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The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Fund NCCARF has developed an overview of research priorities to help Australia better adapt to climate change regarding the diversity and health of life in the marine environment.

Adaptive Conservation is this recent Marine Adaptation Bulletin’s focus.

In October and November 2010, the Marine Adaptation Network held a series of focused strategy (‘roundtable’) meetings with key marine stakeholders across Australia to assess the concerns and needs of industry, government, and non-government organisations (NGOs) in attempting to reduce and manage the risks associated with climate change impacts on the marine environment and various marine sectors.
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Over the next four years [2009-2012], the Adaptation Research Network for Marine Biodiversity and Resources (or simply, the Marine Adaptation Network) will work closely with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) to deliver on its vision to build adaptive capacity and adaptive response strategies for the effective management of marine biodiversity and living marine resources under climate change.

Given the recent predictions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicating that global warming will affect the planet over at least the next couple of centuries, it is clear that new paradigms, policies, and governance systems will be essential for Australia in order to sustain the capacity of its marine ecosystems and for securing future economic and societal development. Unfortunately, the degree of resilience and adaptive capacity of many marine species to climate change risks and potential impacts, for example corals and coral reefs, are still poorly known.

The Marine Adaptation Network aims to implement a strong interdisciplinary organisational framework to engage researchers, governments and industry in a way that will enhance adaptive capacity and reduce vulnerability of Australia’s marine biodiversity and resources to climate change risks.

The Marine Adaptation Network consists of five inter-connecting themes:

• Integration
• Biodiversity & Resources
• Communities
• Markets
• Policy

The Marine Adaptation Network will improve understanding of, and enhance, adaptive capacity of all sectors within the marine space using an integrative model (Figure 1) of collaboration, engagement and cooperation that cross-cuts between biodiversity & resources, communities, markets and policy (including management and governance).

Figure 1: Integrative model of the Marine Adaptation Network