print

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) – formerly
PLA Notes and RRA Notes – is published twice a year.
Established in 1987, it enables practitioners of
participatory methodologies from around the world to
share their field experiences, conceptual reflections,
and methodological innovations. The series is informal
and seeks to publish frank accounts, address issues of
practical and immediate value, encourage innovation,
and act as a ‘voice from the field’.

We are grateful to the Swedish International

Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the UK
Department for International Development (DfID) for
their continued financial support of PLA. The views
expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect
the views of the funding organisations or the employers
of the authors.

This special issue of PLA was produced in

collaboration with IIED’s Climate Change Group.
We would also like to acknowledge the support of the
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and
Practical Action for enabling the guest editors to
provide their valuable input and expertise.

Participatory Learning and Action 60
© IIED, December 2009
Order no: 14573IIED
Cover illustration: Regina Faul-Doyle
Design and layout: Smith+Bell
Printed by: Russell Press, Nottingham, UK

Guest editors: Hannah Reid, Terry Cannon, Rachel

Berger, Mozaharul Alam, and Angela Milligan.

Editors: Holly Ashley, Nicole Kenton, and

Angela Milligan.

Strategic Editorial Board: Nazneen Kanji, Cath Long,

Jethro Pettit, Michel Pimbert, and
David Satterthwaite.

International Editorial Advisory Board:

Oga Steve Abah, Jo Abbot, Jordi Surkin Beneria,
Ivan Bond, L. David Brown, Andy Catley, Robert
Chambers, Louise Chawla, Andrea Cornwall, Bhola
Dahal, Qasim Deiri, John Devavaram, Charlotte
Flower, FORCE Nepal, Ian Goldman, Bara Guèye,
Irene Guijt, Marcia Hills, Enamul Huda, Vicky
Johnson, Caren Levy, Sarah Levy, Zhang Linyang,
PJ Lolichen, Ilya M. Moeliono, Humera Malik,
Marjorie Jane Mbilinyi, Ali Mokhtar, Seyed Babak
Moosavi, Neela Mukherjee, Trilok Neupane, Esse
Nilsson, Zakariya Odeh, Peter Park, Bardolf Paul,
Bimal Kumar Phnuyal, Giacomo Rambaldi, Peter
Reason, Joel Rocamora, Jayatissa Samaranayake,
Madhu Sarin, Daniel Selener, Anil C Shah, Meera
Kaul Shah, Jasber Singh, Marja Liisa Swantz,
Cecilia Tacoli, Peter Taylor, Tom Wakeford, Eliud
Wakwabubi, and Alice Welbourn.

The International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED)
is committed to promoting social justice

and the empowerment of the poor and marginalised. It
also supports democracy and full participation in
decision-making and governance. We strive to reflect
these values in Participatory Learning and Action. For
further information contact IIED, 3 Endsleigh Street,
London WC1H 0DD, UK. Website: www.iied.org

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Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is an umbrella
term for a wide range of approaches and
methodologies, including Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA), Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), Participatory
Learning Methods (PALM), Participatory Action
Research (PAR), Farming Systems Research (FSR), and
Méthode Active de Recherche et de Planification
Participative (MARP). The common theme is the full
participation of people in the processes of learning
about their needs and opportunities, and in the action
required to address them.

In recent years, there has been a number of shifts

in the scope and focus of participation: emphasis on
sub-national, national and international decision-
making, not just local decision-making; move from
projects to policy processes and institutionalisation;
greater recognition of issues of difference and power;
and, emphasis on assessing the quality and
understanding the impact of participation, rather than
simply promoting participation. Participatory
Learning and Action reflects these developments and
recognises the importance of analysing and
overcoming power differentials which work to exclude
the already poor and marginalised.

Editorial

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

THEME SECTION: COMMUNITY-BASED ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

..............................

1. Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

Hannah Reid, Mozaharul Alam, Rachel Berger, Terry Cannon, Saleemul Huq,
and Angela Milligan

....................................................................................................................................................................................

Glossary

PART I: REFLECTIONS ON PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES AND PRACTICE

........................................

2. Combining different knowledges: community-based climate change adaptation

in small island developing states
Ilan Kelman, Jessica Mercer, and Jennifer J. West

..............................................................................................

3. Children’s participation in community-based disaster risk reduction and

adaptation to climate change
Thomas Tanner, Mercedes Garcia, Jimena Lazcano, Fatima Molina,
Grace Molina, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Baltz Tribunalo, and Fran Seballos

..................................

4. Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

Stephen Sherwood and Jeffery Bentley

..................................................................................................................................

5. Ethics and methods in research for community-based adaptation: reflections

from rural Vanuatu
Olivia Warrick

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

6. Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

Rachel Berger, with Rohana Weregoda and Varuna Rathnabharathie

......................................

7. Lessons from a transboundary water governance project in West Africa

Sam Wong

Contents

PART II: PARTICIPATORY TOOL-BASED CASE STUDIES

......................................................................................

107

8. Participatory three-dimensional mapping for disaster risk reduction

Jean-Christophe Gaillard and Emmanuel A. Maceda

..................................................................................

109

9. Amplifying children’s voices on climate change: the role of participatory video

Tamara Plush

................................................................................................................................................................................................

119

10. Farmers become filmmakers: climate change adaptation in Malawi

Fernanda Baumhardt, Ralph Lasage, Pablo Suarez, and Charles Chadza

....................

129

PART III: PARTICIPATORY TOOLS

........................................................................................................................................................

139

11. Developing a climate change analysis

Christian Aid

..................................................................................................................................................................................................

141

12. Rain calendars: a tool for understanding changing rainfall patterns and effects

on livelihoods
Cynthia Awuor and Anne Hammill

..................................................................................................................................

149

13. Mental models: understanding the causes and consequences of climate change

Petra Tschakert and Regina Sagoe

......................................................................................................................................

154

14. Child-friendly participatory research tools

Fatima Molina, Grace Molina, Tom Tanner, and Fran Seballos

..................................................

160

15. Participatory scenario development for translating impacts of climate change

into adaptations
Livia Bizikova, Thea Dickinson, and László Pintér

......................................................................................

167

16. Reflections on practical ethics for participatory community-based adaptation

extracts from Elkanah Absalom et al., and Giacomo Rambaldi et al.

....................................

173

REGULAR FEATURES

Tips for Trainers

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

179

17. Communications maps

Sonal Zaveri

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

180

18. Rivers of life

Ziad Moussa

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

183

In Touch

187

RCPLA Network

..................................................................................................................................................................................................

211

Welcome to the new look 60th issue of
Participatory Learning and Action! The
focus of this special issue is community-
based adaptation to climate change. Its
publication is timed to coincide with the
forthcoming United Nations Climate
Change Conference (COP 15) to be held in
December, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and
events surrounding it. The conference will
bring together world leaders to try to make
decisions on four key questions:
• How much are the industrialised coun-
tries willing to reduce their emissions of
greenhouse gases?
• How much are major developing coun-
tries such as China and India willing to do
to limit the growth of their emissions?
• How is the help needed by developing
countries to engage in reducing their emis-
sions and adapting to the impacts of
climate change going to be financed?
• How is that money going to be managed?

Reducing emissions of greenhouse

gases is crucial to limiting the extent of
future climate change. However, there is
also recognition that human-induced
climate change is already happening, and
those most affected will be the estimated
one billion people living in developing
countries who are already poor and
marginalised.

Since the industrialised

countries are responsible for most past
greenhouse gas emissions, they have
accepted that they should help those who
will be most affected by climate change to
adapt to its impacts (UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change).

It is now increasingly recognised that,

for poor communities, adaptation
approaches that are rooted in local knowl-
edge and coping strategies, and in which
communities are empowered to take their
own decisions, are likely to be far more
successful than top-down initiatives. In
addition, communities have the right to
participate in decisions that affect them.

Source: http://en.cop15.dk

Jessica Ayers and Saleem Huq, Community-based adaptation to climate change: an

update. IIED briefing, June 2009.

Editorial

For these reasons, community-based adap-
tation has come to the fore in recent years.

‘Good’ community-based adaptation,

like other forms of participatory develop-
ment, is community-driven, empowering,
and strengthens local capacity. Much CBA
is rooted in disaster risk reduction
approaches, designed to build the resilience
of communities to disasters, such as floods
and drought, with the difference that it
should also incorporate longer-term
climate change and its predicted impacts
into community-based planning. Broader
participatory community development and
livelihood approaches should also be taking
into account the effects of climate change,
if development gains are to be sustained.

Communities have a wealth of knowl-

edge about the local environment, and have
been adapting to and coping with change
for years. Although this knowledge and
traditional coping mechanisms may
become less effective as climate change
leads to greater unpredictability in weather
patterns (e.g. rain coming at any time
rather than at predictable times) and more
extreme events (e.g. droughts and floods)
it remains an invaluable resource, and, in
the absence of historical written records, is
often the only source of information on e.g.
rainfall trends. This is not to say that scien-
tific knowledge does not have a very signif-
icant role to play in helping communities
to adapt to climate change, and many of
the articles in this issue reflect on the
respective strengths and weaknesses of
local and scientific knowledge, and how the
two can best be integrated.

