1. A note from CBCN Executive Director
2. Message from Ahmed Djoghlaf
3. Plant conservation in a changing world
4. Preparing to Launch the North American Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy
5. Biodiversity, climate change, and cultural diversity
6. The urgent need for biodiversity information
7. Adapting to a Changing World
8. The Canadian University Biodiversity Consortium and a new biodiversity center at the Montréal Botanical Garden
9. Stopping the Green Invasion! Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden Takes Aim at Invasive Alien Species
10. What's Coming Up at CITES CoP 14
11. Letter from Wuhan: A report on the Third Global Botanic Gardens Congress
12. The Montréal Botanical Garden Formally Reinforces its Commitment to Biodiversity Conservation, and hosts a Wollemi Pine
13. Meeting of the Canadian Pollination Protection Initiative
14. Summer is around the corner. Make it count!
15. First Sustainability Camp: a Success
16. Earth Day Celebration at UBC Botanical Garden

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7. Adapting to a Changing World, Krista Blackborow & Dianne Watkins, Biodiversity Convention Office of Environment Canada

In keeping with this year’s International Biodiversity Day theme, the April 16, 2007 meeting of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Biodiversity Working Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba included a one-day symposium on Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation.

Under the theme “resilience and adaptation”, one of the four themes addressed at the symposium, Ms. Krista Blackborow of Environment Canada’s Biodiversity Convention Office presented “Linking Plant Conservation with Adaptation to Climate Change” on behalf of David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG), Burlington, ON. This presentation described global plant conservation efforts – in particular the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) - as a foundation for building ecosystem resilience. It also highlighted the role of the RBG as National Focal Point (NFP) for coordination of the GSPC in Canada.

The GSPC was developed in response to a declaration from a group of botanists in April 2000 in Gran Canaria, Spain. They recommended that “a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and associated programme for its implementation should be developed urgently, within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).” The GSPC was subsequently adopted by the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to the CBD in The Hague, Netherlands in 2002.

The ultimate and long-term objective of the GSPC is to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity. It aims to complement national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and build upon and harmonize existing global and national initiatives. The goals of the GSPC are to:

• understand, document and conserve plant diversity;
• use it sustainably;
• promote education and awareness about plant diversity; and
• build capacity for its conservation.

In July 2006 Environment Canada designated the RBG as the NFP for the GSPC. In fulfilling this role, the RBG promotes and coordinates implementation and monitoring of the GSPC at the national level and facilitates communication and networking between national and international stakeholders. The Symposium on Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the GSPC and the role of the NFP with the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Biodiversity Working Group.

The RBG’s role in building national level synergies, including with the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Biodiversity Working Group, will be of utmost importance as we move forward with an in-depth review of the GSPC and the next phase of implementation. The in-depth review by the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) is scheduled for its 13th meeting in July 2007. The SBSTTA will have before it a second declaration from the Gran Canaria group of botanists calling for the need to respond to the global challenge of climate change within the framework of the GSPC.

The Symposium showcased a variety of mitigation and adaptation options, tools and best practices; and examined the role of monitoring, modelling and prediction. Dr. Jeffrey Thorpe, of the Saskatchewan Research Council, presented a policy analysis of nineteen protected areas in the Prairie Ecoregion of Canada. The analysis examined the extent to which present policies were suitable for different climate change scenarios. Management implications of different scenarios were highlighted - including the risk of “frozen landscapes” that may be representative at the present time, but may be unable to adapt to climate change due to a lack of natural or managed resilience. The notion of transferring species to areas outside their current ranges as a climate adaptation measure generated much discussion in the Working Group.

The GSPC, together with other initiatives highlighted at the April 16, 2007 symposium, can make a significant contribution to Canada’s preparedness to adapt to a changing world.