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Accommodating the Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation and Governance in Conventional Risk Management: Adaptive Collaborative Risk Management (ACRM)
(2011) May, Bradley; Plummer, Ryan
"Risk management is a well established tool for climate change adaptation. It is facing new challenges with the end of climate stationarity and the need to meaningfully engage people in governance issues. The ways in which conventional approaches to risk management can respond to these challenges are explored. Conventional approaches to risk management are summarized, the manner in which they are being advanced as a tool for climate change adaptation is described, and emerging themes in risk management and climate change adaption are documented. It is argued that conventional risk management for climate change adaptation can benefit from the insights and experiences of adaptive co-management. A hybrid approach termed adaptive collaborative risk management is thus envisaged that enriches conventional risk management with the critical features of adaptive co-management, i.e., collaboration and adaptation. Adaptive Collaborative Risk Management overcomes some of the challenges with conventional risk management, builds upon and complements other approaches to community climate change adaptation, and innovatively addresses both technical and governance concerns in a single integrated process."
Adapt to Changes: Lessons from Two Irrigation Systems in Ezhou, China
(2012) Qian, Zhou
"In this article I examine how local irrigation institution adapts itself to external intervention projects, like farmlands consolidation project in central China. Through a comparative analysis of two irrigation systems in Ezhou, a city located at Southeast Hubei, in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, I explain why one irrigation system can be better adapted to the intervention project, while the other failed to deal with the same one. Using the framework of robustness in Social-Ecological Systems, entities of two different irrigation systems are identified and their different outcomes are illustrated. Interviews with village heads, community leaders, and farmers make it possible for me to double check the case information and get to understand various incentives of different irrigation entities. Various incentives help me explain their behaviours in the institution adaptation processes. It turns out that the adaptive capacity of the Village Bao irrigation system is much higher, while the irrigation system of Upper Horse Village deteriorating still after the project. A key issue presented here is that interactions between water users and irrigation infrastructure providers, is important for robustness of local irrigation systems. Water users’ engagement in institutional design may make a sustainable, robust and adaptive SES."
Adaptabilidad Institucional: Dinamicas en la Evolucion de los Sistemas Socio-Ccologicos de Uso del Agua en Espana
(2009) Florensa, Meritxell Costeja
"The evolution of institutions is an increasing concern among scholars interested in institutional analysis. This study investigates the processes of institutional adaptation regarding the use of common property resources. The evolution of social-ecological systems (SESs) based on the use of water resources in Spain is the main object of study. In particular, it focuses on the factors that can positively influence the adaptive capacity of SESs to internal and external disturbances. "It is argued that the changes agents that constitue a novelty and are of an intensity not experienced before by the system can have the potential of increasing the vulnerabilty of the SES beyond its resilience. The homogeneity of perceptions and interests among the group of users of the resource, the availability of information and the presence of leadership appear as the combination of factors which exert a greater influence on the adaptive capacity of the system to these changes. The intervention of upper levels in the governance structure can also have a positive effect on the adaptability of the SESs, specially in those SESs in which the presence of leadership, the existence of participative common ground arenas and a certain degree of autonomy of the system have been identified."
Adaptation and Coexistence of Van Gujjars in the Forests: A Success Story
(2011) Nusrat, Rubina; Pattanaik, B. K.; Farooquee, Nehal A.
"The existence of Gujjar pastoral transhumance is one of the best examples of symbiotic relations of these pastoralists with the forests and sedentary population spread over in the migratory routes. The Muslim Van Gujjars are a pastoral group living in the foothills of the Uttarakhand Himalaya, are also known as buffalo grazers, follow transhumance between high altitude alpine meadows and forest foot hills without much diversification of subsistence strategy. The economy of Van Gujjars is completely based on milk production and supply of milk products along with the providing genetically well bred progenies of indigenous buffaloes to the hill people of Uttrakhand. The creation of new state of Uttarakhand, has led to a number of developmental initiatives taken up by the state government which includes creation of more roads, a number of dams for harnessing hydel power and sprouting up of new urban centers. All these have disturbed and disrupted the migration pattern of Van Gujjars. On the other hand, the initiatives taken up by the state forest department in restricting the entry of Van Gujjars into their forests has further added to the problems of survival of these pastoralists. The Van Gujjars are well known for having evolved a resource management practice by utilizing the alpine grazing resources in summer and migrating to foot hill forests in winter. They also provide their buffalo manure to the small land holding farmers for their agricultural fields. Besides breeding their own livestock, Van Gujjars also take care of the animals of other communities, fulfilling the role of village cowherd. Henceforth, Van Gujjars have proved themselves very resilient; they have an intact social structures and mechanisms for mutual sharing of resources with the sedentary population. They also provide ethno veterinary services to the local farmers, and their livestock also represents an encashable asset. These exchanges are immensely welcomed by the sedentary population. With increasing international emphasis on the conservation of biodiversity, policies need to be devised out for the Van Gujjars so that they are able to benefit from recognition of their role in conserving livestock genetic diversity, promoters of valuable indigenous breeds of buffalo and indigenous knowledge and also about coping mechanisms from environmental stresses."
Adaptation and Survival, or Conflict and Division: Different Reactions to a Changing Common Property Resource Institution in a South Indian Fishery
(2006) Coulthard, Sarah
"Community adaptation to environmental and social change has often been a catalyst for evolution in common property resource (CPR) institutions. With increasing fragility of many traditional forms of natural resource management, understanding how communities are further reacting to, and evolving with, change in common property resources and the institutions that govern them, is vital if appropriate management support is to be established. Ultimately, our ability to evolve with change predetermines our ability to cope with change and fosters greater socioecological resilience. Similar arguments are being echoed throughout debates on the human- environment interface. As we face imminent global environmental change, important questions are being asked as to how we can cope and adapt to live with change - and what might restrict that capability. Using a case study of traditional fisheries management in South India, this paper documents a changing CPR management institution and the reactions of the local fishing society to those changes. The Padu system, a traditional common property resource institution, has defined fishing access rights in coastal communities throughout South India and Sri Lanka over many generations. Despite a substantial geographical reach, relatively little is understood about how the Padu system is changing under multiple pressures; even less is understood about how affected fishing societies are surviving the change. Pulicat lake, India's second largest coastal lagoon and an important artisanal fishery, provides a useful setting in which to explore changes in the Padu system, which, still governed by local people, represents the dominant form of fisheries management in the lake."
Adaptation or Manipulation? Unpacking Climate Change Response Strategies
(2012) Thomsen, Dana C.; Smith, Timothy F.; Keys, Noni
"Adaptation is a key feature of sustainable social–ecological systems. As societies traverse various temporal and spatial scales, they are exposed to differing contexts and precursors for adaptation. A cursory view of the response to these differing contexts and precursors suggests the particular ability of persistent societies to adapt to changing circumstances. Yet a closer examination into the meaning of adaptation and its relationship to concepts of resilience, vulnerability, and sustainability illustrates that, in many cases, societies actually manipulate their social–ecological contexts rather than adapt to them. It could be argued that manipulative behaviors are a subset of a broader suite of adaptive behaviors; however, this paper suggests that manipulative behaviors have fundamentally different intentions and outcomes. Specifically, adaptive behaviors are respectful of the intrinsic integrity of social–ecological systems and change is directed toward internal or self-regulating modification. By way of contrast, manipulative behaviors tend to disregard the integrity of social–ecological systems and focus on external change or manipulating the broader system with the aim of making self-regulation unnecessary. It is argued that adaptive behaviors represent long-term strategies for building resilience, whereas manipulative behaviors represent short-term strategies with uncertain consequences for resilience, vulnerability, and the sustainability of social–ecological systems. Of greatest significance; however, is that manipulative strategies have the potential to avoid authentic experiences of system dynamics, obscure valuable learning opportunities, create adverse path dependencies, and lessen the likelihood of effective adaptation in future contexts."
