There’s no doubt that climate change poses a huge challenge for in situ conservation of species — including crop wild relatives — in protected areas. I mean, what is one to do, move the park around to follow the species as it tracks the climate? Well, that’s exactly the type of thing that marine biologists are now contemplating for Marine Protected Areas (MPA):
Maybe they’re bigger, … or spaced like stepping stones so species can hopscotch to higher latitudes. Perhaps they’re not tied to a geographic location at all, but follow conditions scientists know are important.
We saw in earlier posts that assisted migration could be another approach. A couple of things are for certain. If protected areas are aimed at individuals species, as opposed to the landscape or ecosystem, we’re going to have to rethink how we define and manage them. And ex situ conservation will be an increasingly important complement to them.
“We set aside parts of the world as if it’s going to be static,” says [Dee] Boersma, at the University of Washington, Seattle. “But the one thing that’s constant is change.”