Wendy Foden is a Specialist Scientist and South African National Parks and leads the organisation in Climate Change Preparedness and in implementing a range of climate change adaptation initiatives ...
IUCN COMMISSION GROUP
IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group
Group leadership
Dr Wendy FODEN
Wendy Foden is a Specialist Scientist and South African National Parks and leads the organisation in Climate Change Preparedness and in implementing a range of climate change adaptation initiatives for biodiversity. She holds the Benjamin Roland Oppenheimer (BRO) research chair in Conservation in a Changing Climate, chairs the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Climate Change Specialist Group and is an Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University. She has a passion for deserts and plants, and studies climate change impacts on giant succulents in Southern Africa’s Namib region.
More about the Specialist Group
The Climate Change Specialist Group (CCSG) aims to make a significant contribution to strengthening nature conservation in a changing climate. By fostering collaboration between climate change and biodiversity experts working at the interface between science, policy and practice, we have three key objectives:
- To provide the IUCN Species Survival Commission with strategic guidance, support and information on climate change related risks to biodiversity and conservation responses
- To promote coordinated responses to climate change within and among the IUCN Species Survival Commission, IUCN programmes and IUCN partner organizations
- To catalyse and support sound science, effective policy and evidence-based conservation practice informed by a deeper understanding of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, and the responses required.
VISION
Biodiversity is conserved in a changing climate.
MISSION
To support and strengthen nature conservation in a changing climate.
Specialist Group work
The overall goal of this theme is to assess the vulnerability of species to future climate change. Our activities for the next few years are organized in three related directions; species assessments, vulnerability science, and guidance and tools.
Understanding the threat to Climate Change
CCSG has shown how species are evolving in response to warmer temperatures, that the timing of biological events has changed, and that the distribution and abundance of species has shifted through time, affecting the structure of ecological communities.
Annual Report
Learn about CCSG’s work and results in 2024 and 2025.
Previous reports:
CCSG Annual Report 2023
CCSG Annual Report 2022
Relevant Documents
This guide is a collaboration among National Wildlife Federation, the US Geological Survey Climate Adaptation Science Center Network, and the IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group. Innovation in Climate Adaptation draws on lessons from other sectors—including business and technology—to explore the theory and practice of innovation in the context of climate adaptation and natural resource management.
Threats of climate change. Credit: IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group (CCSG).
Mangrove snake. Credit: IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group (CCSG).
Loss of habitat. Credit: IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group (CCSG).
