind the advance of changing climate conditions. No surprise then that CCC report calls for more action to deliver coherent ecological networks to assist species colonising new areas, and also to factor climate change into conservation planning and site management. 

Both habitats and heritage in the coastal zone are vulnerable to sea level rise and the report reinforces that we need more managed realignment of coastlines, and more compensatory habitat for protected areas lost to the sea.  Both these activities can also help to protect people and communities from flooding, so there are wider benefits for people too. We need around 10% of England's coastline realigned in this way by 2030 - yet achieving this requires a five-fold increase in the rate of activity, to around 30 km each year.  

Managed realignment protecting a Protected Area for internationally important freshwater habitat, from increasing impacts from the sea: Titchwell nature reserve, Norfolk  © Mike Page

Flooding also needs to be addressed inland, too. The report identifies risks of current land management practices exacerbating flood risk, sometime supported by short-sighted subsidies.  Catchment scale planning and wider uptake of natural flood management in high-risk catchments are recommended, especially where there are likely to be carbon storage, water quality and biodiversity benefits.

The two further highlighted areas may not be as front of mind, yet nevertheless fundamental to good environmental management. Soils are at risk both from increased seasonal aridity and wetness. We need more action to reduce existing pressures on soils, implement soil conservation measures more widely, and restore degraded soils. Finally, the CCC calls for greater focus on carbon stores and carbon sequestration, with particular focus on our peatlands. 

It’s almost disappointing that there’s little new in these six highlighted areas for more action to adapt to climate change. They are all things we know about. So for me, the report highlights that we are already doing most of the right things to help nature cope with climate change: we just need to do a lot more.  And that is a very important message as this unique period of political flux offers opportunities amongst all the questions: we need more attention and proper resources for nature. We’ll be fighting for that, as ever.