This guide is about taking account of, and managing, ecosystems to help people adapt to climate change in coastal areas: coastal Ecosystem based Adaptation (EBA). Vital to human wellbeing, adaptation to climate change is increasingly important in international policy discussions such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which have acknowledged the potential importance of EBA in meeting this challenge.

These guidelines, jointly developed by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), are intended to provide general guidance to scientists, planners and managers in their efforts to design, connect, manage, assess and adapt marine protected areas (MPAs) and MPA networks to be resilient to climate change at national and continental scales.