Climate change and the management of freshwater protected areas

While Protected Areas (PAs) have played an important role in species and ecosystem conservation, managing them with the same rulebook for coming decades without reflection or flexibility may result in adverse consequences that increase the pressures on critical biodiversity targets. Strategies for promoting more climate-resilient approaches are needed rather than focussing on maintaining past reference states. Climate change and flow regulation are leading to the development of novel ecosystems that may require new thinking and a range of novel approaches to water management to cope with increasingly uncertain futures.