The Adaptation Policy Paradox: The Implementation Deficit of Policies Framed as Climate Change Adaptation
(2013) Dupuis, Johann; Knoepfel, Peter
"The implementation of adaptation policies suffers from barriers and limits; even though adaptation is now set on the political agendas of developed and developing countries, surprisingly few examples of concrete policy realizations are found in comparative assessments. We investigate how the framings of adaptation as a policy problem can relate to tractability issues in implementation. We distinguish three framings of adaptation: climate change adaptation (CCA), climate variability adaptation (CVA), and vulnerability-centered adaptation (VCA) that imply conflicting interpretations of the collective problem to be solved and the goals to be attained through policy solutions. Through the methodology of comparative case studies, we conduct an empirical analysis of three implementation processes in India and Switzerland, and examine how adaptation framings translate into formal policy design and concrete policy realizations. We find that, regardless of the adaptive capacity of the country where implementation takes place, the CCA framing meets more tractability issues than the VCA framing. Therefore, we discuss the paradox that the innovative and additional CCA types of policies, advocated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are more likely to face a deficit in implementation according to our analysis."
Adaptation Technology: Benefits of Hydrological Services: Watershed Management in Semi-Arid Region of India
(2014) Khajuria, Anupam; Yoshikawa, Sayaka; Kanae, Shinjiro
"Watershed management consists of multifunctional activities to manage and address the increasing water resource problems. Ever increasing water demand and rapidly depleting water resources, it has become necessary to develop the adaptation options to recharge groundwater resources. A watershed is a special kind of Common Pool Resources (CPRs); an area is defined by hydrological linkages where optimal management requires coordinating the use of natural resources by public participation. Watershed developments have shown significant positive impacts on water table, perennially of water in wells and water availability especially in semi-arid regions. This paper describes direct and indirect impacts of the watershed activities and benefits of hydrological services dealing with watershed management with future prediction of net irrigation water supply. In the present work, we have also discussed the multiple impacts of watershed of CPRs for improving groundwater and surface water resources."
Adaptation to Aquatic Risks due to Climate Change in Pangnirtung, Nunavut
(2013) Giles, Audrey R.; Strachan, Shaelyn M.; Doucette, Michelle; Stadig, Gwenyth S.
"We use a vulnerability framework to examine how residents of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, perceive the risks of aquatic activities in the context of adaptation to a changing climate. Our findings suggest that community members identify climate change as increasing the risk of many aquatic activities and have adapted some practices accordingly. However, further adaptation to these changing risks is impeded by three main barriers: (1) financial constraints, (2) Inuit resistance to adopting what some consider Euro-Canadian water safety practices, and (3) issues with the design of flotation devices. Participants suggested the following practical changes: (1) make personal flotation devices, lifejackets, and floater suits available to all residents at local stores at a subsidized rate, or provide them free of charge through the community; (2) create water safety promotional items that feature locally developed messages in both Inuktitut and English; (3) include traditional knowledge in water safety campaigns; and (4) use the local pool to train residents in water safety. These changes would not only help residents adapt to changing risks, but also help incorporate climate considerations into policies and programs."
Adaptation to Climate Change: Legal Challenges for Protected Areas
(2009) Cliquet, An; Backes, Chris; Harris, Jim; Howsam, Peter
"The question is whether existing nature conservation legislation is sufficiently adapted to face the challenges of climate change. Will the current legal regime on protected areas suffice This article will conduct a preliminary research into EU nature conservation law on protected areas in order to answer this question. We will limit the analysis to EU nature conservation law. Other policies and legislation such as on energy, health, water, agriculture, forests, marine and coastal environments, which may contribute to resilient ecosystems, are not discussed as they are outside the scope of this contribution. The article is written from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is not intended as an in-depth legal technical analysis. We will start by discussing the scientific challenges we are facing (Section 2). We will look into EU nature conservation law on protected areas (Birds and Habitats Directives14) and see what possible bottlenecks exist in the legislation itself or in the implementation thereof (Section 3). In the future, a new way of thinking about nature conservation might be necessary. This is examined in Section 4 in which we briefly explore the idea of an Ecosystem Framework Directive. This idea may justify and need more investigation in the future."
Adaptation Within Constraints An Evolutionary Approach to Change in Individual and Social Constitutions
(1996) Shivakumar, Sujai
"The past three decades have witnessed a revival of interest in the study of institutions by economists outside the disciplinary mainstream. Approaches in, what has become identified as, 'New Institutional Economics' promote an understanding of social institutions as a complex of rules which, because of their reliability, recognizability, and general applicability, serve to reduce uncertainty and promote coordination and cooperation among individuals. The more recent tradition in 'Constitutional Economics' has complemented and broadened this perspective by focusing attention on the constraints circumscribing adaptive change within and among rule complexes of various kinds. This thesis focuses on how such an integration is part of a broad fixed framework that includes a particular theory of knowledge and behavior within an evolutionary perspective. "Our aim then is to show how the Institutional-Constitutional view can rest on a robust understanding of the knowledge and behavior of individuals. In particular, this thesis demonstrates the proffered approach--built upon while at the same time reflecting the structure of arguments in evolutionary, behavioral, and epistemological theories--provides a theoretically compact and integrated explanation that can form a more sound basis for the study of social and economic phenomena."
Adapting Adaptation: The English Eco-Town Initiative as Governance Process
(2014) Tomozeiu, Daniel; Joss, Simon
"Climate change adaptation and mitigation have become key policy drivers in the UK under its Climate Change Act of 2008. At the same time, urbanization has been high on the agenda, given the pressing need for substantial additional housing, particularly in southeast England. These twin policy objectives were brought together in the UK governments eco-town initiative for England launched in 2007, which has since resulted in four eco-town projects currently under development. We critically analyze the eco-town initiatives policy evolution and early planning phase from a multilevel governance perspective by focusing on the following two interrelated aspects: (1) the evolving governance structures and resulting dynamics arising from the development of the eco-town initiative at UK governmental level, and the subsequent partial devolution to local stakeholders, including local authorities and nongovernmental actors, under the new localism agenda; and (2) the effect of these governance dynamics on the conceptual and practical approach to adaptation through the emerging eco-town projects. As such, we problematize the impact of multilevel governance relations, and competing governance strategies and leadership, on shaping eco-town and related adaptation strategies and practice."
Adapting to Climate Change in the Southwest Yukon: Locally Identified Research and Monitoring Needs to Support Decision Making on Sustainable Forest Management
(2009) Ogden, Aynslie E.; Innes, John L.
"In a community-directed forest management context, research is needed that will help both the managers of forest resources and the community residents who set forest management directions to consider climate change in their decision making. Specific research needed in light of climate change to support implementation of the forest management plan for the Champagne and Aishihik Traditional Territory, southwest Yukon, was identified through 1) sessions with local forest practitioners and 2) a community climate change workshop. Local residents highlighted the importance of formalizing a monitoring network based on local knowledge as part of a broader adaptive management framework. They also wanted an important role in any discussion on adapting existing forest management plans, practices, and policies to incorporate climate change considerations. Forest practitioners expressed a need for research to identify forest management tactics that would enable them to achieve community-directed forest management objectives in light of climate change. Addressing these research needs will have benefits beyond just adapting forest management to climate change. Climate change is providing the impetus and a forum for discussing a broader issue: the need for a more comprehensive research and monitoring program to support the sustainable management of forest resources."
Adapting Water Management to Climate Change
(2009) Wilk, J.; Wittgren, H. B.
"As a background, we present a general overview of observed and projected impacts of climate change on water resources, as summarised by IPCC, 7 and an overview of the key concepts of adaptation and vulnerability to climate change, including specific examples of adaptation strategies now in practice. However, it is not enough to point out ‘good examples’. Good examples all work in local contexts that influence and dictate their success. The sustainability of such examples, including their potential to disperse to other regions, is often hampered by barriers of different kinds. Overcoming barriers may be the most important function of policies, whether they are local or global. But modifying successful adaptation examples to local pre-conditions – whether cultural, institutional or climatic – is also essential. Therefore, some observations regarding barriers to implementation, maintenance and diffusion of adaptation measures are presented."
