This report provides an assessment of climate change-related challenges, needs, and opportunities to advance landscape-scale conservation, climate change adaptation, and sustainable resource management in the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) region. The NPLCC funded this report to inform NPLCC members, specifically the Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (S-TEK) Subcommittee, as they assess priorities and develop their 2013-2016 Strategy for Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. The report identifies conservation delivery, applied science, and science and data provision opportunities the NPLCC could consider to support resource managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers in their efforts to conserve and manage ecosystems, habitats, and species in light of climate change effects.
Information for this assessment was collected from 195 natural and cultural resource managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers working at the nexus of climate change and ecosystem response in the NPLCC region. Data was gathered through a survey, thirteen web-based focus groups, and three in-person workshops between September 2011 and June 2012. Participants were asked to identify challenges they faced addressing climate change in their work, approaches they use to overcome those challenges, and suggestions for how the NPLCC could support improved landscape-scale conservation and sustainable resource management in an era of climate change. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach to qualitative data analysis, which is an iterative process of data collection and analysis through which participants‟ input is collected, assessed, and synthesized to generate research results. The University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and Insight Decisions, LLC guided the development of this report and the associated project methodology.
