Beyond IPCC Scenarios:Synergies Between Climate Adaptation and Mitigation

at Management- and Policy- Relevant Scales.

Biodiversity

Global Landscapes Forum | Warsaw 2013

Shahid Naeem

Columbia University in the City of New York

Three Central Biodiversity Issues

1. Ecosystem services and biodiversity

2. Functional biodiversity and climate change

3. Bio-ecological adaptation

(in 12 minutes)

Why Does Biodiversity Matter?

The Millennium AssessmentPerspective

Biodiversity →Ecosystem Function →

Ecosystem Service →Human Well-being

Over 20 years of research.

Lin, B. B., D. Flynn, D. Bunker, M. Uriarte, &S. Naeem 2011 J. Applied Ecology

1 of 5: Native vegetation has greater capacity to provide ecosystem services under changing environmental conditions..

Meha J., C. M. Prager, D. F.B. Flynn, G. M. Hart, C. M. DeVan, M. I. Palmer, F. S. Ahrestani, D. E. Bunker, & S. Naeem. (In Press 2014) Evolutionary Ecology

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2 of 5: Rare species can substitute for common species: Biological insurance.

Bunker, D. E., F. DeClerck, J. C. Bradford, R. K. Colwell, I. Perfecto, O. L. Phillips, M. Sankaran, and S. Naeem. 2005. Species Loss and Aboveground Carbon Storage in a Tropical Forest. Science 310:1029-1031.

3 of 5: Biodiverse systems, on average, store more carbon and do so more reliably.

4 of 5: Biodiversity is multidimensional.

Zavaleta et al. PNAS 2009

5 of 5: More functions and services need more species.

If you keep loosing spices, eventually curry is just salt

If you keep loosing parts, eventually all you have is junk

If you keep loosing species, eventually ecosystems collapse

http://blog.ecoagriculture.org/2012/10/03/broa/

If you keep losing biodiversity, eventually ecosystems (farms, forests, grasslands,

rangelands, gardens,…) collapse

• become less efficient,

• exhibit lower levels of functioning,

• deliver fewer services,

• become less reliable (more unpredictable, more variable),

• less resilient,

• and eventually the pillars of human well-being decline

• with the poor and vulnerable being the first to experience the adverse consequences biotic impoverishment.

UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Thematic Group 8

Forests, Oceans, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Serviceshttp://unsdsn.org/thematicgroups/tg8/

Synergies Between Climate Change and Biodiversity at the Landscape Level

• The Message: Diverse systems are more efficient and resilient

– 20 years of research

– scientific consensus

– not a hypothesis; a guiding principle

Synergies Between Climate Change and Biodiversity at the Landscape Level

• Biodiversity" is not about species richness

• nor is it just about conservation biology

• clarify what biodiversity is

• focus on functional, genetic, and landscape diversity

Synergies Between Climate Change and Biodiversity at the Landscape Level

• The Convention on Biological Diversity and the UNFCCC create confusion. Countries sign on to international agreements that lack integration and miss opportunities for synergy

–Generate a set of coherent guidelines

– the CBD, IPCC, REDD+, SDSN, CDM, and SDGs create a complex landscape that is difficult to navigate – let’s provide a roadmap.