Adaptive Behavior Assessment Based on Climate Change Event: Jakarta’s Flood in 2007
(2011) Susandi, Armi; Pratiwi, Dwi R.; Suwarto, Titania; Tamamadin, Mamad
"Response to reducing climate induced event such as flood is not only responsibility of community itself but also largely responsible of government agency in carrying out its mandate to be in the forefront of disaster risk management and climate risk management. Government must have adequate capacity to carry out its task for climate change adaptation because successful implementations of adaptation strategy will be depend on government’s performance particularly government in local level. Beside that the role and contribution of community organization could be effective partners of the LGU and community in responding to climate change impacts. Hence, this study would be assessing adaptation behavior of local communities as well as decision makers in climate risk areas in Jakarta to determine the set of adaptation possibilities that would be appropriate to be implemented in Jakarta. This study is important to be conducted consider the fast rapidly of climate change that inducing many disaster in this region. Beside that as well as government agency and stakeholder need this study to perceive the preparedness of Jakarta to facing climate change disaster that would be conducted in the future."
Adaptive Capacity and Traps
(2008) Carpenter, Stephen; Brock, William A.
"Adaptive capacity is the ability of a living system, such as a social-ecological system, to adjust responses to changing internal demands and external drivers. Although adaptive capacity is a frequent topic of study in the resilience literature, there are few formal models. This paper introduces such a model and uses it to explore adaptive capacity by contrast with the opposite condition, or traps. In a social-ecological rigidity trap, strong self-reinforcing controls prevent the flexibility needed for adaptation. In the model, too much control erodes adaptive capacity and thereby increases the risk of catastrophic breakdown. In a social-ecological poverty trap, loose connections prevent the mobilization of ideas and resources to solve problems. In the model, too little control impedes the focus needed for adaptation. Fluctuations of internal demand or external shocks generate pulses of adaptive capacity, which may gain traction and pull the system out of the poverty trap. The model suggests some general properties of traps in social-ecological systems. It is general and flexible, so it can be used as a building block in more specific and detailed models of adaptive capacity for a particular region."
Adaptive Comanagement in the Venice Lagoon? An Analysis of Current Water and Environmental Management Practices and Prospects for Change
(2012) Munaretto, Stefania; Huitema, Dave
"Adaptive comanagement (ACM) is often suggested as a way of handling the modern challenges of environmental governance, which include uncertainty and complexity. ACM is a novel combination of the learning dimension of adaptive management and the linkage dimension of comanagement. As has been suggested, there is a need for more insight on enabling policy environments for ACM success and failure. Picking up on this agenda we provide a case study of the world famous Venice lagoon in Italy. We address the following questions: first, to what extent are four institutional prescriptions typically associated with ACM currently practiced in the Venice system? Second, to what extent is learning taking place in the Venice system? Third, how is learning related to the implementation or nonimplementation of the prescriptions of ACM in the Venice system? Our analysis is based on interviews with stakeholders, participatory observation, and archive data. This paper demonstrates that the prescriptions of ACM are hardly followed in the Venice lagoon, but some levels of cognitive learning do take place, albeit very much within established management paradigms. Normative and relational learning are much rarer and when they do occur, they seem to have a relatively opportunistic reason. We propose that in particular the low levels of collaboration, because the governance system was deliberately set up in a hierarchical and mono-centric way, and the limited possibilities for stakeholder participation are implicated in this finding because they cause low levels of social capital and an incapacity to handle disagreements and uncertainty very well."
Adaptive Learning Networks for Improved Floodplain Management
(2011) Sultana, Parvin
"Adaptive learning is a structured process of 'learning by doing' that emphasises the learning process in management. Previous work on adaptive learning networks has focused on exchanges between individuals or focused on technical aspects of resource management across villages. However, co-management is increasingly being adopted in floodplain commons. In Bangladesh many community based organizations (CBOs) have been formed and left to continue managing wetlands when projects ended. Over 250 existing CBOs involved in managing floodplain natural resources were brought together into a learning network. The CBOs identified lessons and good practices and spread their adoption. They identified gaps and opportunities, and coordinated innovation to address common problems. The adaptive learning process evolved through workshops among CBO leaders at a regional level and two-way communication between leaders and members of their CBOs. By bringing together CBOs that had before concentrated on either fishery management or water management for rice, and reviewing together constraints and opportunities, proven practices spread and new options were tested. Over three years 56% of participating CBOs acted to improve fisheries management, and 72% now have fish sanctuaries. Taking a system-based view of natural resource management encouraged a quarter of the CBOs to test dry season crops that need only about 20% of the water used by the dominant irrigated rice. The aim was to preserve more surface water for fish to survive in. Most of the alternative crops were shown by the farmers to give better financial returns than rice, and crops such as garlic are now spreading in several CBO areas. Overall the benefits of an adaptive learning network are: more rapid and systematic learning than individual trial and error, encouraging innovation, more efficient channels for advice, and strength in numbers to face threats such as external pressure to access common water resources."
Adaptive Management and Welfare Enhancement of Kattudel Fishery in Negombo Lagoon
(2013) Iwasaki, Shimpei
"This paper presents a case study of Kattudel(stake-seine) fishery for catching fishery resources in Negombo Lagoon, Sri Lanka. The research aims to address fishery adaptation to tackle with the commons dilemma by introducing a padu system which is a gear-specific with rules to define fishing grounds and right holders. Among the right holders belonging to particular families, an effective mechanism has been evolved for resource sharing in the fishery over the hundreds of years dating back to the 18th century. Evidence from the case study showed that a nested structure of the fishery at the vertical level among stakeholders has been developed. For equity sharing of the resource, different fishing dates are assigned among four Kattudel fishery societies, and fishing grounds are then allocated to the right holders in each society using alottery. Complicated challenges and issues related to demarcation of territories and conflicting situations among the societies have been settled through active involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. The findings revealed that the role of the Roman Catholic Church served as a basis for coordinating the societies over fishery resources and introducing a welfare scheme for fishing communities. In the latter, afunding for the welfare scheme has been incorporated in the income generation process including auction for specific fishing grounds devised by each society. It enables to respond to livelihood security, in terms of death, loss of physical strength and unforeseeable accident, and to promote cultural development at the base of the Roman Catholic Church. Religious enhancement is expected to strengthen the fishery operation among the societies and among the right holders in each society. Based on these findings, this paper provides a significance of the linkages of adaptive management and welfare enhancement beyond the commons dilemma."
Adaptive Management, Organizations and Common Property Management: Perspectives from the Community Forests of Quintana Roo, Mexico
(2000) Bray, David Barton
"For over 15 years an unusual experiment in community-based management of common property resources, particularly forest resources, has been underway in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Mexico's ejido system gave communities permanent and secure access to common pool forest resources under defined common property management regimes in two stages, 1) When the ejido land grant was originally given as far back as the 1920s, and 2) when communities won the right to exploit the timber on their forest lands in the early 1980s. It is a system of common property management which was almost entirely induced from the outside, a 'donor-initiated common pool resource institution,' although in some cases it clearly was able to draw on indigenous cultural forms and practices. Thus, it is not 'self-organized' although in the best of the cases it now has a significant degree of self-governance. It involves the organized industrial production of timber for commercial markets, an economic activity which occurs in few other common property regimes in the world outside of Mexico. It involves not just sets of rules in use, or 'institutions' but formal community organizations, indeed, market-oriented 'community enterprises' dedicated to commercial forest exploitation. These formal organizations occur not only at the community or ejido level, but also participate in and depend upon second-level organizations at the state level and third-level organizations at the national level in a 'nested' fashion. "These and other factors to be discussed in this paper make community forest management in Quintana Roo an exceptional but still little described case within the common property literature. I will be attempting a synthetic analysis of the history of these organizations, the social and ecological conditions which forged their emergence, and how they have transformed over time within a turbulent policy and political environment and in interaction with the constraints and possibilities of the ecosystem. Some of the key conceptual elements I will use in the discussion include adaptive management and organizational learning, the linking of social and ecological systems, common property theory, social capital, and community-based conservation. The adaptive management approach is a framework that allows us to look at the Quintana Roo organizations as actively adapting and reacting to a typically complex social and ecological environment, as organizations that 'learn.' A practical implication is that it calls for the elimination of the barrier between research and management. In this approach, resource management policies, and resource-directed actions should be treated as 'experiments' from which land managers and 'stakeholders' at all levels of a social system can learn. It takes the assumption of 'trial and error' in the evolution of self-organized CPR systems, and attempts to place it on a more formal foundation of scientific research and adaptive organizational strategies."
