Protected Areas as Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract

Protected Areas can play an important role in climate change adaptation as nature-based solutions. With the huge adaptation deficit, which results in an average loss of RUB 60 billion from extreme weather events annually, the importance of protective ecosystem services is being underestimated. The conservation of intact vegetation enables the maintenance of the stability in a territory that is several times larger, than within a Protected Area. In mountainous regions, forests and grasslands prevent mudflows. In tundra and high mountains, vegetation slows down the fast degradation of permafrost in a warming climate. Forests work to increase the minimum river low flow during droughts and to decrease the magnitude and pace of floods. Protected Areas provide territory and natural resources to indigenous people; thus, they can maintain their traditional lifestyle. It is of utmost importance to emphasize the value of Protected Areas as nature-based solutions by estimating the costs of the ecosystem services they provide and the amount of damage they help to avoid.

Keywords

• climate change
• Protected Areas
• nature-based solutions
• ecosystem services
• ecosystem-based adaptation