Speakers
Dr. Lara Hansen
Chief Scientist, WWF International Climate Change Programme
Dr. Lara Hansen has directed research on the biological effects of global change (including UV-B and global warming) since 1990. Her primary focus is the redesign of conservation strategies to incorporate responses to climate change. For the past three years she has been working with the U.S. Territory of American Samoa, EPA and NOAA to assess the effects of climate change on local coral reefs and evaluate possible adaptation strategies for responding to these effects. She also advises on other coral reef monitoring and adaptation projects in the U.S., Indonesia, Fiji, the Philippines and Belize. With WWF colleagues she has developed a three country (Tanzania, Cameroon and Fiji) GEF/UNEP funded project on mangrove restoration and protection in response to climate change.
She was the lead author/editor of a key text on the issue of natural system adaptation to climate change, Buying Time: A User's Manual for Building Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change in Natural Systems. As part of a multi-institution project on the impacts of climate change on coral reefs in the Florida Keys and she has also examined the comparative sensitivities of corals from diverse geographic locations (Caribbean, Florida and Hawaii). For this work she was awarded an EPA Bronze Medal.
Her research has also included examining the impacts of UV-B on marine organisms in Alaska, larval anuran species in California and marine bacteria in the Pacific. Recognition for her work on the biological effects of stresses combined with UV-B radiation is exemplified by being named as a Switzer Environmental Fellow in 1995. She is the Chief Climate Change Scientist for World Wildlife Fund leading their Impacts and Adaptations program. In addition to her research, she also explains the effects of climate change to a broad audience. This has included offering testimony to the U.S. Senate, media outlets and academic institutions.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/hansen.cfm