Community-based adaptation brings

together those working in the fields of
disaster risk reduction, community devel-
opment, and climate change science. There
is still much work to be done to encourage
these different communities to develop a
common language, to share good practice,
and to draw on the lessons of other partic-
ipatory development work, in particular,
the dangers of rushing to scale at the
expense of the quality of participation, as

happened with PRA in the 1990s. The
overview for this issue reflects on different
types of participation, and on what is
meant by ‘good’, empowering participation.

Structure of the special issue

The special issue is divided into three
sections:
• The first section includes reflections on
participatory processes and practice in
community-based adaptation to climate
change. These have a variety of entry
points, including participatory vulnerabil-
ity analysis, disaster risk reduction frame-
works, and Farmer Field Schools. The case
studies provide a rich source of experience
and lessons for CBA practitioners.
• The second section focuses on participa-
tory tool-based case studies. These
describe a participatory process with an
emphasis on the use of a particular partic-
ipatory tool, such as participatory video or
participatory mapping. They also reflect on
the strengths and limitations of these tools.
• The third section, participatory tools,
includes shorter, step-by-step descriptions
of how to facilitate a particular tool in a
community, for example, rain calendars
and mental models of the drivers and
effects of climate change.

Guest editors

The guest editors for this issue are Hannah
Reid, Terry Cannon, Rachel Berger, Moza-
harul Alam, and Angela Milligan.

Hannah Reid is a Senior Researcher in

the Climate Change Group at IIED. She is
interested in the links between climate
change and sustainable development and
is a lead editor for Tiempo: a bulletin on
climate and development.

Terry Cannon works with the Climate

Change Group as a Visiting Fellow at IIED.
Until recently he was Reader in Develop-
ment Studies at University of Greenwich.
His special interest is in community-based
vulnerability assessment and disaster
reduction, and climate change adaptation
in relation to rural livelihoods. He is

Editorial

currently working on projects for this in
Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Rachel Berger is currently climate

change policy adviser with Practical Action,
a development NGO that focuses on reduc-
ing poverty through enabling poor people
to access and develop technologies appro-
priate to their needs and resources. Before
her current role, Rachel managed multi-
country projects in sub-Saharan Africa and
south Asia focusing on strengthening liveli-
hoods in the face of increasing climate vari-
ability, and empowering communities to
address their problems. She currently
works on advocacy and policy on adapta-
tion to climate change in the international
UN climate change negotiations, as well as
supporting Practical Action's country
offices on climate change policy and
programme work.

Mozaharul Alam has recently joined

UNEP as Regional Climate Change Coor-
dinator for Asia and the Pacific Region,
located in Bangkok. Before joining UNEP,
he coordinated the climate change
programme of the Bangladesh Centre for
Advanced Studies (BCAS). He has
conducted and coordinated significant
amounts of research on climate change
impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation at
national, regional, and international levels.
He has also designed and implemented a

community-based adaptation project in
Bangladesh and provided technical inputs
on CBA projects in African Countries.

Angela Milligan is Co-Editor of Partic-

ipatory Learning and Action. She worked
with poor farming communities in Kenya,
Tanzania, and Uganda in the early 1990s,
an exciting time when the use of participa-
tory approaches was expanding rapidly,
and the rate of innovation was extremely
high. She was an avid reader of those early
issues of PLA (then RRA Notes)! After
returning to the UK, Angela worked as a
tutor and course writer for the Wye College,
University of London distance learning
courses in Agricultural Development. After
a stint communicating the research find-
ings of DfID’s natural resources research
programmes, she joined IIED in 2001 as
Editor of Participatory Learning and
Action, and has been here ever since!
Getting to grips with the discourse of disas-
ter risk management and climate change
adaptation has been a steep learning curve,
but guest editing this issue has been a great
learning experience, and has highlighted
the importance and challenges of CBA
work.

How this issue came about

The idea for this issue arose from the
involvement of the International Institute

Flyer for the 3rd international conference on community-based adaptation to climate change.

for Environment and Development
(IIED)’s climate change programme in the
First International Community-based
Adaptation (CBA) conference, held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2005. More then 80
experts, policy makers, NGO representa-
tives, and grassroots practitioners
discussed the possible impacts of climate
change on communities, and how to help
them adapt in the future. Whilst the first
conference focused on firming up the
concept of CBA and gaining acceptance for
it, a second and third conference (in 2007
and 2009) considered issues such as the
distinction between CBA and community-
based development, scaling up CBA, and
how to integrate climate science into CBA
whilst maintaining a community-driven
process.

A fourth conference will be held

in Tanzania in February 2010 (see In
Touch, page 199 for more details).

An invitation to submit papers for this

special issue of Participatory Learning and
Action was circulated to PLA and climate
change networks prior to the third CBA
conference, and abstracts were then
selected by the guest editors for develop-
ment into full papers. These were supple-
mented by directly commissioned papers,
drawing on the guest editors’ suggestions
and those of staff at the Institute of Devel-
opment Studies, Sussex, in particular
Robert Chambers.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the guest editors for
their hard work and dedication to this
issue, despite many other demands on their
time, as well as all who submitted articles.
We would also like to thank Robert Cham-
bers for pointing us towards innovative
work on CBA, particularly the develop-
ment of new participatory tools. Thanks
also to our editorial board for their insight-
ful comments on the papers for this issue.
Finally, huge thanks to our authors who
had to contend with sometimes contradic-

tory feedback from climate change ‘experts’
and participation ‘experts’, and who dealt
with our requests for changes with patience
and good humour.

The rest of the issue

Tips for Trainers

For this issue we have two Tips for Train-
ers articles. First, Sonal Zaveri presents
Communication Maps, a participatory tool
to understand communication patterns
and relationships. Developed in Nepal, the
tool provides a simple and effective way to
plot and understand how children commu-
nicate with the people in their lives.

Next, Ziad Moussa provides some tips on

using a tool called Rivers of Life, which
allows participants to reflect on personal
experiences and influences that have moti-
vated them in their personal and professional
life. Participants are invited to use the symbol
of a river to reflect on key stages in their lives,
positive experiences and influences, and diffi-
cult challenges. This is a fun way to introduce
people to each other in a workshop setting
and was used at the RCPLA workshop in
Cairo last year. See the RCPLA pages for an
update on the programme Deepening Partic-
ipation for Social Change that was initiated
at the workshop.

In Touch

The In Touch section of this issue is divided
into two sections. The first section contains
a variety of books, papers, and web-based
resources on climate change adaptation,
including sources of climate data, case
studies of CBA, and CBA methodologies.
The second section includes resources on
other participatory themes.

RCPLA

Find out the latest news from partners and
colleagues from the Resource Centres for
Participator y Learning and Action
Network.

Ayers and Huq, ibid.

Editorial

PLA 59: DVD

Together with the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA),
we are working on a bilingual DVD which
contains English and French versions of
the articles in PLA 59: Change at Hand:
Web 2.0 for development, as well as video
documentaries, and a Tips for Trainers in
Spanish. This will be available in January
2010. PLA 59 has been extremely well-
received (see under PLA online below), and
we hope that the bilingual DVD will enable
you to share the issue more widely with
partners and colleagues.

Other news

Change of format

You have probably noticed that this issue of
PLA looks rather different from previous
issues! We have been considering a change
of format for some time now as feedback
from readers suggested they would prefer
a smaller, more portable size. The new size
should also mean that issues of PLA sit
easily on a shelf, without flopping over as
the larger size does! A further considera-
tion, in these times of financial crisis, is that
the format is a standard size, and so is
considerably cheaper to print.

Whilst the look is a little different, we

still aim to be an informal journal, with
plenty of photographs and illustrations. All
our articles are peer-reviewed by members
of our International Editorial Advisory
Board, helping us to maintain the very high
quality of the content, while also keeping a
focus on practitioner-based experiences.

We would very much welcome your

feedback on the changed format. Does it
work better for you? Are there any other
changes you could like to see? Email us at
pla.notes@iied.org with your views.

PLA online

We had a record number of downloads of
PLA 59 on Web 2.0 for development, and
have had an amazing amount of positive
feedback on the issue. There is so little

about participatory Web 2.0 that this is
clearly meeting a need, and we hope that
the issue has encouraged many of you to
dip a toe in the world of Web 2.0.

Don’t forget that you can also access

and download most issues of PLA free
online. Visit www.planotes.org for more
information.

Next issue

In a change to our publicised schedule, our
next issue, PLA 61, will be published in
June 2010 rather than December 2009,
and the issue will be a special theme one on
community-led total sanitation (see
below).

PLA 61: Community-led total sanitation,
June 2010

This issue is being produced in partnership
with Plan International and will be guest
edited by Sammy Musyoki from Plan Inter-
national and Petra Bongartz from the Insti-
tute of Development Studies, UK.

In recent years, sanitation has received

renewed attention internationally and has
been acknowledged as one of the central
components of development because of its
interconnections with health, livelihoods,
education, the environment, and other
sectors. Its close ties with poverty reduction
are being increasingly recognised.

The WHO and UNICEF reports

suggest that as many as one in three people
worldwide lack sanitation facilities. Most
of those affected live in low-income coun-
tries in Asia and Africa. Poor sanitation,
lack of access to clean water, and inade-
quate personal hygiene are responsible for
an estimated 90% of incidences of child-
hood diarrhoea (WHO). It is estimated
that diarrhoeal diseases kill at least two
million children in poor countries each
year, and diarrhoea is the second highest
single cause of child mortality (WHO).