Agricultural Water Storage in an Era of Climate Change: Assessing Need and Effectiveness in Africa
(2013) Rebelo, Lisa-Maria; McCartney, Matthew; Xenarios, Stefanos; Smakhtin, Vladimir
"By mitigating the vagaries of climate variability, agricultural water storage is widely anticipated to make a key contribution to climate change adaptation in Africa. However, if the planning of water storage is not improved, it is likely that many investments will fail to fully deliver intended benefits. This report describes the agricultural water storage continuum and some of the possible implications of climate change. A simple diagnostic tool which can be used to provide a rapid evaluation of the need and effectiveness of different water storage options, under existing and possible future climate conditions, is presented."
Application of Structured Decision Making to an Assessment of Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Options for Sustainable Forest Management
(2009) Ogden, Aynslie E.; Innes, John L.
"A logical starting point for climate change adaptation in the forest sector is to proactively identify management practices and policies that have a higher likelihood of achieving management objectives across a wide range of potential climate futures. This should be followed by implementation of these options and monitoring their success in achieving management objectives within an adaptive management context. Here, we implement an approach to identify locally appropriate adaptation options by tapping into the experiential knowledge base of local forest practitioners while at the same time, building capacity within this community to implement the results. We engaged 30 forest practitioners who are involved with the implementation of a regional forest management plan in identifying climate change vulnerabilities and evaluating alternative adaptation options. A structured decision-making approach was used to frame the assessment. Practitioners identified 24 adaptation options that they considered important to implement in order to achieve the regional goals and objectives of sustainable forest management in light of climate change."
Assessing Current and Potential Rainfed Maize Suitability Under Climate Change Scenarios in México
(2010) Monterroso Rivas, A. I.; Alvarez, C. Conde; Dorantes, G. Rosales; Gomez Diaz, J. D.; Garcia, C. Gay
"We conducted an assessment on the capacity to grow maize under rainfed conditions as well as under simulations of climate change scenarios in México. The selected method took into account the most limiting factor from different variables that maize requires to grow. These factors were compared, resulting in potential areas for maize distribution, classified in four different suitability levels: suitable, moderately suitable, limited suitability and not suitable. The emissions scenarios of climate change selected were A2 and B2 by 2050, including the GFDL-CM2.0, UKHADGEM1 and ECHAM5/MPI models. The results indicated that in base scenario, 63.1% of the national surface presents some degree of maize growing suitability. Specifically, 6.2% of the national surface indicated suitable conditions, while 25.1 and 31.6% had moderated and limited conditions, respectively. According to the climate change models, we were able to determine the full suitability level is also the most vulnerable one and as a consequence, this will also be the most aggravated one by decreasing its surface 3% according with UKHadley B2 and up to 4.3% in accordance with ECHAM5/MPI A2. This will make the limited suitability classification the one with the largest national territory, as much as 33.4%, according to ECHAM5/MPI A2 and up to 43.8% reflected by the GFDL-CM2.0 A2 model. The ECHAM5/MPI model indicates the most adverse conditions for maize growth, while GFDL model represents the less aggravating. All this clearly reflects that the natural conditions given for maize growing will become more restrictive, making it critical to implement environmental adapting measures."
Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Dryland Livelihood Systems: Conceptual Challenges and Interdisciplinary Solutions
(2011) Fraser, Evan D.G.; Dougill, Andrew J.; Hubacek, Klaus; Quinn, Claire H.; Sendzimir, Jan; Termansen, Mette
"Over 40% of the earths land surface are drylands that are home to approximately 2.5 billion people. Livelihood sustainability in drylands is threatened by a complex and interrelated range of social, economic, political, and environmental changes that present significant challenges to researchers, policy makers, and, above all, rural land users. Dynamic ecological and environmental change models suggest that climate change induced drought events may push dryland systems to cross biophysical thresholds, causing a long-term drop in agricultural productivity. Therefore, research is needed to explore how development strategies and other socioeconomic changes help livelihoods become more resilient and robust at a time of growing climatic risk and uncertainty. As a result, the overarching goal of this special feature is to conduct a structured comparison of how livelihood systems in different dryland regions are affected by drought, thereby making methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to our understanding of how these types of social-ecological systems may be vulnerable to climate change. In introducing these issues, the purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview of the two main intellectual challenges of this work, namely: (1) how to conceptualize vulnerability to climate change in coupled social-ecological systems; and (2) the methodological challenges of anticipating trends in vulnerability in dynamic environments."
Autonomous Adaptation to Climate Change by Shrimp and Catfish Farmers in Vietnam's Mekong River Delta
(2012) Kam, Suan Pheng; Badjeck, Marie Caroline; Teh, Louise; Teh, Lydia; Tran, Nhuong
"The Mekong River delta of Vietnam supports a thriving aquaculture industry but is exposed to the impacts of climate change. In particular, sea level rise and attendant increased flooding (both coastal and riverine) and coastal salinity intrusion threaten the long-term viability of this important industry. This working paper summarizes an analysis of the economics of aquaculture adaptation in the delta, focusing on the grow-out of two exported aquaculture species--the freshwater striped catfish and the brackish-water tiger shrimp. The analysis was conducted for four pond-based production systems: catfish in the inland and coastal provinces and improved extensive and semi-intensive/intensive shrimp culture. The approach taken was first to understand the potential impacts of climate change on these systems. Farm-level costs and benefits were then analyzed under scenarios of climate change with autonomous adaptation, and with no climate change. The analysis was done for two time periods, from 2010-2020 (where projections of climate change impacts on input costs and price changes could be made with relative confidence) and from 2021-2050 (where projections become more uncertain)."
Better Water Resources Management: Greater Resilience Today, More Effective Adaptation Tomorrow
(2007) Sadoff, Claudia; Global Water Partnership; Muller, Mike
"Water is a primary medium through which climate change will have an impact on people, ecosystems and economies. Water resources management should therefore be an early focus for adaptation to climate change. Water resources management does not hold all of the answers to adaptation, a broad range of responses will be needed. But water is both a key part of the problem, and an important part of the solution. It is a good place to start."
Big Dams and Small Change: Common Property as an Adaptation to Political and Economic Change among Afro-Colombians in the Andes
(2000) Ng'weno, Bettina
"This paper will focus on the struggle to adapt to changing political and economic events in the creation of common property regimes by an Afro-Colombian community in the western Andes. Displaced from their traditional livelihood of gold mining by the creation of a hydro-electric dam, and limited by the subdivision of inherited private property, in 1989 Afro-Colombian campesinos created a community company for the management of planted and natural forest that constitutes part of a land reform settlement. Although making collective claims to the entire territory as a Black ethnic group, traditions of private property use, differing internal agendas, political limitations of the new constitution, and governing rules of land reform settlement affect how the community can and does organize itself and its property. As such, both macro and micro economic and political systems are closely interconnected in the community's ability and success in adapting to a changing environment."
A Blueprint for Florida's Clean Energy Future: Case Study of a Regional Government's Environmental Strategy
(2009) Lowman, Margaret
"On 13 July 2007, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida signed executive orders to establish greenhouse gas emission targets that required an 80 percent reduction below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Florida is a very high-risk state with regard to climate change. Its 1,350-mile-long coastline, location in 'Hurricane Alley,' reliance on coral reefs and other vulnerable natural resources for its economy, and the predictions that state population could double in the next 30 years all contribute to this designation of high-risk. As a consequence of the potential economic and ecological impacts of climate change to Florida, a series of Action Teams were created to plan for adaptation to impending environmental changes. As the 26th largest emitter of carbon dioxide on a global scale, Florida needs to act aggressively to create a clean energy footprint as part of its statewide initiatives but with global impacts. This case study examines the process and expected outcomes undertaken by a regional government that anticipates the need for stringent adaptation."
Cambio Climático, Movimientos Sociales y Políticas Públicas: Una Vinculación Necesaria
(ICAL, 2012) Postigo, Julio C.
"El cambio climático, tanto por ser causa del capitalismo como por aceleración en la velocidad, extensión y agudeza de sus efectos, es una novedad para la sociedad y la naturaleza del planeta. En este sentido, las relaciones entre cambio climático, movimientos sociales y políticas públicas son aún tenues como objeto de análisis. Adicionalmente, en América Latina el estudio de los vínculos entre el ambiente, las relaciones entre movimientos sociales y las políticas públicas está dominado por el análisis de los conflictos socio-ambientales originados por las industrias extractivas. Este libro es una contribución a la delimitación y análisis de un campo de estudio que se encuentra aún en su infancia."
