May 15-19, 2017
National Conservation Training Center

This five day class is based on two guides: Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice and Considering Multiple Futures and Scenario Planning to Address Uncertainty in Natural Resource Conservation. The first half of the course refers to the climate-smart conservation guidance and is designed to demystify climate adaptation for application to on-the-ground conservation. It will provide guidance in how to carry out adaptation with intentionality, how to manage for change and not just persistence, how to craft climate-informed conservation goals, and how to integrate adaptation into on-going work. Conservation practitioners and natural resource managers will learn to become savvy consumers of climate information, tools, and models. The second half of the course refers to the scenario planning guidance and introduces the core elements of scenario planning. It will expose participants to a range of approaches and give them hands-on experience with specific scenario development techniques that integrate quantitative information and creative thinking to produce narratives. And will also demonstrate how to apply the scenarios to address climate-related management challenges. Additionally, participants will learn how to assess the appropriateness of scenario planning for their needs and ways in that the process can support existing planning and decision frameworks.