Despite the efforts and resources that

have been poured into sanitation in the last
decade, the millennium development goal
(MDG) for sanitation (‘halving by 2015, the

proportion of people without sustainable
access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation’) is a distant dream for many
developing countries. Providing subsidies
to build toilets has not been enough and
creates a culture of dependency on exter-
nal help.

In contrast, Community-Led Total

Sanitation (CLTS) focuses on mobilisation
of collective action and behaviour change
to ensure real and sustainable improve-
ments in sanitation and hygiene. CLTS has
its origins in Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA), drawing on simple PRA visual tools
such as mapping, transect walks, and flow
diagrams to enable communities to analyse
and learn from their hygiene habits and
practices, and come up with collective
action plans for sanitising their habitat
without depending on external subsidies.

This issue will focus on recent CLTS

experiences in Africa, enabling sharing of
experience and lessons, and improving
practice and policy around CLTS. Practi-
tioners will come together to share and
reflect critically on the questions, issues,
and challenges that CLTS practice throws
up, and develop articles for the issue. This
promises to be a fascinating and timely
issue, which will be of interest to practi-
tioners in Africa as well as other regions.

Editorial board news

We would like to say farewell to two IIED
members of our Strategic Editorial Board.

Ivan Bond left IIED in September to

join the UK Department for International
Development. He will be working prima-
rily on REDD (reducing emissions from
deforestation and degradation), but will
maintain close contact with IIED. Ivan
took a leading role in the development of
PLA 55 on Community conservation in
southern Africa, and he will continue to be
a member of the wider PLA advisory edito-
rial board. We wish Ivan well in his new
position, and look forward to receiving his

continued input on the development and
content of PLA.

Sonja Vermeulen left IIED in Novem-

ber this year to pursue other interests.
Sonja has been a very valuable critical
friend during her time on the PLA Strate-
gic Editorial Board. She also guest edited
PLA 53, Tools for influencing power and
policy. This issue was developed around
the Power tools project, which provides
‘how-to’ ideas that marginalised people and
their allies can use to have a greater posi-
tive influence on natural resources policy.

We would like to extend our warm thanks
to Sonja for all of her good-humoured
support over the years, and look forward to
keeping in touch in future.

Final thoughts…

The decisions that will be made at in Copen-
hagen in December 2009 will have far-
reaching repercussions for people the world
over for years to come. As we move forward,
good participatory practice will play an
essential role in community-based adapta-
tion. We hope that this issue will encourage
readers to take into account climate change
impacts, both present and future, in their
development or relief work with communi-
ties, in participatory research, and in policy-
making. We hope also that this special issue
will promote the spread of good practice,
and the sharing of experiences and lessons,
so that we can all help to meet the global
challenge of climate change.

See www.policy-powertools.org

Introduction

Scientists are clear that climate change is
happening, and that it is due to emissions
of greenhouse gases produced largely by
industrialised countries (IPCC, 2007).
Those likely to be worst affected are the
world’s poorest countries, especially poor
and marginalised communities within
these countries. Ironically it is these poor
countries and people who have contributed
least to the problem of climate change,
because of their very low greenhouse gas
emissions, but who will suffer most from its
consequences. Even if emissions are
severely curbed, climate change will still
occur. The industrialised countries have
accepted they have a responsibility to help
poor and vulnerable countries to adapt
(UNFCCC). However, until recently, most
adaptation efforts have been top-down,
and little attention has been paid to
communities’ experiences of climate
change and their efforts to cope with their
changing environments.

This special issue of Participatory

Learning and Action focuses on recent

approaches to adaptation to climate
change which are community-based and
participatory, building on the priorities,
knowledge, and capacities of local people.
Community-based adaptation draws on
participatory approaches and methods
developed in both disaster risk reduction
(DRR) and community development work,
as well as sectoral-specific approaches such
as farmer participatory research (Berger et
al., this issue) and Farmer Field Schools
(Sherwood and Bentley, this issue). Inno-
vative participatory methods are also
emerging to help communities analyse the
causes and effects of climate change, to
integrate scientific and community knowl-
edge of climate change, and to plan adap-
tation measures.

In this overview paper to the issue, we

describe how community-based
approaches to climate change have
emerged, and the similarities and differ-
ences between CBA and other participatory
development and disaster risk reduction
approaches. Whilst CBA is a relatively new
field, some lessons and challenges are

by HANNAH REID, MOZAHARUL ALAM, RACHEL BERGER,
TERRY CANNON, SALEEMUL HUQ, and ANGELA MILLIGAN

Community-based
adaptation to climate
change: an overview

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

beginning to emerge, and we analyse these,
drawing on the experiences contained in
the collection of articles for this issue. Many
of the articles are concerned with natural
resources, reflecting the preponderance of
submissions we received in this area.
However, climate change will affect many
other aspects of communities’ lives, and we
would urge practitioners working in other
sectors, such as human health and urban
areas, to share their experiences of commu-
nity-based adaptation.

Climate change and its impacts

Climate change refers to short-, medium-,
and long-term changes in weather patterns
and temperature that are predicted to
happen, or are already happening as a result
of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide. These changes
include a higher frequency of extreme
weather events such as drought and floods,
as well as greater unpredictability and vari-
ability in the seasons and in rainfall. Over-
lying this increased variability are expected
longer-term changes, such as temperature
and sea-level rises, and lower (or in some
cases higher) rainfall. Annex 1 shows in
more detail how the climate is predicted to
change over the medium- and long-term
(Christian Aid, 2009, based on the IPCC
4th assessment report, 2007).

Why are poor people most vulnerable to
climate change?

Poor countries and communities are more
vulnerable to climate change because they
tend to be located in geographically vulner-
able areas, such as flood-prone Mozam-
bique, drought-prone Sudan, or
cyclone-prone Bangladesh, and in more
vulnerable locations. For example, the
slums and informal settlements surround-
ing many developing country cities are
usually sited on land prone to landslips or
to flooding and river bank erosion. Wealthy
people, commerce, and industry can afford
to situate themselves on safer land.

Many poor communities are heavily

dependent on natural resources for their
livelihoods. Smallholder farmers have much
experience of adapting to their complex,
diverse, and risk-prone environments.
However, farming is now becoming even
more difficult and risky because of greater
unpredictability in the timing of rainy
seasons and the pattern of rain within
seasons, making it more difficult to decide
when to cultivate, sow, and harvest, and
needing more resources to seize the right
time for planting, and to maintain crops
and animals through dry spells. Heat stress,
lack of water at crucial times, and pests and
diseases are serious problems that climate
change appears to be exacerbating. These
all interact with ongoing pressures on land,
soils, and water resources that would exist
regardless of climate change (Jennings and
McGrath, 2009).

Vulnerability to climate change is not

just a function of geography, or depend-
ence on natural resources; it also has
social, economic, and political dimensions
which influence how climate change
affects different groups (Action Aid,
2005). Poor people rarely have insurance
to cover loss of property due to storms or
cyclones. They cannot pay for the health-
care required when climate change-
induced outbreaks of malaria and other
diseases occur. They have few alterative
livelihood options when their only cow
drowns in a flood or drought kills their
maize crop for the year – and they do not
have the political clout to ask why their
country’s early warning system did not
warn them of likely flooding. Climate
change will also have psychological and
cultural effects, for example beliefs and
traditions associated with the seasons
being undermined by climate change
(Jenning and McCrath, 2009).

Poor communities already struggle to

cope with the existing challenges of poverty
and climate shocks, but climate change
could push many beyond their ability to
cope or even survive. It is vital that these
communities are helped to adapt.

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

Adapting to climate change

International climate change negotiations,
multilateral and bilateral agencies, donors,
and international governance and financial
institutions such as the World Bank are
paying increasing attention to adaptation
and how best to help people to adapt. More
and more funding is available for adapta-
tion.

However, until recently, most efforts

to help countries adapt focused on national
planning and top-down approaches based
on climate change modelling. Remarkably
little attention has been paid to the ways in
which poor people have been coping with
climate variability and extremes for
decades.

What is community-based adaptation?

Community-based adaptation to climate
change is a community-led process, based
on communities’ priorities, needs, knowl-
edge, and capacities, which should
empower people to plan for and cope with
the impacts of climate change. As Tanner
et al. and others in this issue point out,
climate change is only one of a range of
natural, social, and economic problems
that may face poor people (such as unem-
ployment, the prices of food and other
essentials, commodity prices, drugs,
gambling, community conflict, and health).
So it is unlikely that interventions focusing
only on climate-related risks will reflect
community priorities.

CBA needs to start with communities’

expressed needs and perceptions, and to
have poverty reduction and livelihood
benefits, as well as reducing vulnerability
to climate change and disasters. In prac-
tice, CBA projects look very like ‘develop-
ment as usual’ and it is difficult to
distinguish the additional ‘adaptation
components’. For example, in a drought
year, we cannot divide water storage meas-

ures undertaken by local communities into
those initiated as a response to ‘normal’
climate variability, and those initiated as a
response to climate change. However, the
difference is that CBA work attempts to
factor in the potential impact of climate
change on livelihoods and vulnerability to
disasters by using local and scientific
knowledge of climate change and its likely
effects.

CBA may start by identifying commu-

nities in poor countries that are most
vulnerable to climate change, or these
communities may themselves ask for assis-
tance (Kelman et al., this issue). It may also
follow on from work with communities to
cope with a disaster, such as severe flood-
ing. International development NGOs and
donors funding CBA usually work through
local partners, such as local NGOs or
community groups which already have the
trust of local communities.

