The Nature Conservancy has been working closely with partners, particularly ESRI to develop a database that delivers climate change information to conservation community.
Results/Conclusions
The Nature Conservancy is developing a comprehensive database that includes the most relevant climate change data and impacts model output for its conservation practitioners. The database is developed in close collaboration with partners and tested by conservation practitioners. Data mining tools and web base interface have been added to simplify the acquisition and analysis of the relevant information such as future climate change scenarios and impacts. Significant challenges arise when local stresses require land managers to develop new strategies to manage preserves or purchase properties as the land is warming, extreme events become more frequent and rainfall variability prevents the projection of certain outcomes. The resolution of future climate projections are usually too coarse and too uncertain to be considered as useful by practical land stewards. The Conservancy Climate Change Science Team is working in collaboration with government agencies, academia and other NGOs to quantify the uncertainty and package climate change information to help on the ground actions around the world. The team is also developing a climate change learning network to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and on the ground expertise.