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ing conservation targets need to be adjusted? 3) Do <br />boundaries or project scope need to be adjusted? 4) <br />Should conservation targets be addressed elsewhere? <br />5) Do new conservation targets need to be identified <br />and addressed? 6) Does a conservation target need <br />to be removed because we cannot envision a feasible <br />strategy to maintain target viability or because it will <br />increase due to climate change? (Game et al. 2010). <br />Working through questions like these will allow <br />managers to assess and revise current conservation <br />approaches and design new strategies. <br />Adaptation to climate change is fundamentally <br />linked to the concept of vulnerability. Vulnerability <br />assessments can play an important role in identify- <br />ing which species or habitats to target or prioritize, <br />which management actions may be most effective <br />given projected impacts, and what areas on the land- <br />scape might be suitable for facilitating wildlife adap- <br />tation. To design effective adaptation strategies and <br />prioritize limited conservation resources, practitio- <br />ners need to determine which species, habitats, and <br />ecosystems will be most vulnerable, and what aspects <br />of their ecological and evolutionary biology deter- <br />mine their vulnerability. In 2009, AFWA produced <br />a useful guide for incorporating climate change into <br />State Wildlife Action Plans or other management <br />plans (AFWA 2009). This guide serves as a valuable <br />reference for evaluating current conservation activi- <br />ties and identifying where vulnerability assessments <br />may fit in the planning process. <br />The greatest challenge to wildlife managers in plan- <br />ning for climate change adaptation may lie in deal- <br />ing with the uncertainty inherent in future climate <br />change projections. Although reducing uncertain- <br />ty is routinely identified as an important reason <br />for implementing adaptive management, the AM <br />process will not be particularly valuable if not used to <br />improve management actions over time. Thus, AM <br />should be used to target key uncertainties that will <br />improve an agency's ability to achieve management <br />objectives. Identifying these uncertainties will be an <br />important part of the planning process, and can be <br />explicitly incorporated into formal decision analysis <br />tools, such as those in structured decision - making <br />(Runge et al. 2009). <br />To date, managers have relied on trends in historical <br />data or sustainability paradigms to identify manage- <br />ment goals and objectives (Lackey 1995, Landres et <br />al. 1999 in Millar et al. 2007). However, rapid shifts <br />in climate may make management actions based on <br />past conditions obsolete, or even create new prob- <br />lems where wildlife or habitat are more susceptible <br />to the impacts of climate change (Millar et al. 2007). <br />As suggested in Millar et al. (2007), Accepting that <br />the future will be different from both the past and the <br />present forces us to manage [forests] in new ways ". <br />Some conservation actions are likely to be benefi- <br />cial under a range of future climate conditions. For <br />example, enhancing habitat connectivity is regularly <br />identified to reduce the impact of fragmentation <br />on wildlife. Not surprisingly, habitat connectivity <br />has also been suggested to facilitate range shifts in <br />response to new climate patterns, as species will need <br />well - connected natural landscapes to be able to adapt <br />(Mawdsley et al. 2009). In addition to connectivity, <br />actions such as restoring natural processes, protect- <br />ing large and representative natural areas, or restoring <br />stream buffers, are all considered `no regrets' actions, <br />in that they are generally beneficial for conservation <br />with or without the threat of climate change (Mawd- <br />sley et al. 2009). <br />The effectiveness of other climate change adapta- <br />tion actions may be more sensitive to the uncertain- <br />ties associated with climate projections. For example, <br />translocation or managed relocation has been identi- <br />fied as a potential intervention for facilitating species <br />adaptation (e.g. Mawdsley et al. 2009). However, the <br />relative risks associated with moving species outside <br />