Search the SPREP Catalogue

The South Pacific economies of the Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga are highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including increased intensity of rainfall and tropical storms, rising sea levels, and droughts; disasters triggered by natural hazard including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis; and health emergencies

WWF compiled “Buying Time: A User’s Manual for Building Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change in Natural Systems” for natural resource managers who are ready to confront the impacts of climate change. While far from comprehensive, this manual brings together assessments and potential initial adaptation strategies for various biomes. Written by experts, the manual addresses all of the major biomes with practical ideas of how to begin increasing the resiliency of ecosystems and plan our protected areas in response to the threat of climate change. Some of these strategies are in line with the conservation strategies we have been working on for years—reducing fragmentation, building corridors, reducing threats, and increasing resiliency in general. Natural resource managers in the field must begin planning to buy time for these biomes while the world works to switch from coal to clean power, a key strategy to reduce the causes of climate change