Global Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity conservation Event at APAC in Kigali, Rwanda.

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The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) is a consortium of seven international conservation organizations with extensive field programs in Africa: African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Conservation International (CI), The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). ABCG is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to advance understanding of critical biodiversity conservation challenges and their solutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

The ABCG creates innovative conservation solutions by fostering collaborative and adaptive learning opportunities that help practitioners improve, scale and replicate, while generating valuable user-driven knowledge that can be disseminated globally. Together, ABCG members share their experiences and generate knowledge in the form of practical tools to address conservation challenges, inform policy, and integrate biodiversity conservation into international development agendas. 

The Global Change Impacts group of the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) is documenting how human communities are being impacted by changes in climate, how they are responding to these impacts, and how their responses effect livelihoods and biodiversity. ABCG has conducted over 650 surveys in 19 communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa and found more than a third of the climate change coping strategies could potentially have a negative impact on biodiversity. Data and information gathered is used to identify and implement ecosystem-based adaptation interventions that help farming, livestock and fishing communities adapt to climate change, improving their overall wellbeing and the biodiversity around them.

Please join us for in-person/ virtual in a conversation about global climate change impacts on biodiversity conservation in Africa  at IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) and  learn to build tools and guidance for use by governments, NGO’s and the communities to develop climate change coping strategies in future conservation.

Speakers 

Chris Zganjar- Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy 

During his tenure at The Nature Conservancy Chris has provided scientific leadership designing applications and climate change impact assessment methodologies that support adaptation planning and related technical and scientific research to produce geographically discrete climate analysis of extreme events, project changes in species ranges that are likely to occur under future climate conditions, model the effect of different management actions to reduce the impact of sea level rise and storm surge on coastal communities, researched where floodplain restoration can reduce flood risk and restore ecological function, and studied the climate change mitigation potential Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) supporting the 2016 Paris Agreement.  

David Williams - Sr. Director, Conservation Geography, African Wildlife Foundation

David has over 25 years of experience as an ecologist applying spatial tools to benefit ecological and conservation programs across two continents.  He has led the African Wildlife Foundation’s Spatial Analysis Laboratory for over a decade to support conservation planning and monitoring under the aegis of AWF’s landscape conservation approach. 

Nikhil Advani - Director, Climate, Communities and Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund 

Dr. Nikhil Advani's role at WWF is at the intersection of communities, wildlife and the varied threats they face, from climate change to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, he is leading a GEF project focused on how COVID-19 is affecting nature-based tourism in eastern and southern Africa, which seeks to connect funders to communities most affected by the crisis (African Nature-Based Tourism Platform). Other projects under Nikhil's portfolio focus on better understanding how wildlife and rural communities are being affected by changes in weather and climate, and developing and implementing solutions to help them adapt.