Incorporating climate change information

CBA work needs to incorporate informa-
tion on climate change and its impacts into
planning processes. This includes:
• scientific information (e.g. long-term
predictions from climate change models,
seasonal forecasts, information on trends
based on data collected at nearby weather
stations); as well as
• local knowledge about trends and
changes experienced by communities at a
local level and strategies these communi-
ties have used in the past to cope with
similar shocks or gradual climatic changes.

Both these sources contribute to an

understanding of risk. Climate change
science cannot say for certain, for example,
how much rainfall a particular area will
receive over any given time – but it can give
some guidance on the probability that rain-
fall will increase or decrease and to what

For example, funds have been established to support adaptation activities under the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto
Protocol such as the Adaptation Fund, and the World Bank’s Pilot Program for Climate
Resilience (PPCR). While such international funds are not always aimed specifically at
community-based adaptation (CBA), some of them, such as the Adaptation Fund, are
trying to target the most vulnerable communities.

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

extent. CBA builds in this notion of risk
and uncertainty into activities, with the aim
of building communities’ resilience to both
current climate variability and future
climate change.

Drawing on participatory disaster risk
reduction approaches

The lessons from disaster risk reduction
(DRR) work are of tremendous value for
climate change adaptation, because climate
change is likely to change the magnitude,
frequency, and timing of extreme events
such as flooding, landslides, and storms, as
well as generate new disaster events.

Disaster risk reduction is likely to be the

entry point for communities suffering from
severe shocks as a result of short-term
climate variability (Christian Aid, 2009).
Many of the papers in this issue use a
participatory DRR framework (e.g. Tanner
et al., Warrick, and Gaillard and Maceda).
Although different approaches and frame-
works for participatory DRR exist, all
involve working with local people to under-
stand the types of hazards they face (e.g.
earthquakes, droughts, floods, pests and
diseases, human diseases), the factors
which make them vulnerable to these
hazards, and their causes. These together
give an indication of how ‘at risk’ commu-
nities are and which groups are most
vulnerable. They also help communities
consider what capacities they have for
reducing vulnerability, and aim to
empower communities to take action
themselves to reduce the risks they face.

Many organisations working with local

communities to reduce poverty and disas-
ter risks are now trying to incorporate the
effects of climate change into their work
with communities. Kelman and Mercer
(this issue), for example, describe a disas-
ter risk reduction framework developed
with communities to facilitate DRR plan-

ning in small island developing states
(SIDS), such as Papua New Guinea. They
then show how the framework can be
adapted to take into account the likely
effects of climate change by drawing on
external scientific information such as
downscaled climate projections and satel-
lite images, as well as local knowledge of
hazards and vulnerabilities. Taking into
account these longer-term impacts is one
of the key differences between DRR and
climate change adaptation.

Livelihoods, DRR, and climate change

In practice, all disaster risk reduction and
development work should take into account
climate change impacts if development
gains are to be sustained in the future.
Whilst development agencies may differen-
tiate between DRR, climate change adap-
tation, and poverty alleviation, at the
household level the issues converge into one
complex interrelated problem which boils
down to the same thing – the security and
wellbeing of people’s lives, livelihoods, and
assets (Oxley, 2009).

There is increasing

recognition that, for many communities
facing frequent hazards, poverty, disasters,
and climate change adaptation are closely
linked and cannot be viewed in isolation
from one another.

This points towards the need to find

practical ways of integrating DRR, liveli-
hoods, and climate change adaptation.
Christian Aid, for example, has developed
a climate risk cycle management approach
to development planning which builds on
the expertise and experience of existing
DRR and livelihoods programmes, using
existing tools wherever possible. In the
model, predictable risks are anticipated,
long- and short-term risk reduction activ-
ities are integrated into livelihood develop-
ment, and the time spent in emergency or
rehabilitation is minimised (Figure 1).

ESRC-funded seminar, Integrating Approaches: Sustainable Livelihoods, Disaster Risk

Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, December 2009, organised by Practical
Action (www.practicalaction.org.uk). See: http://community.eldis.org/.59cc7287/

Ibid.

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

These integrated frameworks are still

largely untested and there are likely to be
challenges in handling the array of factors
to be considered, as well as in encouraging
the different support institutions needed to
tackle vulnerability to work together.

Participatory methods for CBA

Many of the participatory tools used in CBA
(see Table 1 for some examples) will be
familiar to DRR and development practi-
tioners, but other innovative approaches are
being developed for communities, develop-
ment workers, and scientists to co-learn
about climate change and adaptation, as
well as for working with particular groups
such as children (Tanner et al., this issue).

Co-learning about climate change

Whilst local people are extremely aware of
changes in their environment, they often
have little knowledge of the global causes
and effects of climate change. The papers
in this issue describe a wide variety of
participatory tools to help communities
understand climate change and the
impacts it may have. Many use co-learning
approaches, drawing on both local and
external scientific knowledge. Communi-
cation about climate change should be in
the first language of the community
approached and in terms it can under-
stand.

In Ghana, for example, communities

developed mental models showing drivers

Figure 1: Climate risk cycle management

Source: Christian Aid (2009a)

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

and effects of climate change (Tschakert
and Sagoe, this issue). During this process,
they reinforced and expanded their own
knowledge of climate change, with the
input of external agents. In Indonesia,
Climate Field Schools followed a partici-
patory ‘learning by doing’ approach to help
farmers increase their knowledge of
climate change and observe climatic
parameters themselves, such as rainfall, to
help guide farming activities (Christian

Aid, this issue). Sherwood and Bentley (this
issue) describe a similar process in the
Andes.

Children can be very effective commu-

nicators of climate change causes and
effects. They often have a better under-
standing of the science of climate change
processes than adults in the community,
through school lessons, and can draw out
the implications for local livelihoods. Plush
(this issue) shows how videos, produced in

Storian means to ‘chat, yarn, swap stories’ and is an umbrella term indicating semi-

structured interview, informal interview, and opportunistic discussion as part of
observation. See Warrick, this issue.

Table 1: Some examples of participatory tools used in CBA

PARTICIPATORY
TOOL/APPROACH

Mental models

Seasonal calendars

Timelines

Community mapping and
modelling

Transect walks

Ranking

Dream maps and drawings

Theatre, poems, songs

Participatory video

Stakeholder analysis

Key informant discussions
(e.g.

storian)

USES

• Drivers and effects of climate change

• Seasonality and links with livelihoods
• Can be combined with timelines to show perceived changes in seasonality

over time

• Hazards and events
• Trends in climate, e.g. temperature and rainfall

• Resources
• Types and causes of risks and threats
• Extent of vulnerable areas
• Vulnerable households and individuals
• Planning DRR/CC adaptation measures

• Vulnerability/risks
• Land use
• Resources

• Vulnerabilities and hazards
• Coping and DRR strategies, e.g. water management options, crop varieties

• Vision of community or farm and how to achieve

• Awareness raising of risks and risk reduction measures
• Advocacy

• Awareness raising
• Farmer to farmer communication
• Advocacy

• Institutions, relationships, power

• In-depth discussion of vulnerability, livelihood sources

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

a participatory way by children, can be a
powerful means of raising awareness of
climate change and its impacts, especially
where literacy rates in the community are
low. In this case, the children were first
taught about climate change using locally
available materials (although Plush notes
that there is a severe lack of material that
is not too technical, or related to the urban
mitigation context). They then used this
knowledge to develop questions and carry
out filmed interviews with other commu-
nity members, to give a clear picture of the
impacts of climate change at the local level.

Although it is important for communi-

ties to understand the drivers and
processes of climate change, Warrick (this
issue) warns of the dangers of disempow-
ering communities, giving them a sense
that they cannot take action to deal with
climate change, even though they have
often been dealing with highly variable
climates for many years. To avoid this, she
suggests discussing climate change in the
context of how people have already
responded to climate stress, how this has
changed over time, and on communities’
own capacities to adapt.

Local knowledge about climate change

Several papers in this issue look at ways in
which familiar participatory tools can be
adapted to document local knowledge
about climate changes. For example, rain
calendars were used in Malawi to analyse
changes in rainfall over the past five years
(Awuor and Hammill, this issue) whilst
seasonal analysis charts showed changes in
the seasons in West Bengal, India over a
similar timescale (Christian Aid, this issue).
Climate timelines in Sudan were used to
record extreme weather events and
temperature trends over the past 30 years
(Christian Aid, this issue).

In the absence of historical local

weather data, the memories of older
community members are often the only
source of information on climate trends
(Berger et al., this issue). Where scientific

data are unlikely to be available, one way
forward may be to strengthen local people’s
ability to collect their own data (Sherwood
and Bentley, this issue).

Using scientific climate change data

The science of climate change and predic-
tions regarding future changes have a key
role to play in adapting to climate change.
Finding ways of making scientific data
accessible to communities is crucial if they
are to adapt and remain in control of the
CBA process. There are potentially many
different kinds of information that would
be useful for community planning, such as
remote sensing observations, satellite
pictures, downscaled climate scenarios,
and seasonal and long-range weather fore-
casts. Where these are available, commu-
nities need to learn how to interpret them.
Christian Aid (this issue), for example,
describe how participatory climate forecast
workshops were held in Zimbabwe, in
which forecasts for the coming season,
expressed in terms of probabilities rather
than firm predictions. were explained to
farmers, and then downscaled using
farmers’ own historical rainfall data.

