Protected areas and climate change Reflections from a practitioner’s perspective

Abstract

Cliquet et al. 1 provide a thought-provoking analysis of the challenges posed tothe EU's protected areas by climate change. This paper seeks to build on some ofthe perspectives they brought to what is a highly challenging area of natureconservation law, policy and practice. While there is much to support in theiranalysis of the relationships between protected areas and climate change, thereare two key strands we seek to develop further, based on the RSPB's experienceof this area of nature conservation policy and practice: first, is theecological model for adapting to climate change and second, the legal frameworkprovided by the Birds2 and Habitats3 Directives (the Nature Directives) as itrelates to the delivery of such adaptive actions.