Rather than an essay (nearly out of time), here is a list of points, some of which are interrelated, with respect to adapting to climate change and allowing adaptations to occur:

- We shouldn't necessarily emulate our current techniques for nature conservation in order to deal with the great unknown of biological and ecological responses to climate change.
- Climate change demands that we set longer term goals for biodiversity conservation, with milestones set for successive generations to achieve.
- Perhaps the most cost-effective approach to adaptation is to observe and seek to understand. We shouldn't be driven by the need to publish results as much as by the need to identify what is critical in the current resource and what will become critical in future.
- Is it more beneficial to concentrate on air, soil and water rather than species and habitats?
- As well as research we need to be confident enough to rely on judgement and on-the-ground evidence to make decisions now.
- Evaluate the relative merits of applied research versus expert opinion in adapting to climate change. Which is more cost-effective?
- Clever agricultural policy, forestry policy, marine policy, water and soil policy that lead to more land released for wildlife may do more to help to conserve biodiversity in the wider countryside than any amount of research and conservation effort.
- Designated sites are genetic reservoirs, where we need to stockpile as much biodiversity as we can, relying on policy to make the right adjustments elsewhere.
- Designated sites are not necessarily ecosystems; rarely if ever are they designated on the basis of ecosystems or biogeography. The same might not be true for different categories of protected landscape.
- Protected landscapes might prove vital in helping us to understand and observe the effects of climate change, not least of all Category V landscapes such as the national parks and AONBs in Britain, where humans are as important as the environment.
- Understanding biogeography and meta-population dynamics must be pushed to the top of the conservation policy agenda.
- In Britain, land ownership is very important and may serve as a significant obstacle to landscape-scale conservation. Policy research, including the role of underwriters, needs to discover ways of dismantling this obstacle.