Integrating local and scientific knowledge

Many of the papers in this issue consider
how to integrate scientific and local knowl-
edge so as to build on the strengths of each.
Although this can present challenges (see
later), several papers suggest ways of bridg-
ing the gap between local communities and
scientists (e.g. Gaillard and Maceda).

Identifying and planning adaptation
activities

Participatory ways of documenting, priori-
tising, and sharing risk reduction and
adaptation approaches are important if
CBA is to fit with community priorities,
and build on existing practices or those
used in the past, for example traditional
rice varieties which have better salinity
tolerance than more recent varieties
(Berger et al., this issue). Commonly

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

mentioned on-farm adaptation options
include diversification of the crops grown,
changes in farming practices, better water
management, and food storage. In extreme
cases, for example, where droughts are
likely to be of such magnitude that crops
can no longer survive, then alternative
livelihood strategies, or even migration
may need to be explored.

There is much scope for approaches

which encourage the sharing of adaptation
practices. Sherwood and Bentley (this
issue), for example, describe an approach
to climate change adaptation in the Andes,
in which farmers learn through visits to
other farms and through experimentation.
As farmers learn and take action at the
farm level, the focus shifts to collective
actions, such as sharing responsibility for
collecting weather data, and implementing
soil and water conservation measures.

Baumhardt (this issue) describes how

farmers made videos of the adaptation
activities they found most useful, which
were then screened in nearby villages with
which they did not have contact. Whilst the
videos were an important communication
tool for raising awareness of adaptation
options, there are likely to be differences in
abilities to adopt adaptation measures, and
additional support will often be needed if
local people are to make these changes.

Molina et al. (this issue) describe how

children in the Philippines developed
theatres, songs, and dances to communi-
cate the potentially destructive impacts of
hazards such as flooding and river bank
erosion, and were effective advocates for
risk reduction activities, such as tree plant-
ing.

Gaillard and Maceda (this issue)

describe how communities in a flood-prone
part of the Philippines created extraordi-
narily detailed, scaled three-dimensional

Children take a class on the environment, 2007, near Khulna, Bangladesh.

Photo:

erry

Cannon

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

models of their area, made from local
materials such as cartons and paper, which
they used for disaster risk reduction plan-
ning. They used the models to identify
important areas for livelihoods, e.g. fishing
and hunting grounds, areas prone to differ-
ent types of flooding (river, tidal), different
households, the material of their house
(which affects how robust the houses are),
household inhabitants, and the most
vulnerable people in the community, e.g.

young children, elderly people, pregnant
women, and those with disabilities. They
then identified local resources to deal with
hazards, e.g. boats, vehicles, and then
planned disaster risk reduction activities,
e.g. meeting points, evacuation routes, and
shelters. The information from these
models can also be input into GIS systems
for use by local government or scientists
(subject to the communities’ permission),
and can easily be updated.

Women queue for drinking water from a filtered tank in area where salinisation is increasing due to sea-level rise.

Photo:

erry

Cannon

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

Lessons and challenges in community-
based adaptation

Although CBA is a very recent develop-
ment, a number of lessons and challenges
are already emerging, around the avail-
ability and credibility of climate change
information and data, the quality of partic-
ipatory processes in CBA, scaling up, and
monitoring and evaluation.

Issues around knowledge

Good information on which to base climate
change adaptation is vital, but it is not
always available, accessible, or credible.

Scientific data

Christian Aid (this issue) highlight the diffi-
culties communities often experience in
accessing climate change data that they can
use in planning. Whilst climate models can
help identify which parts of the world are
more likely to be physically vulnerable (see
Annex 1), these predictions are often at a
geographic resolution or timescale which
are of little use to local communities. Better
climate change models, which can make
predictions that are more relevant for
communities, are urgently needed.

There are also problems with weather

forecasts. Meteorological stations are often
woefully under-resourced and under-
staffed, data are not computerised, and
data which would be useful for farmers are
not collected. Jennings and McGrath
(2009), for example, point out that the vast
majority of analyses of meteorological
records and climate model data focus on
mean annual temperature and precipita-
tion change rather than the timing of rains
and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns, which
are of much more interest to farmers.

Where data are available, communities

are often not able to access them, for
example, because they lack Internet access,
or the data are not passed from meteoro-
logical departments to other government
departments which can make use of them,
such as agriculture. Finally, communities
often have little confidence in the data.

Access to reliable, appropriate forecasts is
essential in meeting the challenge of
greater unpredictability and increased
hazard events, and meteorological depart-
ments need to be strengthened to meet this
need. Ideally, scientific data should be veri-
fied against local data, so that the scientific
information has credibility with users
(Christian Aid, this issue).

Local knowledge

Whilst communities often have little confi-
dence in the reliability of information from
scientists, scientists are often equally reluc-
tant to trust local knowledge, which they
regard as subjective and lacking in rigour
(Gaillard and Maceda, this issue).
However, in the absence of weather records
and climate change data, CBA may be
largely dependent on local knowledge of
past climate trends for forecasting future
trends.

Gill (1991) compared rainfall patterns

recorded by Nepali farmers using rainfall
calendars with the ‘real’ data recorded at
the nearby weather station, and found a
remarkably good fit when comparing
modal rainfall. A more recent study was
able to match farmer perceptions of chang-
ing timing and character of seasons against
meteorological records and get a fit good
enough to show that farmer analysis needs
to be taken seriously (McGrath, pers.
comm.). However, several authors (e.g.
Warrick) note that, when analysing longer-
term trends with communities, more
recent events tend to overshadow more
distant ones, and this needs to be taken
into account when trying to extrapolate
from past trends.

Many communities use traditional

systems to forecast the coming season.
Sherwood and Bentley (this issue) describe
how farmers use wind patterns, cloud
formations, the position of rainbows, and
animal behaviour to predict the coming
season. Berger et al. (this issue) describes a
traditional weather forecasting system
called Litha, based on lunar cycles, and

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

used by communities in southern coastal
in Sri Lanka to predict rainfall patterns,
and the best time to plant crops. However,
there are fears that these traditional
systems will become less effective as
climate change impacts increase. Berger et
al. observe that in recent years, the Litha
system has been falling out of use, although
whether this is because it is less effective or
because scientific weather forecasts are
more reliable is unclear, and this would
merit further investigation.

Issues around participation

CBA activities demonstrate a variety of
types and degrees of participation (see
Table 1 for one typology). Participatory
tools are sometimes used as a way of
collecting local information about vulnera-
bility and climate change to be used and
analysed by outsiders (e.g. the case
described by Wong, this issue). Often the
priorities and interests of outsiders over-
ride those of communities, and there is still
a lot of ‘doing to’ communities, rather than
communities taking charge. Experience
from many different fields, including those
relevant to climate change adaptation, such
as natural resource management and soil
and water conservation, shows that if adap-
tation is to be effective and sustainable, it
must draw on the knowledge and priorities
of local people, build on their capacities,
and empower them to make changes them-
selves. In this overview, we have argued
that communities, scientists, and develop-
ment workers need to learn, analyse, and
plan action in partnership, but that
communities need to be in the driving seat.

This has wide-reaching implications for

professional behaviour, attitudes, and
mindsets, and for institutional cultures and
structures. Sherwood and Bentley (this
issue), for example, point out that people-
centred, community-based issues are in
conflict with dominant professional behav-
iour and with dominant institutional
designs. Outsiders are facilitators and co-
learners, not ‘teachers’ or ‘experts’. Partici-

patory processes need time to develop and
they need flexible funding. They do not fit
with the pre-determined calendars,
budgets, and outputs demanded by govern-
ment and other organisations.

The way in which adaptation activities

are funded may be of help here. Poor
nations argue that, as wealthy nations have
caused the problems of climate change, any
international funding streams for adapta-
tion activities should be used as recipient
countries and communities see fit, and that
such funding should be more stable and
long-term than development funding,
which is subject to the conditions and
priorities of donors. This provides an
opportunity for flexible, long-term funding
of participatory community-based adapta-
tion processes.

In the rush to go to scale to respond to

climate change adaptation and to spend
newly available funds, there is a danger
that, as with PRA in the 1990s, participa-
tory CBA approaches will be abused and
misused. At the end of this issue, in
‘Reflections on practical ethics for partici-
patory community-based adaptation,’ we
have reproduced a statement by a group of
practitioners called ‘Sharing our concerns’
(Absalom et al.), which was published in
PLA (then PLA Notes) in 1994. This state-
ment is essentially an ethical code for
participatory practitioners, and with a few
amendments, it has stood the test of time.
We have also included here an extract
from an article in a more recent issue, PLA
54 (Rambaldi et al., 2006) on practical
ethics for participatory development prac-
titioners.

Honest critical reflection – of the sort

exemplified by Warrick (this issue) – is
essential if CBA practitioners are to learn
from each others’ experiences. For example,
what happens when, as Warrick cautions,
climate change is not seen as a priority in
communities, where a highly variable
climate is regarded as ‘normal’, or where
climate change impacts are not yet evident,
even though scientists are confident that

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

there will be serious impacts? What
happens when an external organisation’s
focus and funding does not match the prior-
ities raised by communities? Without the
flexibility to address communities’ real
concerns, it is difficult for the process of
adaptation to be community-driven.

