Jim Perry

I am working to advance ecosystem management at the scale of large watersheds, with explicit attention to climate-based adaptation. For quite some time, I have focused that work on resilience to advance climate change adaptation in large protected areas, notably natural World Heritage sites. My work is global, broadly applicable to watersheds as ecosystems, and more notably to protected areas including and all natural World Heritage sites. Although the work is global in theme, it is always applied at the local scale. A recent edited volume (Harvey and Perry, 2015) reframes the ways we consider heritage concepts as climates change. In a more focused review paper (Perry, 2015), I argue that climate change adaptation in World Heritage sites is a wicked problem (meeting several criteria for that), and that so-called clumsy solutions provide a way forward. Because this is a global problem, society must choose among sites to guide resource allocation. In support of such prioritization, I analyzed 208 natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites to build a global "hot spots" model that ranks sites and identifies those most at risk from climate change (Perry 2011). However, because climate change adaptation always is a local scale action, I continued that work in collaboration with UNESCO to develop a climate change adaptation manual for managers of natural World Heritage sites or other protected areas (Perry & Falzon 2014). That manual guides any local manager in understanding the risks climate change poses to his/her site, and guides him/her toward adaptation strategies That work was initially field tested in Kenya and India, translated and available in three languages, and is being used worldwide. Some of the adaptation strategies offered are fine scale (i.e., on-site) and some coarse scale (i.e., involving the surrounding landscape). To advance the latter, I worked with many others to develop an ecosystem-based approach to managing a watershed, catchment or landscape (e.g., one containing a World Heritage site or protected area) (Perry et al. 2012).

That ecosystem scale work was developed in collaboration with UNEP and concluded with a global training program for ecosystem management (Perry et al. 2012). That work was initially field tested in Kenya, and then deployed in a Train-The-Trainers phase, beginning with a 12-country workshop in South Korea. All of that work has been done in the context of greater societal goals, goals that advance society's ability to recognize and adapt to new climate regimes. That work has recently been taken forward with special attention to vulnerable communities in watersheds facing climate changes (Perry et al. 2018).

Keywords

Climate change adaptation, ecosystem management, watershed management, decision making