Community-based adaptation to climate change
Hannah Reid, Mozaharul Alam, Rachel Berger, Terry Cannon, Angela Milligan, IIED, December 2009

This special issue of Participatory Learning and Action focuses on recent approaches to climate change adaptation which are community-based and participatory, building on the priorities, knowledge, and capacities of local people. It discusses how community-based approaches to climate change have emerged, and the similarities and differences between CBA and other participatory development and disaster risk reduction approaches. It highlights innovative participatory methods which are developing to help communities analyze the causes and effects of climate change, integrate scientific and community knowledge of climate change, and plan adaptation measures. In their chapter “Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change,” Sherwood and Bentley describe how farmers use wind patterns, cloud formations, the position of rainbows, and animal behavior to predict the coming season. In “Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka,” Berger et al. describe a traditional weather forecasting system called Litha, based on lunar cycles, and used by communities in southern coastal in Sri Lanka to predict rainfall patterns, and the best time to plant crops. In “Combining different knowledges: community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states,” Ilan Kelman, Jessica Mercer, and Jennifer J. West describe a community-based framework to combine different types of knowledge to adapt to climate change. Download the book [pdf] …

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