Co-Chairs: Professor Stephen Williams and Dr James Watson

1. http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/who_we_are/ssc_specialist_groups_and_red_list_authorities_directory/task_forces/http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/who_we_are/ssc_specialist_groups_and_red_list_authorities_directory/task_forces/

2. Co-Chairs: Professor Stephen Williams and Dr James Watson James is the Lead of the Climate Adaptation Team based at the Wildlife Conservation Society (New York, USA). jwatson@wcs.org Director of Steve is the Director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University and the National Climate Change Adaptation Network for Biodiversity stephen.williams@jcu.edu.au

3. Why do we need a Climate Change Specialist Group? • The Challenge: • Climate change is the single greatest threat to species that we are facing • Direct impacts • Interactions with habitat degradation, ecosystem processes, invasives, land use change, economics, and poverty • Conservation managers, policy makers and researchers need information that will allow them to sensibly prioritise and allocate resources • We need to understand species vulnerability and potential adaptation actions that will make a difference: • What species? Where? When? What can be done? • Relevant to ALL specialist groups

4. Specialist group will include three levels of participation: A steering committee invited to try to maximise coverage of fields of expertise, geographic regions and ecosystems A membership of global experts on climate change and species A general membership of any interested people who want to stay in touch and utilise the resources of the group (managers, policy makers, conservation groups, researchers, students etc.)

5. Steering committee: invited on basis of expertise, geographic & ecosystem coverage. • Ary Hoffman • Brian Huntley • Bruce Young • Stuart Butchart • Carlo Rondinini • Richard Corlett • David Hole • David Bickford • Wendy Foden • Guy Midgley • James Watson • Kit Kovacs • Mark Stanley-Price • Paul Pearce-Kelly • Resit Acakaya • Richard Pearson • Steve Williams • Tara Martin

6. Work Plan: • Continue to refine IUCN best practice guidelines: • Review and refine IUCN’s Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Framework • Use the results from these approaches to inform Red List assessments, criteria and guidelines

7. Work Plan: • Identify priority gaps in knowledge (all SGs etc) • Horizon scanning to identify impending threats and opportunities (workshops) • Develop a handbook of IUCN best practice guidelines for adapting conservation approaches to minimise climate change impacts ( “Climate Smart” guidelines)

8. Work Plan: • Communication of adaptation options • Network • Website • eBulletin • Facebook