Can Adaptive Comanagement Help to Address the Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation?
(2013) Plummer, Ryan
"A shift is taking place within environmental governance that draws attention to modes and instruments that respond to system dynamics, uncertainty, and contested values. Adaptive comanagement is one process being advanced to make governance operational as it emphasizes collaboration among diverse actors, functions across scales and levels, and fosters learning though iterative feedback. Although extensive experience with adaptive comanagement has been gained in relation to other environmental and resource issues, its potential contribution to the governance of adaption is largely unexplored. This paper probes how adaptive comanagement might offer support to climate change adaptation and identifies gaps in knowledge requiring attention. In drawing upon existing literature and applied experiences, it is argued that adaptive comanagement may contribute to climate change adaptation by building generalized adaptive capacity as well as providing a novel institutional arrangement to generate adaptive responses. At the same time, several questions emerge about adaptive comanagement in this context. Considerations are thus discussed for adaptive comanagement scholarship and application in addressing the challenge of climate change adaptation."
Can Long Lasting Forest Institution Survive Market Economy? The Case of Historical Common Property Forest Regime in Slovakia
(2011) Kluvánková-Oravská, Tatiana
"Central Europe is rich in forests and characterized not only by the existence of a long forestry tradition, but also by a dynamic evolution of the forest ownership which originated in the 17th century. Institutional changes, in particular the establishment of the communist regime in 1948 followed by large nationalization of property, has had a significant impact on forest management practice in particular a shift to state large scale and centralized forest management. Transformation and denationalization after the fall of communism, in the 90s' returned forests to original owners but the absence of proper institutions prevented reestablishment of effective regimes. Our paper concentrates on the analysis of the historical forest common property regime in central Europeurbar that transformed into the present forest governance structure after 40 years of interruption during socialism. Applying a multiple methods approach including common pool resource experiments and field research to study collective actions on social dilemmas we argue that urbars can be seen to be long lasting institutions for sustainable forest management under the market and democratic regime. Flexibility and local experience creates conditions for renewal and increases ability for adaptation to external factors."
Can Payments for Ecosystem Services Contribute to Adaptation to Climate Change? Insights from a Watershed in Kenya
(2014) van de Sand, Isabel; Mwangi, John K.; Namirembe, Sara
"Climate change presents new challenges for the management of social-ecological systems and the ecosystem services they provide. Although the instrument of payments for ecosystem services (PES) has emerged as a promising tool to safeguard or enhance the provision of ecosystem services (ES), little attention has been paid to the potential role of PES in climate change adaptation. As an external stressor climate change has an impact on the social-ecological system in which PES takes place, including the various actors taking part in the PES scheme. Following a short description of the conceptual link between PES and adaptation to climate change, we provide practical insights into the relationship between PES and adaptation to climate change by presenting results from a case study of a rural watershed in Kenya. Drawing upon the results of a participatory vulnerability assessment among potential ecosystem service providers in Sasumua watershed north of Nairobi, we show that PES can play a role in enhancing adaptation to climate change by influencing certain elements of adaptive capacity and incentivizing adaptation measures. In addition, trade-offs and synergies between proposed measures under PES and adaptation to climate change are identified. Results show that although it may not be possible to establish PES schemes based on water utilities as the sole source of financing, embedding PES in a wider adaptation framework creates an opportunity for the development of watershed PES schemes in Africa and ensures their sustainability. We conclude that there is a need to embed PES in a wider institutional framework and that extra financial resources are needed to foster greater integration between PES and adaptation to climate change. This can be achieved through scaling up PES by bringing in other buyers and additional ecosystem services. PES can achieve important coadaptation benefits, but for more effective adaptation outcomes it needs to be combined with vulnerability assessments and climate scenarios to ensure that these are realized and potential trade-offs between PES measures and adaptation measures minimized."
Can We Be Both Resilient and Well, and What Choices do People Have? Incorporating Agency into the Resilience Debate from a Fisheries Perspective
(2012) Coulthard, Sarah
"In the midst of a global fisheries crisis, there has been great interest in the fostering of adaptation and resilience in fisheries, as a means to reduce vulnerability and improve the capacity of fishing society to adapt to change. However, enhanced resilience does not automatically result in improved well-being of people, and adaptation strategies are riddled with difficult choices, or trade-offs, that people must negotiate. This paper uses the context of fisheries to explore some apparent tensions between adapting to change on the one hand, and the pursuit of well-being on the other, and illustrates that trade-offs can operate at different levels of scale. It argues that policies that seek to support fisheries resilience need to be built on a better understanding of the wide range of consequences that adaptation has on fisher well-being, the agency people exert in negotiating their adaptation strategies, and how this feeds back into the resilience of fisheries as a social-ecological system. The paper draws from theories on agency and adaptive preferences to illustrate how agency might be better incorporated into the resilience debate."
Capitulate, Dodge, Protest....
(2005) Bavinck, Maarten
"State intervention in the fisheries of the Netherlands has forced fishers to adopt some interesting coping strategies."
Changing Role of Local Institutions to Enable Individual and Collective Actions for Adapting to Climate Change
(2013) Gentle, Popular; Thwaites, Rik; Race, Digby; Alexander, Kim
"Studies and practices on commons have demonstrated that local institutions can develop institutional arrangements to manage resources such as forests and water and can ensure benefit sharing mechanisms in a sustainable and equitable way. The characters, functions and roles of local institutions required to manage commons are well studied and translated in practice. Few researchers have reported on the role of local institutions in adaptation to climate change and variability with little known about key characters and functions reqUired. This article is based on a case study research in the mountains of Nepal following a mixed method approach including in-depth interviews of various stakeholders, focus group discussions and household survey with rural community members of different well-being groups affiliated with Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). The research examines the impacts of climate change on livelihoods of poor and potential of local institutions to enable local communities in individual and collective actions for climate change adaptation in the mountains of Nepal. The research further explores the mandate, role, functions and capacity of the CFUG, as one of the major local institutions in Nepal, and presents key characters and functions required to facilitate climate change adaptation. The research reveals that secure rights over resources, enhanced capacity, improved governance and support mechanisms, and a critical mass of poor as key factors to optimize the role of CFUG in pro-poor adaptation in the context of climate change and variability. The article stimulates a discussion around changing role of local institutions for pro-poor adaptation in the context of ongoing power relations and social hierarchy in Nepal."
Climate Adaptation: A Warning from Australia
(2009) Pittock, Jamie
"In its dryness, Australia suggests the planet’s future, as the vast human population and the demands of its industries intensify competition for an unchanging quantity of freshwater; in water terms, Australia is a warning."
Climate Change Adaptation and Integrated Water Resource Management
(2007) Muller, Mike
"As the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report makes clear, water is in the eye of the climate management storm. Global warming and related climate changes are predicted to present significant challenges over the next century. These challenges are increasingly better understood and there is growing consensus on their likely scale. To date, much attention has been focused on the dimensions of temperature and sea level rise. Substantial work has also been done on some of the consequences, such as changes in rainfall and the risk of more, and more intense, floods and droughts. However, not nearly enough work has been done to understand how to cope with the potential impact of climate change on the water environment at a regional, national and local level."
Climate Change and Western Public Lands: A Survey of U.S. Federal Land Managers on the Status of Adaptation Efforts
(2012) Archie, Kelli M.; Dilling, Lisa; Milford, Jana B.; Pampel, Fred C.
"Climate change and its associated consequences pose an increasing risk to public lands in the western United States. High-level mandates currently require federal agencies to begin planning for adaptation, but the extent to which these mandates have resulted in policies being implemented that affect on the ground practices is unclear. To examine the status of adaptation efforts, we conducted an original survey and semistructured interviews with land managers from the four major federal land management agencies in the U.S. states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The survey was designed to examine current planning for adaptation on public lands and how it differs from prior planning, the major challenges facing land managers in this region, the major barriers preventing managers from planning for adaptation, and the major hurdles associated with implementing adaptation plans. Our results show that some adaptation planning is currently taking place, but that few adaptation projects have made it to the implementation phase. Overall, respondents considered lack of information at relevant scales, budget constraints, lack of specific agency direction, and lack of useful information to be the most common barriers to adaption planning. Budget constraints, lack of perceived importance to the public, and lack of public awareness or demand to take action were reported to be the biggest hurdles to implementation of adaptation projects. Agencies showed differing levels of adaptation activity, and reported different barriers to adaptation and hurdles to implementation. Reasons for the differences and implications for future research and policy are discussed."