Difficulties with the concept of ‘community’

Whilst CBA focuses on ‘the community’, it
is very important to be aware of differences
in priorities, needs, vulnerability, and
capacities within communities. Tanner et
al., for example, show that there are
marked differences in perceptions of the

Table 2: A typology of participation

Table 2: Types of participation

Type of participation

Passive participation

Participation in
information giving

Participation by
consultation

Participation for
material incentives

Functional
participation

Interactive
participation

Self-mobilisation

Characteristics

People participate by being told what is going to happen or has already
happened. It is a unilateral announcement by an administration or project
management without listening to people’s responses. The information being
shared belongs only to external professionals.

People participate by answering questions posed by extractive researchers using
questionnaire surveys or similar approaches. People do not have the opportunity
to influence proceedings as the findings of the research are neither shared nor
checked for accuracy.

People participate by being consulted, and external people listen to views. These
external professionals define both problems and solutions, and may modify these
in the light of people’s responses. Such a consultative process does not concede
any share in decision-making, and professionals are under no obligation to take
on board people’s views.

People participate by providing resources, for example labour, in return for food,
cash, or other material incentives. Much on-farm research falls into this category
as farmers provide the fields but are not involved in the experimentation or the
process of learning. It is very common to see this called participation, yet people
have no stake in prolonging activities when the incentives end.

People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined objectives related to
the project, which can involve the development or promotion of externally
initiated social organisation. Such involvement does not tend to be at early stages
of project cycles or planning, but rather after major decisions have been made.
These institutions tend to be dependent on external initiators and facilitators, but
may become self-dependent.

People participate in joint analysis, which leads to action plans and the formation
of new local institutions or the strengthening of existing ones. It tends to involve
interdisciplinary methodologies that seek multiple perspectives and make use of
systematic and structured learning processes. These groups take control over local
decisions and so people have a stake in maintaining structures or practices.

People participate by taking initiatives independent of external institutions to
change systems. They develop contacts with external institutions for resources and
technical advice they need, but retain control over how resources are used. Such
self-initiated mobilisation and collective action may or may not challenge existing
inequitable distributions of wealth and power.

Table sourced from Pretty et al. (1995), who adapted it from Adnan et al. (1992).

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

importance of different hazards by age and
gender in the Philippines. Men, as the
farmers in these communities, highlighted
agricultural hazards such as pests and
drought, whilst women were concerned
with social hazards (gambling, drugs), and
children had the most awareness of envi-
ronmentally unsound livelihood practices
and global environmental problems.

Different sections of the community

also vary in their capacity to undertake
adaptation activities. Women are particu-
larly badly affected by the combination of
climatic and environmental stresses, but
their particular needs and wishes for adap-
tation are less likely to be heard or acted
upon (Jennings and McGrath, 2009) (see
Box 4). Children are affected by both
current and future climate change impacts,
yet their voices are rarely heard or consid-
ered in climate change adaptation activi-
ties (Plush, this issue).

In many National Adaptation

Programmes of Action (NAPAs), agricul-
ture and forestry feature heavily as priority
projects. However, McGrath and Jennings
(2009) point out that, in Malawi, women
prioritised a crèche, family planning, access
to loans, credit, training, and free health-
care over support for agriculture. They
argued that without childcare and support
to start up small enterprises, they could not
make adaptation changes.

Wong (this issue) highlights the

dangers of ignoring intra-community
power differentials when planning adapta-
tion activities. Local chiefs ensured that
their family members were included as
community representatives, excluding the
voices and interests of poorer farmers from
decision-making processes. Even though
the project made special efforts to ensure
gender balance, planned adaptation activ-
ities were both poverty insensitive and
served to reinforce existing power inequal-
ities.

Many articles in this issue use partici-

patory approaches in a differentiated way
to capture the perspectives of different
groups. Some make particular efforts to
ensure that more vulnerable households,
and vulnerable individuals within house-
holds, are included, for example, the partic-
ipatory modelling process described by
Gaillard and Maceda, giving the opportu-
nity to ensure that the voices of those
people are heard. Less is said, however,
about analysing power relations within
communities, and how differences in needs
and priorities can be reconciled. We need
to keep asking: Who benefits? Who loses?
Who is empowered? Who is disempow-
ered?

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of CBA
activities will also be a challenge. Good
CBA should be truly participatory and

See ‘Reflections on practical ethics for participatory community-based adaptation,’ this

issue. Source: Rambaldi et al., 2006.

Climate change impacts have different effects on women and on men and have been well attested in many
places. The need to find water as well as firewood and fodder is a well-known reason for girls to be kept out
of school, and male migration has been linked to the spread of HIV and AIDS.

In Nepal, increasing crop failure has increased the strategy of men migrating. Women are left alone to

look after families yet with the least access to resources to be able to adapt. They have less access to
cultivable land to grow food and have to find water, wood, and fodder. Any worsening of livelihood options
has to be made up in physical labour, one of the few resources women control. So to compensate for the
decline in food production, women are doing more daily waged labour. This is often extremely onerous –
such as portering construction materials – and badly paid – women are paid only three-quarters of what a
man would earn for the same work.

Box 4: Looking within the community

Source: S. Jennings and J. McGrath (2009).

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

devolve much of the decision-making
down to the community level, but this
makes any centralised reporting or evalu-
ation activities more difficult to coordinate.
This is an important issue, because it is the
responsibility of industrialised nations to
help poor countries adapt to climate
change, so some means of evaluating the
effectiveness of funded CBA programmes
is required. But any move towards
centralised tracking and evaluating
systems must be sure not to lose sight of the
need to facilitate genuine participatory
processes that empower communities to
adapt to climate change in ways which
address locally identified priorities.

Policies and institutions for CBA

Whilst CBA is focused on the community
level, it cannot be carried out in isolation
from events and activities occurring at
other levels, for example:
• CBA is affected by the services and
support available (or more often not avail-
able) at district and national levels, for
example, long-range weather forecasts,
downscaled climate scenarios, satellite
images, information on weather forecast-
ing, and agricultural and other extension
services, and the ability of support organi-
sations to integrate their activities.
• Some adaptation activities have spill-over
effects on other communities, for example,

Houses raised on plinths to try and keep them above flood levels, 2007, near Khulna, Bangladesh.

Photo:

erry

Cannon

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

if one community builds a dam to cope
with drought, this will affect communities
lower down the river. Wong (this issue), for
example, describes how communities
participated in transboundary river water
governance in Burkina Faso and Ghana,
which allowed for coordination and
advance warning over the flow of water.
• Policy makers at district, national, and
international levels need to know how
communities are being affected by climate
change, and to understand and respond to
communities’ priorities and needs. This
might be through participation in ‘invited’
spaces, such as through participatory
scenario development workshops (Bizikova
et al. this issue)

, or through advocacy by

communities (e.g. Plush describes how
videos produced by children influenced
policy makers in Nepal), or by communi-
ties organising and putting pressure on
powerful local actors (Dodman, Mitlin, and
Rayos, unpublished abstract).

Some CBA approaches explicitly build

in a multi-level approach. Action Aid, for
example, uses participatory vulnerability
analysis (PVA), which starts by assessing
vulnerability at the community level, but
this feeds into the district, national, and
international levels. They argue that there
are multiple determinants/causes of
vulnerability, and many of these fall outside
individuals or communities. Hence analy-
sis of vulnerability must go beyond the
individual to micro- and macro-level polit-
ical processes. Similarly, Practical Action
have been developing a framework for
understanding, analysing, and addressing
the multiple factors – lack of resources;
fragile livelihoods; hazards; climate
change; political marginalisation; and,
weak institutional support mechanisms –
that contribute to vulnerability in an inte-
grated and holistic manner (Pasteur,
2009).

Conclusion

The theory and practice of CBA are still in
their infancy. Both are likely to grow very
rapidly, however, as needs increase as a
result of intensifying climate change
impacts and as interest in and support for
adaptation grows at national and interna-
tional levels.

Although funding is increasingly avail-

able for adaptation activities, simply
providing poor country governments with
more money does not mean that it will
reach the poor and those who are most
vulnerable to climate change, let alone
increase their ability to adapt. Such
communities are often marginalised,
remote, and receive limited services and
little support from their governments even
when they are able to articulate what
support they need. Reaching these
hundreds of millions of people and
supporting their genuine participation in
any decision-making about resource allo-
cation for CBA will be an immense chal-
lenge for any international or national
programme or funding mechanism focus-
ing on adaptation.

Whilst CBA initiatives are increasing in

number and information sharing on these
activities is developing, translating these
activities and documentation into
improved policy responses and scaled up
CBA initiatives worldwide remains a chal-
lenge. Power structures are at the heart of
climate change vulnerability and it is
important to find ways to allow poor
vulnerable people to influence policy and
be heard in key policy arenas, such as the
UNFCCC negotiations.

To be successful, community-based

adaptation programmes will need to
ensure that communities are able to
participate in identifying priorities, both
local and regional, and in planning, imple-
menting, monitoring, and reviewing adap-

Participatory scenario development workshops engage those most directly concerned

(e.g. community members, local officals) in discussions about how the future may
develop, and about possible adaptation pathways, and their pros and cons. The
conclusions may feed into local, district, and national planning.

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

tation. Such programmes should provide
support and link communities to relevant
decision-making institutions. They will
also need to build the capacity of local
organisations and local governments to
enable them to effectively take part in deci-
sion-making processes.

