Climate Change Adaptation: Climate Adaptation Clinic

The Climate Adaptation Clinic was held in Salt Lake City, Utah in early September and 20 projects from around the Conservancy came together to develop climate adaptation strategies for their projects. The clinic consisted of five simultaneous "Efroymson" workshops and a total of fifty-one CAP coaches participated in the clinic as classroom facilitators or on project teams. The strength and versatility of the CAP coaches and the CAP process allowed us to conduct this big experiment in a systematic and effective way.

The workshop was a great success, climate adaptation strategies were indeed developed, but we also learned how early we are in our learning and exploration related to climate change as well as some improvements needed in our CAP methodology. One of the highlights of the clinic was a keynote presentation by Erika Zavaleta from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Her presentation and other post-clinic products can be found at: Beyond The Clinic - Continued Learning, Documents and Materials

Finally, the Climate Change CAP Guidance Document is also now available and updated with what we learned from the clinic. This document is written for experienced CAP pracitioners and outlines our current thinking on how to incorporate climate change considerations into a CAP. That guidance document as well as examples of conceptual models and "hypotheses of change" from the clinic projects can be found at: Climate Change Project-Level Guidance Document

This page retains information about the planning and prep-work that led to the Climate Adaptation Clinic for people who want to review what we did.

For up-to-date information about Climate Change Adaptation work at the Nature Conservancy, go to the "Workspace Home" page, and visit the other pages, blog postings and discussion on this site.

CLIMATE CLINIC PAGES

Climate Adaptation Clinic Projects - projects participating in the 2009 and their clinic proposals

Clinic Project Preparation - guidance on the process that project teams are going through to prepare for the clinic

Climate Adaptation Bibliography - papers, articles and resources.

September 2009 Logistic Details for Clinic Participants

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR - LET'S ADAPT!

How do we as conservation practitioners respond to climate change? How do we ensure that the conservation gains the Conservancy and our partners are making persist in a climate-uncertain future? Is there anything we can do now to hedge our bets and to make our conservation strategies more effective under climate change? The answer is yes. Such "climate adaptations" are emerging from conservation work going on today. Field projects and partners in all of the Conservancy's regions are discovering ways they can adjust their conservation goals, strategies, actions, and measures for climate change.

The fact is that we have made enough progress in this area to articulate a basic guiding framework - a set of probing questions or steps - that practitioners can apply to their conservation action plans (CAP) to make them more robust in the face of an uncertain climate1 (see Appendix I). Although still in an early stage, these guidelines are ready to be tested more broadly and improved by applying them across additional projects. And, many projects are ready to think more explicitly about how they can adapt.

THE CLINIC - EFROYMSON WORKSHOP x FIVE

So, imagine five simultaneous Peer-to-Peer Applied Learning Workshops or "Classes," held concurrently in one location where 20 projects from across the Conservancy's regions come together to test the CAP climate change adaptation guidelines. Projects arrive at the clinic with their existing strategies and leave with "climate adapted" conservation targets, strategies, actions, and measures.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES & PRODUCTS

Incorporate climate change adaptations and/or pilot adaptation projects into 20 conservation action plans for high-priority projects of The Nature Conservancy and our partners. Updated CAPs entered into ConPro.
Immediately incorporate the lessons learned from applying the guidelines to 20 projects into a second iteration of the guidance itself; that is, revise the guidance to reflect all cross-cutting lessons learned in the clinic.
Provide 10 experienced Efroymson facilitators and 5 "apprentice" facilitators with experience applying the CAP climate adaptation guidance to real projects, and who will be working with other projects and CAP coaches in their regions.
Expose project staff to climate adaptation planning. Approximately 80 project staff will gain experience applying the CAP climate adaptation guidance to projects.
Capture (document) more specific knowledge gained in each of the five classes and share that information with other similar projects across the Conservancy. Knowledge management "packages" of lessons learned from each class will be posted on the Conservation Gateway/Conserveonline and featured in internal communications such as @tnc, CAP coach's newsletter, and shared via webex or other e-learning venues.

LEARNING BEYOND THE CLINIC

The Climate Clinic is part of a broader effort, led by the Climate Adaptation team, to implement a suite of strategies designed to accelerate, improve, and expand climate adaptation and resilience efforts by cultivating climate adaptation "know-how" and "can-do" in field programs across the Conservancy, and by advocating for enabling government policies and public/private financial support.

In the lead-up to the Clinic, the information, resources, and guidance provided to project teams will be made available on the Clinic Project Preparation page. These resources are for both those participating directly in the Clinic as well as others looking for information as they contemplate adaptation strategies for their own projects.

Following the Clinic, the lessons learned and ideas generated will be incorporated into the Climate Adaptation team's strategies to contribute to improved guidance for other Conservancy programs and advocacy efforts.