Climate change is happening now. People and nature around the world already feel its impacts.
Today, climate change threatens to cause famine, submerge coastal cities under rising seas, turn some of our most productive farmlands into dust, and cause record-breaking heatwaves in urban areas.
Some of the changes may continue for centuries, even if our carbon emissions dramatically stopped today.
But there is hope. We can take action now.
In nearly every community where The Nature Conservancy works, we can help nature become more resilient. Known as adaptation, this combination of management, restoration, and protection strategies will help prepare places, plants, animals—and people—for climate change.
Successful adaptation of living systems—such as lakes and rivers, coral reefs, forests, and grasslands—can help ensure their ability to support the needs of people and to better withstand future changes.
When we help nature we are actually helping ourselves.
Helping People and Nature
The Nature Conservancy develops science-based adaptation strategies that work in real places to safeguard habitats around the world, and ensure that the habitats continue to provide for the people who rely on them.
The Conservancy will:
- Build collaborations to test and demonstrate adaptation strategies that work in real places.
- Translate lessons learned from our work into practical guidance for the efforts of others.
- Partner with academics and other research institutions to create tools—like Climate Wizard—that make data and model projections more easily accessible.
- Create pilot projects that help regions and nations develop their own adaptation plans.
Adaptation and Legislation
If we are going to change the pace and severity of climate change, the world’s leaders need to act.
The Nature Conservancy believes that all levels of government must implement policies and funding that support ecosystem-based strategies and that help the natural world and human communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Want More?
Explore Climate Change: Adaptation 101 to hear from the experts and find out why the Conservancy is a global leader in adaptation strategies.
Or visit our adaptation projects in places like North Carolina, the Coral Triangle, Australia and around the world.
Climate change picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Chris Helzer (Nebraska sunrise); Photo © Scott Warren (planting trees); Photo © Bill Kamin (icebergs); Photo © Barry Baker/TNC (scientists); Photo © Ross Geredien (caribou).
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