CBA draws on a number of different

fields, including disaster relief work,
community development work, and
climate science. These different areas of
knowledge and expertise often employ
different languages and concepts, and
there is still much work to be done in
developing a common understanding and
language, and sharing experiences and
good practice.

Continuing to document CBA

processes in an honest and critical way is
very important, both to improve practice
and to share experience in little-docu-
mented areas, such as incorporating
climate change adaptation into health
policy. You will find a list of resources on
CBA, including websites, later in this issue.
Other important opportunities for experi-
ence-sharing include the International
Conferences on Community-Based Adap-
tation (see Box 3), and the two-day Devel-

opment and Climate Days event, held each
year during the Conference of Parties
(COP) to the UNFCCC. This event has a
dedicated CBA session to share informa-
tion on CBA with negotiators and
observers at the international climate
change negotiations.

CBA practitioners

can also benefit from the rich literature
that is available on participation.

Final thoughts

We face increasing pressure to meet the
myriad challenges that a changing climate
presents. As this new community of prac-
tice emerges and matures, the ethics and
quality of participatory processes will be
central to the success of community-based
adaptation to climate change – and there
are both opportunities and dangers. As
Absalom et al. wrote in 1994,

The opportunities are to initiate and sustain
processes of change: empowering disadvan-
taged people and communities, transforming
organisations, and reorienting individuals.
The dangers come from demanding too much,
in a top-down mode, too fast, with too little
understanding of participatory development
and its implications.

The second and third conferences were run by the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced

Studies. See www.bcas.net for more information. See www.iied.org for more
information on the forthcoming 4th CBA conference in Tanzania.

ESRC-funded seminar, Integrating Approaches: Sustainable Livelihoods, Disaster Risk

Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, December 2009, organised by Practical
Action (www.practicalaction.org.uk). See: http://community.eldis.org/.59cc7287

These events are run by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

For more information see: http://tinyurl.com/iied-COP15-d-c. Full URL:
www.iied.org/climate-change/key-issues/climate-negotiations-capacity-building/cop15-
development-and-climate-days

See, for example, www.planotes.org for back issues of Participatory Learning and

Action. Recent issues include PLA 54: Mapping for change: practice, technologies, and
communication, and PLA 55: Practical tools for community conservation in southern
Africa. PLA 50: Critical reflections, future directions looks at participation in a wide range
of different fields, as well as focusing on good participatory practice and ethics. IIED’s
Participatory Learning and Action: A Trainers Guide is also an invaluable resource on
participatory approaches, processes, and methods.

The second and third International Conferences on Community-Based Adaptation were held in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, in February 2007 and February 2009. This will become an annual event at which practitioners,
policy makers and researchers can share information on methodologies for CBA, upscaling CBA,
communicating CBA, CBA in different ecosystems, funding for CBA etc. The next will be held in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania in February 2010. The conferences involve field visits to CBA projects in different
ecosystems and regions so people can see CBA activities on the ground.

Box 3: Sharing information on CBA

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

CONTACT DETAILS
Hannah Reid
Senior Researcher
Climate Change Group
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK
Email: hannah.reid@iied.org

Mozaharul Alam
Project Manager
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Regional Office of the Asia and Pacific (ROAP)
Bangkok
Thailand
Email: mozaharul.alam@gmail.com

Rachel Berger
Practical Action
The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development
Bourton on Dunsmore
RUGBY
CV23 9QZ
UK
Email: Rachel.Berger@practicalaction.org.uk

Terry Cannon
Visiting Fellow
Climate Change Group
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK
Email: terrycannon@blueyonder.co.uk

Saleemul Huq
Senior Fellow
Climate Change Group
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK
Email: saleemul.huq@iied.org

Angela Milligan
Co-Editor
Participatory Learning and Action series
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK
Email: angela.milligan@iied.org

As we move forward with community-

based adaptation to climate change, we
hope that this issue of Participatory Learn-
ing and Action will contribute to learning
and experience sharing around CBA – and
help to promote good participatory practice.

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Holly Ashley for her careful reading of this overview,
many helpful suggestions, and support during the writing process.
Thanks also to Michel Pimbert for insights around the quality of
participation.

REFERENCES
Absalom, E. et al., (1995). ‘Sharing our concerns and looking to the

future.’ In PLA Notes 22, February 1995. IIED: London. Online:
www.planotes.org/documents/plan_02201.PDF

Action Aid International (2005). Participatory vulnerability analysis: a

step-by-step guide for field staff, Action Aid International

Adnan, S., A. Barren, S.M. Nurul Alam, and A. Brustinow (1992).

People's participation: NGOs and the flood action plan. Research
and Advisory Services: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Anuchiracheeva, S. and T. Pinkaew (2009). Case Jasmine Rice in the

Weeping Plain: Adapting Rice Farming to Climate Change in
Northeast Thailand. Oxfam Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate
Change Adaptation Resources, Oxfam GB

Chambers, R., N. Kenton and H. Ashley (2004). Participatory Learning

and Action 50 Critical reflections, future directions. IIED: London.
Online: www.planotes.org/documents/plan_05003.pdf

Christian Aid (2009a). ‘Module I: Framework and Approach.’

Christian Aid Adaptation Toolkit: Integrating adaptation to
climate change into secure livelihoods, p.13. Christian Aid: UK

Christian Aid (2009b). ‘Module II: Developing a climate change

analysis.’ Christian Aid Adaptation Toolkit: Integrating adaptation
to climate change into secure livelihoods. Christian Aid: UK

Corbett, J., G. Rambaldi, P.K. Kyem, D. Weiner, R. Olson, J. Muchemi,

M. McCall, and R. Chambers (2006). ‘Overview: mapping for
change – the emergence of a new practice.’ Participatory Learning
and Action 54 Mapping for Change: practice, technologies and
communications. IIED: London and CTA: Wageningen. Online:
www.planotes.org/pla_backissues/54.html

Gill, G. (1991). ‘But how does it compare with the REAL data?’ In PLA

Notes 14, IIED: London. Online:
www.planotes.org/pla_backissues/14.html#AB1

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007). Fourth

Assessment Report, United Nations

Jennings, S. and J. McGrath (2009). What Happened to the Seasons?

Oxfam GB Research Report: UK

Pasteur K., (2009). ‘Practical Action’s Vulnerability to Resilience

Framework’ to be presented at Frameworks for Integration:
challenges and opportunities for bringing together Disaster Risk
Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, and Sustainable
Livelihoods, 4th Livelihoods Seminar ito be held in December
2009. http://community.eldis.org/.59cc7287/

Pretty, J., I. Guijt, J. Thompson, and I. Scoones (1995). Participatory

Learning and Action: a trainer’s guide. IIED Participatory
Methodology Series, IIED: London

Rambaldi, G., R. Chambers, M. McCall and J. Fox (2006). ‘Practical

ethics for PGIS practitioners, facilitators, technology intermediaries
and researchers.’ In Participatory Learning and Action 54
Mapping for Change: practice, technologies and
communications. IIED: London and CTA: Wageningen. Online:
www.planotes.org/pla_backissues/54.html

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

Annex 1: Predicted impacts of climate change, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity by
region

Region

Africa

Asia

Likely regional impacts of climate change

• By 2020, between 75 million and 250 million
people are projected to be exposed to increased
water stress due to climate change. Coupled with
increased demand, this will adversely affect
livelihoods and exacerbate water-related problems.

• Agricultural production, including access to food, in
many African countries and regions is projected to be
severely compromised by climate variability and
change. The area suitable for agriculture, the length
of growing seasons and yield potential, particularly
along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas, are
expected to decrease. This would further adversely
affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition in
the continent. In some countries, yields from rain-fed
agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% by 2020.

• Local food supplies are projected to be negatively
affected by decreasing fisheries resources in large
lakes due to rising water temperatures, which may be
exacerbated by continued overfishing.

• Towards the end of the 21st century, projected sea-
level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large
populations. The cost of adaptation could amount to
at least 5-10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mangroves and coral reefs are projected to be further
degraded, with additional consequences for fisheries
and tourism.

• Glacier melt in the Himalayas is projected to
increase flooding, rock avalanches from destabilised
slopes, and to affect water resources within the next
two to three decades. This will be followed by
decreased river flows as the glaciers recede.

• Freshwater availability in Central, South, East, and
South-East Asia, particularly in large river basins, is
projected to decrease due to climate change which,
along with population growth and increasing
demand arising from higher standards of living, could
adversely affect more than a billion people by the
2050s.

• Coastal areas, especially heavily populated
megadelta regions in South, East and South-East
Asia, will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding
from the sea and, in some megadeltas, flooding from
the rivers.

Vulnerability, adaptive capacity

• Most vulnerable due to multiple
stresses and low adaptive capacity
is low due to low GDP per capita,
widespread poverty (the number of
poor grew over the 1990s),
inequitable land distribution, and
low education levels. There is also
an absence of safety nets,
particularly after harvest failures.

• More than one quarter of the
population lives within 100 km of
the coast and most of Africa’s
largest cities are along coasts
vulnerable to sea-level rise, coastal
erosion, and extreme events.

• Individual coping strategies for
desertification are already strained,
leading to deepening poverty.

• Dependence on rain-fed
agriculture is high.

