In recent decades, the literature on climate change and biodiversity conservation has proposed numerous climate change adaptation options; however, their effectiveness and feasibility have rarely been evaluated by those involved in frontline decision-making. In this paper, we use data from a two-day climate change adaptation workshop held at Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park, in Ontario, Canada, to understand stakeholder views on different types of adaptation options. We found that most (45%) adaptation options identified by participants were “conventional” (i.e., they are already in use and are relatively low risk and familiar to practitioners) and oriented towards directing change (i.e., they aim to help species and ecosystems respond to change and transition to a desired future state). These options also received higher effectiveness and feasibility ratings than “novel” ones. The remaining options (55%) were either “conventional” and aimed towards resisting change, or else were “novel.” Our results suggest that practitioners are open to working with change; however, there is some management resistance to more dynamic “novel” options (e.g., adjusting species assemblages), which in many instances will be required to effectively deal with inevitable climate change impacts. By focusing on understanding the factors that influence the prioritization and feasibility of adaptation options at the regional scale, and by providing practical recommendations to enhance organizational capacity to adapt to climate change, we address key implementation gaps identified in the literature.

Assessing global progress on human adaptation to climate change is an urgent priority. Although the literature on adaptation to climate change is rapidly expanding, little is known about the actual extent of implementation. We systematically screened >48,000 articles using machine learning methods and a global network of 126 researchers. Our synthesis of the resulting 1,682 articles presents a systematic and comprehensive global stocktake of implemented human adaptation to climate change. Documented adaptations were largely fragmented, local and incremental, with limited evidence of transformational adaptation and negligible evidence of risk reduction outcomes. We identify eight priorities for global adaptation research: assess the effectiveness of adaptation responses, enhance the understanding of limits to adaptation, enable individuals and civil society to adapt, include missing places, scholars and scholarship, understand private sector responses, improve methods for synthesizing different forms of evidence, assess the adaptation at different temperature thresholds, and improve the inclusion of timescale and the dynamics of responses.