Chapter 1
Natural Heritage at Risk by Climate Change
Sven Rannow, Marco Neubert, and Lars Stratmann
1.1 Climate Change as a Threat to Habitat Diversity
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC 2007a) clearly underlined the existing trend of climate change. It projected
future developments with dramatic impacts, such as increasing temperature,
changes in both amount and distribution of precipitation, change of the climatic
water balance, and the increasing occurrences of extreme events.
These changes will have serious impacts on nature (IPCC 2007b) and endanger
the natural heritage that is protected within nature reserves, national parks, biosphere reserves or other protection categories. These facts are already recognised on
a European policy level: “Climate change has the potential, over a period of a few
decades, to undermine our efforts for the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity” (European Commission 2006, p. 13).
Current discussions connected to climate change often focus on the prevention or
mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Even though mitigation of climate change is
of utmost importance, protected area administrations as well as nature protection
authorities also need support on the political (administration) as well as on the
practical level (management) in order to cope with climate change and their adaptation to it. To preserve ecosystems, habitats, and species, as well as their goods and
services, for society under changing climatic conditions it is recommended to:
• identify potential climate change and land use-induced threats;
• model regional climate change effects and their potential impacts on protected
areas (see Chaps. 2 and 3);
• evaluate existing management practices;
S. Rannow • M. Neubert (*) • L. Stratmann
Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development,
Weberplatz 1, 01217 Dresden, Germany
e-mail: sven.rannow@gmx.de; m.neubert@ioer.de; l.stratmann@ioer.de
S. Rannow and M. Neubert (eds.), Managing Protected Areas in Central
and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change, Advances in Global Change Research 58,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7960-0_1, © The Author(s) 2014
3
Natural Heritage at Risk by Climate Change
Sven Rannow, Marco Neubert, and Lars Stratmann
1.1 Climate Change as a Threat to Habitat Diversity
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC 2007a) clearly underlined the existing trend of climate change. It projected
future developments with dramatic impacts, such as increasing temperature,
changes in both amount and distribution of precipitation, change of the climatic
water balance, and the increasing occurrences of extreme events.
These changes will have serious impacts on nature (IPCC 2007b) and endanger
the natural heritage that is protected within nature reserves, national parks, biosphere reserves or other protection categories. These facts are already recognised on
a European policy level: “Climate change has the potential, over a period of a few
decades, to undermine our efforts for the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity” (European Commission 2006, p. 13).
Current discussions connected to climate change often focus on the prevention or
mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Even though mitigation of climate change is
of utmost importance, protected area administrations as well as nature protection
authorities also need support on the political (administration) as well as on the
practical level (management) in order to cope with climate change and their adaptation to it. To preserve ecosystems, habitats, and species, as well as their goods and
services, for society under changing climatic conditions it is recommended to:
• identify potential climate change and land use-induced threats;
• model regional climate change effects and their potential impacts on protected
areas (see Chaps. 2 and 3);
• evaluate existing management practices;
S. Rannow • M. Neubert (*) • L. Stratmann
Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development,
Weberplatz 1, 01217 Dresden, Germany
e-mail: sven.rannow@gmx.de; m.neubert@ioer.de; l.stratmann@ioer.de
S. Rannow and M. Neubert (eds.), Managing Protected Areas in Central
and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change, Advances in Global Change Research 58,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7960-0_1, © The Author(s) 2014
3