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation by Communities in a Tribal Region of Central Himalaya: A Study from Uttarakhand Himalaya India
(2015) Pratap, Dinesh
"The analysis presented in the paper, apart from some secondary information, is based on climate data from local weather stations and primary survey conducted in six villages situated between altitude 900mt and 2000mt. A total of 95 households representing different socio-economic strata were randomly selected for in-depth interviews. The response unambiguously indicates increase in temperature, decrease and erratic nature of rainfall, long dry spells during monsoons, decrease in snowfall, increase in crop diseases and decreased water discharge in springs etc. during last couple of decades. The impact of climate change has been assessed on the farming and horticulture which are primary economic activity of local communities being practiced by 75 % of the population. Overwhelming majority of respondents reported that the climate variation has adversely affected yield of traditional mixed crops, cereals, pulses, oil seeds and horticultural crops such as apple. As an adaptation strategy, the farming communities are concentrating on cash crops in better managed fields in place of low-yielding scattered land. They are replacing traditional crops with more remunerative vegetable crops (Tomato, Chillies, Ginger, and Peas etc) that can provide better economic returns. However with only 10 % of geographical area under cultivation and 85% of it being rain-fed, this strategy is unable to support community needs. This has resulted in increased out-migration which has become a supporting mechanism for some households. Additionally, communities are adapting other strategies such as change in crop varieties and alternative employment etc."
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Nepal
(2010) Bartlett, Ryan; Bharati, Luna; Pant, Dhruba; Hosterman, Heather; McCornick, Peter
"The impact of climate change (CC) on water resources is likely to affect agricultural systems and food security. This is especially true for Nepal, a least developed country, where a high percentage of the population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihoods. It is thus crucial for Nepal’s leaders and resource managers to draft and begin implementing national adaptation plans. This working paper aims to create a more comprehensive understanding of how the impacts of CC will be realized at different scales in Nepal, from household livelihoods to national food security, and the many institutions governing the ultimate adaptation process."
Climate Change Impacts on Water Supply and Demand in Rheraya Watershed (Morocco), with Potential Adaptation Strategies
(2010) Rochdane, Saloua; Reichert, Barbara; Messouli, Mohammed; Babqiqi, Abdelaziz; Khebiza, Mohammed Yacoubi
"Rheraya watershed already suffers from the impacts of climate variability and will be further affected by climate change. Severe water shortages and extremely fragile ecological conditions necessitate careful attention to water resources management. The aim of this study is to analyze Rheraya’s future water situation under different scenarios of socio-economic development and climate change until 2100. The Water Evaluation and Planning System model (WEAP) has been applied to estimate the current water demands and the increased water demands resulting from climate change. WEAP was calibrated using meteorological and demand observations, then, updated with present-day and future climatic conditions using the Statistical Down-scaling Model with two projections (A2, B2) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Those projections show an increase in temperature of about 2-3 °C and a reduction in precipitation of 40-60% with respect to baseline. The results show that the pressure on Rheraya’s water resources will increase, leading to greater competition for surface water, and that domestic, tourist, livestock and agricultural demands will not be met by the year 2100. The Results also demonstrate that the assessments of adaptation strategies proposed by decision makers are effective but not sustainable for the watershed."
Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation: Science for Generating Policy Options in Rajasthan, India
(2010) Singh, Vijai Shanker; Pandey, Deep Narayan; Gupta, Anil K.; Ravindranath, N. H.
"This report reviews the published research on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation with specific focus on Rajasthan, India. The science-based insights shall remain crucial to generate and implement policy options to address the challenges of climate change. The report provides process guidance for designing adaptive policy and actions. It is argued that giving clear priority to those developmental activities in Rajasthan that meet a combined set of seven climate-proofing criteria, which can be verified through measurable indicators for ecological, economic and social sustainability shall be essential (i) Reduction and/or sequestration of greenhouse gases, (ii) biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning, (iii) enhancing the yield of livelihoods goods and services to local people, (iv) reduction in poverty and vulnerability, and improving the resilience and adaptive capacity, (v) local empowerment and capacity development, (vi) synergy with objectives of international instrument and conventions, and (vii) coherence with local strategies for sustainable development. Filtering from these standards, we found that several activities being carried out under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) address both poverty and climate change. The land-based activities being done under MNREGA enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability, and thus contribute both to climate change adaptation and mitigation. The report also provides abstracts of the research articles and publications that policymakers can use to design evidence-based policy responses in various domains of governance. We also provide a selection of examples on using science to generate policy responses for Rajasthan. These examples are drawn from diverse domains such as water, energy, dryland and desert, protected areas, and urban systems. This selection of examples, hopefully, shall facilitate policymakers and practitioners working in diverse governance domains to use the literature included in this document for designing appropriate policy options for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Rajasthan."
Climate Change in Northern Quebec: Adaptation Strategies from Community-Based Research
(2008) Tremblay, Martin; Furgal, Christopher; Larrivee, Caroline; Annanack, Tuumasi; Tookalook, Peter; Qiisik, Markusi; Angiyou, Eli; Swappie, Noah; Savard, Jean-Pierre; Barrett, Michael
"Arctic communities are recently reporting warmer and shorter winters, which have implications for the ice season and, consequently, on the access to local territories and resources by members of these communities. These climatic shifts are resulting in increased risks for travel during the winter season associated with less stable and thinner ice. An integrated community-based monitoring (ICBM) program was developed in Nunavik to generate adaptation tools to support safe access to land and resources and to enhance local adaptive capacity through participation in community-based monitoring activities. The Nunavik ICBM approach brings together partners (northern communities, Canadian universities, and various organizations) that have different perspectives on the issues surrounding land and resources in Nunavik. The ICBM project also brings together traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge, linking data collected through semi-structured interviews, local ethnocartographic interviews, and ice-monitoring activities with data gathered at weather stations. The partnership-based Nunavik ICBM program dealing with territory and resource access is an example of communities and scientists working together to improve our understanding of climate change impacts in the North, their importance for aboriginal people, and the ways in which an integrated, cooperative research process can develop local adaptive capacity."
Climate Change, Adaptation, and Formal Education: The Role of Schooling for Increasing Societies' Adaptive Capacities in El Salvado and Brazil
(2012) Wamsler, Christine
"With a worldwide increase in disasters, the effects of climate change are already being felt, and it is the urban poor in developing countries who are most at risk. There is an urgent need to better understand the factors that determine people’s capacity to cope with and adapt to adverse climate conditions. This paper examines the influence of formal education in determining the adaptive capacity of the residents of two low-income settlements: Los Manantiales in San Salvador (El Salvador)and Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where climate-related disasters are recurrent. In both case study areas, it was found that the average levels of education were lower for households living at high risk, as opposed to residents of lower risk areas. In this context, the influence of people’s level of education was identified to be twofold due to (a) its direct effect on aspects that reduce risk, and (b) its mitigating effect on aspects that increase risk. The results further suggest that education plays a more determinant role for women than for men in relation to their capacity to adapt. In light of these results, the limited effectiveness of institutional support identified by this study might also relate to the fact that the role of formal education has so far not been sufficiently explored. Promoting (improved access to and quality of) formal education as a way to increase people’s adaptive capacity is further supported with respect to the negative effects of disasters on people’s level of education, which in turn reduce their adaptive capacity, resulting in a vicious circle of increasing risk."
