Leverage land and water conservation to provide critical natural climate solutions for healthy communities and resilient landscapes.Stitch together a connected landscape of climate resilient lands, corridors and waters at the pace and scale necessary to mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity.To mitigate climate change, sustain biodiversity and ensure the Appalachians remain a place where all life can thrive, TNC has identified three key approaches founded in nature: We must act now to protect and restore the Appalachians before we lose what we cannot replace.
If we continue to take the Appalachians for granted, we stand to lose a magnitude of species, the fight against climate change and the security, provisions and benefits this landscape promises to future generations. We cannot afford to lose the Appalachians. Nature is on the move and once again seeking refuge in the Appalachians. Rising temperatures and extreme weather events are altering and destroying habitats, causing plants and animals to shift their ranges northward and to higher elevations. Climate change further exacerbates these issues. At present, just 26% of this globally important landscape is protected. Growing threats from urban development, mining, agriculture, unsustainable forestry and fragmentation caused by dams and roads put the region’s public, economic and ecological health at risk. The verdant forests have a remarkable ability to absorb and store excess carbon-currently storing an estimated 56% of the eastern region’s above-ground carbon, which helps limit warming-while the ancient mountains provide havens of cooler temperatures.īut, like everything, the Appalachians have a tipping point. Today, the Appalachians still represent a place of hope. Evidence of the Appalachians’ resiliency to climate change dates back to the age of woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, when the region provided refuge from the most recent ice age.
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