Projected Climate Change and Variability and Their Impact on the Canadian Rocky Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 413

Adaptation to Climate Change in the Rockies
Climate change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains will affect nearly all
aspects of various ecosystems and related social and economic activities
of humans. The relationship between the 'environment' and 'us' is a
function of highly nonlinear processes that change dynamically as we
respond in a feedback loop to a continous change (gradually or suddenly)
in environmental conditions forced externally by climate warming. Any
sustainable and fl exible adaption strategy needs to incorporate this dynamic
interactive relationship. What makes this process diffi cult is that future
projections of changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as of the
dynamics of glacier retreat, are fi lled with uncertainties, some of which
are contributed by not knowing or deciding what our 'optimal' adaptation
choices are. This is why adaptive management is a crucial tool in adapting
to climate change. The approach is characterized by constant monitoring of
(1) various environmental changes in the landscape and (2) the effectiveness
of the adaptive strategy to achieve the desired goal. Since adaptation is
basically local and regional in scale, any scientifi cally-based strategy must
be tempered with social, economic, cultural and ethical uniqueness of each
region affected by climate change. Involvement of stakeholders in any
successful adaptive strategy is essential in post-normal science, balancing
the needs of socio-economic development and the conservation of the
environment.
Hansen et al. (2010) noted in a report on the Yellowstone to Yukon
Conservation Initiative that a “responsive climate adaptation strategy
will require a fundamental shift in conservation planning” that includes
“strong coalitions among divers stakeholders.” They have identifi ed the
Y2Y (Yellowstone to Yukon) region as the most appropriate spatial scale
for providing, among other things, “suffi cient space and connectivity for
biological and ecological shifts” that could take occur under rapid climate
change. The Y2Y region should be able to “conserve ecological diversity”
and to “maximize the range of bioclimate variability …, and to protect
natural disturbance regimes such as fi re and fl oods that sustain its ecological
communities.” The Y2Y organization has also initiated efforts to reduce
intrusion of roads, railways and pipelines that cause habitat fragmentation
and loss, as well as prevention of the spread of human communities in
ecologically sensitive areas. In this process, the Y2Y Conservation Initiative
has included various stakeholders composed of “individuals, conservation
groups, business, government agencies, Native American Tribes, First
Nations, and ecoregional coalitions.”
Quality and quantity of water is the most important natural variable we
depend on for sustaining our lives. The prairie regions of Canada depend
on water from the Rockies for “health and well-being, food production,