Climate Factors Play a Limited Role for Past Adaptation Strategies in West Africa
(2010) Mertz, Ole; Mbow, Cheikh; Nielsen, Jonas Østergaard
"The Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa has experienced recurrent droughts since the mid-1970s and today there is considerable concern for how this region will be able to adapt to future climate change. To develop well targeted adaptation strategies, the relative importance of climate factors as drivers of land use and livelihood change need to be better understood. Based on the perceptions of 1249 households in five countries across an annual rainfall gradient of 400-900 mm, we provide an estimate of the relative weight of climate factors as drivers of changes in rural households during the past 20 years. Climate factors, mainly inadequate rainfall, are perceived by 30-50% of households to be a cause of decreasing rainfed crop production, whereas a wide range of other factors explains the remaining 50-70%. Climate factors are much less important for decreasing livestock production and pasture areas. Increases in pasture are also observed and caused by improved tenure in the driest zone. Adaptation strategies to declining crop production include ‘prayer’ and migration in the 400-500 mm zone; reforestation, migration, and government support in the 500-700 mm zone; and soil improvement in the 700-900 mm zone. Declining livestock holdings are countered by improved fodder resources and veterinary services. It is concluded that although rainfed crop production is mainly constrained by climate factors, livestock and pasture are less climate sensitive in all rainfall zones. This needs to be reflected in national adaptation strategies in the region."
A Climate-change Adaptation Framework to Reduce Continental-scale Vulnerability across Conservation Reserves
(2011) Magness, Dawn R.; Morton, John; Huettmann, Falk; Chapin, F. Stuart; McGuire, A. David
"Rapid climate change, in conjunction with other anthropogenic drivers, has the potential to cause mass species extinction. To minimize this risk, conservation reserves need to be coordinated at multiple spatial scales because the climate envelopes of many species may shift rapidly across large geographic areas. In addition, novel species assemblages and ecological reorganization make future conditions uncertain. We used a GIS analysis to assess the vulnerability of 501 reserve units in the National Wildlife Refuge System as a basis for a nationally coordinated response to climate change adaptation. We used measures of climate change exposure (historic rate of temperature change), sensitivity (biome edge and critical habitat for threatened and endangered species), and adaptive capacity (elevation range, latitude range, watershed road density, and watershed protection) to evaluate refuge vulnerability. The vulnerability of individual refuges varied spatially within and among biomes. We suggest that the spatial variability in vulnerability be used to define suites of management approaches that capitalize on local conditions to facilitate adaptation and spread risk across the reserve network. We conceptually define four divergent management strategies to facilitate adaption: refugia, ecosystem maintenance, 'natural' adaptation, and facilitated transitions. Furthermore, we recognize that adaptation approaches can use historic (i.e., retrospective) and future (prospective) condition as temporal reference points to define management goals."
Common Property Rights, Adaptive Capacity, and Response to Forest Disturbance
(2010) Coleman, Eric A.
"I analyze common property rights of forest user groups and assess how such rights interact with adaptive capacity to constrain or enhance the ability of communities to engender favorable outcomes. I delineate common property rights in terms of rights of access, withdrawal, management, exclusion, and alienation. Then, using statistical analysis of 326 forest user groups from 13 countries from the database of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions program, I show how forest users respond to disturbance based on the property rights they hold, their organizational capacity, and the presence of rival users. I find that the presence of rival groups significantly modifies the efficacy of particular bundles of property rights, while organizational capacity has a limited role in engendering desirable outcomes in response to disturbance."
Common-Pool Resources and Climate Change Adaptation in Nigeria: Bridging Local Actions and Global Goals
(2023) Innocent Onuche, Oche; Francis Ojonugwa, Onu
Despite the escalating challenges arising from climate change, the imperative of sustainably managing common-pool resources assumes a central role in bolstering local resilience and advancing global climate objectives. Nigeria, renowned for its abundance of communal resources, serves as an illuminating case study where the intersection of "Common resources and Climate Change Adaptation" takes precedence. This paper meticulously explores the intricate interplay between communal resources and strategies for adapting to climate change, shedding light on the pivotal role of these shared assets in harmonizing grassroots initiatives with international climate aspirations. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach that draws insights from environmental science, political ecology, economics, sociology, and governance studies, this study scrutinizes the dynamics of resource management, local adaptation practices, and the influence of policy frameworks. Methodologically, a comprehensive array of sources, including government reports, publications from national and international organizations, scholarly articles, books, research papers, and archival materials, informs the investigation. The theoretical foundations of this study encompass the Adaptive Capacity Framework, Social-Ecological System (SES) Framework, and Environmental Governance Theory. The paper underscores that Nigerian communities reliant on common-pool resources face heightened vulnerability to climate change impacts, encompassing intensified droughts, flooding, and extreme temperature. These adverse consequences jeopardize the availability and quality of common-pool resources, thereby affecting community well-being. In conclusion, this paper contends that communities reliant on common-pool resources have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resourcefulness in addressing the challenges posed by climate change. However, persistent critical obstacles including resource degradation, deficient governance structures, and limited access to information and resources, demand attention. This paper emphasizes the imperative of fostering community-based resource management institutions and enhancing community access to climate information and early warning systems as viable measures to confront the multifaceted challenges of climate change in Nigeria.
Communities, Commons and Climate Change Adaptation: Some Empirical Evidences from Nepal
(2013) Uprety, Dharam; Subedi, Ramu
"Recent studies demonstrate that rural communities dependent on agriculture and forest resources are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in Nepal, since about 25% of the population still live under poverty (<$1.25), and a major percentage of this section of population is forest and agricultural dependent. There are tremendous impacts of climate change, which local people experience in Nepal. Such impacts make the socioecological and economic system vulnerable in particular. The main impacts recorded by various studies conducted in Nepal are declining of agricultural productivity, disappearance or extinction of medicinal and aromatic plants, melting of glaciers, floods, change in rain pattern and shift of rainy season, and rise in temperature. The impacts on ecological and biological systems have serious consequences on the lives and livelihoods of people, particularly those living in poor rural areas and whose livelihood is connected to local commons. The study is based on a review of 516 Community Adaptation Plan of Action (CAPAs) and Local Adaptation plan of Action (LAPAs) prepared between 2009-2011 in 15 districts of Nepal, the baseline study of the Multi Stakeholder Forestry Programme (MSFP), and a review study conducted in late 2012 on community adaptation in order to understand the local adaptation practices in three districts. A total of 516 adaptation plans were reviewed and more than 175 variables were defined for database preparation. The adaptation plans were first categorized into three broad categories: CAPA prepared at Terai districts (96 CAPA), CAPA prepared at hilly districts (274 CAPA), and LAPA prepared at hilly districts (146).These studies bring a number of insightful reflections and linkages between local commons, communities and climate change. Preliminary findings from the analysis of 516 CAPs revealed that community people have given high priority for climate education (37%), flood control (14%), use of low emission energy products like bio-gas, improved cooking stoves (17%), water security (15%), and food security (12%). While from a recent study, it has shown that a number of local adaptation practices - such as on- and off-farm quick impact related activities, rainwater harvesting, agri-cooperatives were initiated for managing local commons and securing livelihoods. Community Adaptation Plans of Action (CAPA) and Local Adaptation Plan of Actions (LAPA) is an adaptation plan prepared at community and VDC level respectively and is considered as the best practice to ensure the bottom up planning process."
Community Adaptation to the Hebei-Spirit Oil Spill
(2012) Cheong, So-Min
"The focus of the research is the significance of dependence for communities to survive and adapt in times of environmental disasters. It shifts the emphasis on self-reliant communities for survival and examines the types and effects of dependence and external linkages by analyzing the range of community responses that include initial responses, early social impact, compensation, and conflicts after the Hebei-Spirit oil spill in December 2007 in Korea. The findings reveal that dependence is necessary, and the effects of dependence can be both positive and negative depending on the relations between external entities and affected communities as well as the community capacity to absorb resources and information."
Community Forest Organisations and Adaptation to Climate Change in British Columbia
(2012) Furness, Ella; Nelson, Harry
"The effects of climate change in many regions are expected to be significant, and likely to have a detrimental effect on the health of forests and the communities that often depend on those forests. At the same time climate change presents a challenge as it requires changes in both forest management, and the institutions and policies developed that govern forest management. In this paper, we report on a study assessing how Community Forests Organizations (CFOs) in British Columbia (BC) which were developed to manage forests according to the needs and desires of local communities and First Nations, are approaching climate change and whether or not they are responding to, or preparing for, its impacts. There are practical steps that CFOs can take to improve their ability to cope with future conditions such as planting a wider variety of species, practicing different silvicultural techniques and increasing monitoring and observation of the forest. This paper gives an overview of what current capabilities exist in CFOs and suggests potential areas for targeted development."
Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change: A Theoretical Framework, Overview of Key Issues and Discussion Of Gender Differentiated Priorities and Participation
(2013) Bryan, Elizabeth; Behrman, Julia
"This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of community-based adaptation (CBA) efforts. To start, it develops and describes a framework on adaptation to climate change used as the basis for this research. The paper then defines the characteristics or principles of CBA and describes why it is an essential part of the adaptation process. Following this, it identifies the limitations of or constraints to CBA in practice, including the need to link CBA to the larger adaptation and development processes and discusses institutional arrangements for CBA. The paper also explores institutional barriers to successful adaptation at the community level in more detail, focusing on issues of participation in group-based approaches to adaptation and the extent to which men and women have different priorities or needs for adaptation. The paper concludes with observations on effective types of group-based approaches to CBA and recommendations on how to promote equal participation in community responses to climate change in order to ensure that both men and women increase their resilience to climate change and to maximize the effectiveness of adaptation efforts."
Community-Based Adaptation: A Vital Approach to the Threat Climate Change Poses to the Poor
(2007) Reid, Hannah; Huq, Saleemul
"Helping the millions of poor people at greatest risk from climate change to adapt to its impacts is a daunting task. One new approach that deserves greater support is community-based adaptation (CBA). This briefing paper outlines the concepts behind CBA, shares some early lessons learned, and calls for greater networking, information sharing and support for CBA activities."
Continuity and Change in Social-ecological Systems: The Role of Institutional Resilience
(2012) Herrfahrdt-Pähle, Elke; Pahl-Wostl, Claudia
"In recent years recurring political, economic, and environmental crises require questioning and re-evaluating dominant pathways of human development. However, political and economic frameworks seem to encompass deeply rooted resistance to fundamental changes (e.g., global financial crisis, climate change negotiations). In an effort to repair the system as fast as possible, those paradigms, mechanisms, and structures that led into the crisis are perpetuated. Instead of preserving conventional patterns and focusing on continuity, crises could be used as an opportunity for learning, adapting, and entering onto more sustainable pathways. However, there are different ways not only of arguing for sustainable pathways of development but also of conceptualizing continuity and change. By focusing on institutions, we illustrate the tension between the concepts of continuity and change, how they interact, and how they build or degrade institutional resilience. The analysis draws on empirical research in South Africa and Uzbekistan, which were locked in persistent regimes over decades. Faced with the challenge to transform, Uzbekistan chose a pathway of institutional continuity, while South Africa opted for comprehensive reforms and a high level of change. Based on these case studies, we illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of institutional continuity and change. Elements of institutional continuity during times of transformation include preserving key institutions, which define how the rules are made; maintaining social memory; providing transparency of reform processes and allowing them time to take effect. Elements of institutional change required during phases of consolidation include flexible legislation; regular reviews; and adaptation of legislation during and after implementation."
Contracts or Scripts? A Critical Review of the Application of Institutional Theories to the Study of Environmental Change
(2006) Hotimsky, Samy; Cobb, Richard; Bond, Alan
"The impact of new institutionalism on the study of human environment interactions has been meaningful. Institutional perspectives have further shaped and modified the field problems of common pool resources, environmental hazards, and risk and environmental management. Given the relative potential of institutional theories to increase the comprehension of the various dimensions of human-environmental interactions, it has become increasingly important to attempt to consolidate different interpretations of what institutions are, and how they mediate and constrain possibilities for more successful environmental outcomes. This article focuses primarily on contending ontological perspectives on institutions and institutional change. It argues that what should guide the application of institutional theories in practical research regarding environmental change is the ontological dimension, and that the focus of research should be on uncovering the underlying dynamics of institutional change. In doing so, it calls for a methodological pluralism in the investigation of the role institutions play in driving/managing for environmental change."
Cross-scale Adaptation Challenges in the Coastal Fisheries: Findings from Lebesby, Northern Norway
(2010) West, Jennifer J.; Hovelsrud, Grete K.
"Cross-scale adaptation challenges in the coastal fisheries in Lebesby municipality, Finnmark County, northern Norway are examined on the basis of fieldwork conducted there. Although fishery actors in Lebesby are aware of, experience, and describe a number of connections between climate variability and coastal fishing activities, they do not characterize their livelihoods as being particularly vulnerable to climate change. Nevertheless, they identify a range of social factors that shape the flexibility of coastal fishing activities and livelihoods to deal with changing environmental conditions. We argue that these factors, and actors perceptions of their own resilience, constitute important aspects of adaptive capacity and may challenge local responses to climate variability and change. We identified four adaptation arenas: local perceptions of vulnerability and resilience to climate change, Lebesbys social and economic viability, national fishery management and regulations, and the markets and economy of coastal fishing. The adaptation arenas arise and interact across geographic and temporal scales, creating specific barriers and opportunities for local adaptation. Our findings suggest the need to pay close attention to the cross-scale adaptation challenges facing Arctic communities that depend on natural resources. The concept of adaptation arenas helps to illustrate these challenges and should be applied more widely."
Cultural Adaptability: An Indicator of Inclusive World Growth
(2015) Seroy, Tim
"The culture is the most influential factor in the developmental agendas of the governments worldwide. The culture has a direct foot print over the policy frameworks and the general state of governance of a particular land or country. The recent times of high globalization and advanced information and communication technology has made it possible to travel and communicate across cultures. Here comes the cultural understanding and response to the local cultural behavior. This study paper puts light on the cultural address and adaptability across nations. It has been concluded as to how the cultural adaptability has been accountable to the world inclusive and sustainable growth."
Designing a Sustainable Future Through Creation of North America’s Only International Wildlife Refuge
(2010) Hartig, John H.; Robinson, Rebecca S.; Zarull, Michael A.
"In 2001, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge was established based on the principles of conservation and sustainability. The refuge has grown from 49.1 ha in 2001 to over 2,300 ha in 2010. Agreement on a compelling vision for a sustainable future was necessary to rally stakeholders and move them forward together. Project examples include: lake sturgeon and common tern restoration; soft shoreline engineering; ecotourism; sustainable redevelopment of a brownfield; and indicator reporting. Key success factors include: a consensus long-term vision; a multi-stakeholder process that achieves cooperative learning; strong coupling of monitoring/research programs with management; implementing actions consistent with adaptive management; measuring and celebrating successes; quantifying benefits; building capacity; and developing the next generation of sustainability practitioners and entrepreneurs."
Developing Adaptation and Adapting Development
(2007) Lemos, Maria Carmen; Boyd, Emily; Tompkins, Emma L.; Osbah, Henny; Liverman, Diana
"Climate change is upon us. The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change clearly describes the evidence of a changing climate (IPCC 2007a,b). Although scientists disagree about the extent to which these changes will happen, they do agree that there have been and will be changes in average climatic conditions, there will be changes in the frequency and intensity of weather hazards, already variable climates will become less predictable, and there is considerable uncertainty about the distribution and impact of these changes. Actions to reduce the human contribution to the changing climate are slowly happening, but they so far seem too few and too limited to make a significant difference to the climate change scientists predict. What has become clear is that people from all countries, from all income levels, and irrespective of capacity to do so, will have to adapt to these changes. The development and climate research communities have much to learn from each other in helping people with these adaptations."
Developing and Managing River Basins: The Need for Adaptive, Multilevel, Collaborative Institutional Arrangements
(2007) Molle, François; Wester, Philippus
"Pressure on water resources heightens hydrological, social, and ecological interdependencies in river basins (as well as the basins of lakes and aquifers). More interdependency demands more integrated approaches to developing and managing water resources at the basin level. Many countries have implemented or are testing such approaches. Even more are struggling with how to put in place institutional arrangements to support more integrated management. The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA) analyzed river basin governance and management in the context of increasing competition for water for agriculture and other uses, pollution of water resources, and degradation of ecosystems. This analysis showed that to cope with the diversity of competing values and political and economic interests in basins and increasing water scarcity, natural hazards, and climate change, we need adaptive, multilevel, collaborative governance arrangements. It also showed that progress in establishing such arrangements has been slow---often with undue emphasis on form over process and a lack of redistribution of decision-making power from centralized 'hydro-bureaucracies' to users. To speed progress, the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), whose regional and country partnerships are engaged in different aspects of basin management, has undertaken this joint brief with the CA and the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO)."

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