Climate change has a dramatic impact on ecosystems at global scale.
Combined with other factors that lead to ecosystem changes (e.g.,
river flows modification by construction of dams, increased demand
of water from agriculture, agricultural land encroaching into
natural habitats, etc.) it threatens all types of habitat, some
of them being more vulnerable than others.
 |
vulnerable ecosystems: mangroves |
Coastal areas, mountains, forests, inland waters, dry and sub-humid
lands and islands have been identified as being
particularly
vulnerable to climate change, due to their intrinsically lower
resilience with respect to other ecosystems.
The effects that climate change and human activities will have
(and are currently having) on these vulnerable ecosystems are manifold
and sometimes unpredictable. In fact, because changes in the climate
system will continue into the future regardless of emissions mitigation,
strategies for protecting climate-sensitive ecosystems through management
will be increasingly important.
Strategies adopted for such purposes can be of varied nature and
following different approaches, and the decision may be taken at country
level rather than globally, so that implementation is easier. We all
depend directly or indirectly on the products and services provided
by ecosystems, thus strategies for long term conservation of environment
and its resources cannot avoid the inclusion of actions for management
of people. Increasing pressures on the land and the ecosystems call
for intervention from the economic sector for the adoption of schemes
that would ensure the conservation of natural resources while minimizing
the impact on welfare of local populations. Decisions need to be taken
on whether settlements and associated human activities in vulnerable
areas might be moved to new locations or protected through measures
that ensure the minimum impact on the area they occupy. In many cases
economic schemes such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) may be
adopted.

Ecosystem services supplied by 3 different land management systems
These are a class of economic instruments designed to provide
incentives to land users to continue supplying an environmental
(ecological) service that is benefiting society (e.g., avoid to carry
on activities that may cause a change in the ecosystem), thus a
management decision needs to be taken with knowledge on the current
and future potentials of the land to provide the services. Such
critical decisions are taken on the basis of available knowledge
and information coming from scientific research and robust monitoring
schemes.
 |
FAO-SOFA:
carbon gaps potential |
The GLCN is providing a significant contribution to the
monitoring of vulnerable ecosystems through a series of initiatives
that aim at providing the most updated baseline data on some of the
most critical ecosystems, focusing on monitoring change in land cover,
modeling potentials of ecosystem production and thus providing the
whole array of users and relevant authorities sufficient data support
and technical training for critical decisions.
Coastal:
Forests:
Mountains: