Framework Recommendations

The Framework recommendations are predicated on the assumption that any assessment for biodiversity and climate adaptation has undertaken the normal preliminary steps to ensure that the assessment output will be aligned with the needs of planners. These steps include:

• understanding the goals and the information needs of the planning process
• understanding how different stakeholder values are incorporated into the project plan
• understanding the methodology and approaches used by planners in reaching decisions about land allocation for compatible uses
• understanding how stakeholder values are weighted in reaching final decisions about actions and how the final decision is reached

The general recommendations for Framework use are:

1. Assessments should be at a resolution that matches those at which decisions are made, and spatial extent should extend beyond the main jurisdictional area of interest, so that important ecological links to the larger landscape are considered. Given that climate change is likely to cause long-range movements by species, it will become increasingly important to conduct ecological assessments at spatial extents that represent entire ecoregions.
2. More than just the species level of ecological analysis should be considered in assessments (hence the consideration of three levels of ecological analysis in the Framework Matrix).
3. An assessment or prioritization for climate adaptation should be conducted for a 50 to 100 year time horizon. The major effects of climate change are likely to occur within this time horizon, even if humans stopped emitting greenhouse gasses today. Climate change cannot reliably be predicted farther into the future. If resources and time permits, it is encouraged to conduct a temporally explicit trajectory analysis (e.g., 15, 30, 60, and 100 years).