Step 3: Evaluate management objectives 

The Adaptation Workbook requires you to think critically about your management objectives and consider whether climate change might make them harder or easier to achieve. This is a critical step to evaluate whether your planned actions are able to reduce risks and vulnerabilities, or whether any might need to be changed.

In this step, you’ll identify management challenges and opportunities associated with climate change for each objective you created in Step 1.2. After thinking about the "pros" and "cons" that climate change will present, you will also evaluate the feasibility of meeting your management objectives under current management.

For example: 

Let’s say that you run a dairy operation and one of your objectives is to minimize the overall expenses of running your farm enterprise. Potential challenges related to climate change might be that warmer temperatures will lead to more heat stress in the herd and increase the costs associated with ventilation, watering, and cooling. An opportunity might be that a rising winter temperatures may reduce heating expenses during the coldest months of the year.

Thinking ahead...

If you find yourself brainstorming adaptation actions that could address climate-related challenges, jot down those ideas to capture them for the next step. You can also skip ahead to Step 4 momentarily, and your work on this page will be saved. 

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