• Adaptive capacity is likely to be
greatest in countries with civil order,
political openness, and sound
economic management. Some
adaptation to current climate
variability is taking place; however,
this may be insufficient for future
changes in climate.

• Adaptive capacity varies between
countries depending on social
structure, culture, economic capacity,
and level of environmental
degradation.

• As a region, poverty in both rural
and urban areas has decreased in
Asia.

• Capacity is increasing in some
parts of Asia (for example, the
success of early warning systems for
extreme weather events in
Bangladesh), but is still restrained
due to poor resource bases,
inequalities in income, weak
institutions, and limited technology.

Reid, Alum, Berger, Cannon, Huq, and Milligan

Annex 1 (continued): Predicted impacts of climate change, vulnerability, and adaptive
capacity by region

Region

Asia
(continued)

Latin America

Likely regional impacts of climate change

• Climate change is projected to impinge on the
sustainable development of most developing
countries of Asia, as it compounds the pressures on
natural resources and the environment associated
with rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and
economic development.

• It is projected that crop yields could increase by
up to 20% in East and South-East Asia while they
could decrease up to 30% in Central and South Asia
by the mid-21st century. Taken together, and
considering the influence of rapid population
growth and urbanisation, the risk of hunger is
projected to remain very high in several developing
countries.

• Endemic morbidity and mortality due to
diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods
and droughts are expected to rise in East, South
and South-East Asia due to projected changes in
the hydrological cycle associated with global
warming.

• Increases in coastal water temperature would
exacerbate the abundance and/or toxicity of
cholera in South Asia.

• By mid-century, increases in temperature and
associated decreases in soil water are projected to
lead to gradual replacement of tropical forest by
savannah in eastern Amazonia. Semi-arid
vegetation will tend to be replaced by arid-land
vegetation. There is a risk of significant biodiversity
loss through species extinction in many areas of
tropical Latin America.

• In drier areas, climate change is expected to lead
to salination and desertification of agricultural land.
Productivity of some important crops is projected to
decrease and livestock productivity to decline, with
adverse consequences for food security. In
temperate zones soya bean yields are projected to
increase.

• Sea-level rise is projected to cause increased risk
of flooding in low-lying areas. Increases in sea
surface temperature due to climate change are
projected to have adverse effects on Mesoamerican
coral reefs, and cause shifts in the location of south-
east Pacific fish stocks.

• Changes in precipitation patterns and the
disappearance of glaciers are projected to

Vulnerability, adaptive capacity

• Some social indicators have
improved over the 1990s,
including adult literacy, life
expectancy, and access to safe
water.

• Other factors such as infant
mortality, low secondary school
enrolment, and high income
inequality contribute to limiting
adaptive capacity.

• Some countries have made
efforts to adapt, particularly
through conservation of key
ecosystems, early warning
systems, risk management in
agriculture, strategies for flood
drought and coastal
management, and disease
surveillance systems. However,
the effectiveness of these efforts
is outweighed by: lack of basic
information, observation and
monitoring systems; lack of
capacity building and appropriate

Annex 1 (continued): Predicted impacts of climate change, vulnerability, and adaptive
capacity by region

Region

Latin America

(contiued)

Small Island
States

significantly affect water availability for
human consumption, agriculture, and energy
generation.

• The projected sea-level rise of 5 mm/yr for
the next hundred years would cause enhanced
soil erosion, loss of land, poverty, dislocation
of people, increased risk from storm surges,
reduced resilience of coastal ecosystems,
saltwater intrusion into freshwater resources
and high resource costs to respond to and
adapt to changes.

• Coral reefs would be negatively affected by
bleaching and by reduced calcification rates
due to higher carbon dioxide levels; mangrove,
sea grass bed, and other coastal ecosystems
and the associated biodiversity would be
adversely affected by rising temperatures and
accelerated sea-level rise.

• Small islands, whether located in the tropics
or higher latitudes, have characteristics which
make them especially vulnerable to the effects
of climate change, sea-level rise and extreme
events.

• Deterioration in coastal conditions, for
example through erosion of beaches and coral
bleaching, is expected to affect local resources,
e.g. fisheries, and reduce the value of these
destinations for tourism.

• Sea-level rise is expected to exacerbate
inundation, storm surge, erosion, and other
coastal hazards, thus threatening vital
infrastructure, settlements, and facilities that
support the livelihoods of island communities.

Climate change is projected by mid-century to
reduce water resources in many small islands,
e.g. in the Caribbean and Pacific, to the point
where they become insufficient to meet
demand during low-rainfall periods.

• With higher temperatures, increased
invasion by non-native species is expected to
occur, particularly on mid- and high latitude
islands.

political, institutional, and
technological frameworks; low
income; and settlements in
vulnerable areas, among others.

• Adaptive capacity of human
systems is generally low in small
island states, and vulnerability
high; small island states are
likely to be among the countries
most seriously impacted by
climate change.

• Declines in coastal
ecosystems would negatively
impact reef fish and threaten
reef fisheries, those who earn
their livelihoods from reef
fisheries, and those who rely on
the fisheries as a significant food
source.

• Limited arable land and
extensive soil salination make
agriculture on small islands, both
for domestic food production
and cash crop exports, highly
vulnerable to climate change.

• Tourism, an important source
of income and foreign exchange
for many islands, would face
severe disruption from climate
change and sea-level rise.

Likely regional impacts of climate change

Source: Adapted from IPCC (2007).

Vulnerability, adaptive capacity

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an overview

Adaptation

Adjustment in natural or human systems in
response to actual or expected climate
stimuli or their effects, which moderates
harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.
Various types of adaptation can be distin-
guished, including anticipatory and reactive
adaptation, private and public adaptation,
and autonomous and planned adaptation
(IPCC).

Adaptive capacity

The ability of a system to adjust to climate
change, including climate variability and
extremes; to moderate potential
damages; to take advantage of opportu-
nities; or to cope with the consequences
(IPCC, 2007).

Climate change

A change of climate which is attributed
directly or indirectly to human activity that
alters the composition of the global atmos-
phere and which is in addition to natural
climate variability observed over compara-
ble time periods (UNFCCC).

Climate change mitigation

Technological change and substitution that
reduce resource inputs and emissions per
unit of output. Although several social,
economic, and technological policies would
produce an emission reduction, with respect
to climate change, mitigation means imple-
menting policies to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and enhance sinks (see also
Greenhouse gas) (IPCC, 2007).

Climate hazard

Potentially damaging physical manifesta-
tions of climatic variability or change, such
as droughts floods, storms, episodes of
heavy rainfall, long-term changes in the
mean values of climatic variables, potential
future shifts in climatic regimes, and so on
(Brooks, 2003).

Climate impacts

Consequences of climate and climate
change on natural and human systems.

Climate model

A numerical representation of the climate

Glossary

Glossary

system based on the physical, chemical, and
biological properties of its components,
their interactions and feedback processes,
and accounting for all or some of its known
properties. The climate system can be
represented by models of varying complex-
ity (i.e. for any one component or combina-
tion of components a hierarchy of models
can be identified, differing in such aspects
as the number of spatial dimensions, the
extent to which physical, chemical, or
biological processes are explicitly repre-
sented, or the level at which empirical para-
meterisations are involved (IPCC, 2007).

Climate trend

The general direction in which climate
factors, such as average annual temperature
or rainfall, tend to move over time.

Climate variability

The UNFCC makes a distinction between
‘climate change’, attributable to human
activities altering the atmospheric compo-
sition, and ‘climate variability’, attributable
to natural causes.

Coping capacity

The ability of people, organisations, and
systems, using available skills and resources,
to face and manage adverse conditions,
emergencies or disasters (UNISDR, 2009).

Disaster risk management

The systematic process of using adminis-
trative directives, organisations, and oper-
ational skills and capacities to implement
strategies, policies, and improved coping
capacities in order to lessen the adverse
impacts of hazards and the possibility of
disaster (UNISDR, 2009).

Disaster

An event, either natural or man-made, that
causes great distress or destruction. It is a
social crisis which occurs when a hazard
coincides with a vulnerable situation, result-
ing in significant loss of life, severe life-
threatening disruption, and substantial

physical damage (Tearfund).

Disaster risk reduction

The concept and practice of reducing disas-
ter risks through systematic efforts to
analyse and manage the causal factors of
disasters, including through reduced expo-
sure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of
people and property, wise management of
land and the environment, and improved
preparedness for adverse events (UNISDR,
2009).

Early warning system

The set of capacities needed to generate and
disseminate timely and meaningful warning
information to enable individuals, commu-
nities, and organisations threatened by a
hazard to prepare and to act appropriately
and in sufficient time to reduce the possibil-
ity of harm or loss (UNISDR, 2009).

El Niño – or El Niño Southern Oscillation
(ENSO)

A complex interaction of the tropical Pacific
Ocean and the global atmosphere that
results in irregularly occurring episodes of
changed ocean and weather patterns in
many parts of the world, often with signifi-
cant impacts over many months, such as
altered marine habitats, rainfall changes,
floods, droughts, and changes in storm
patterns (UNISDR, 2009).

El Niño and La Niña are defined as

sustained sea surface temperature anomalies
of magnitude greater than 0.5°C across the
central tropical Pacific Ocean, El Niño being
a warming and La Niña a cooling event. El
Niño events are associated with wetter
weather in Peru/Ecuador and East Africa
and drier conditions in South-East Asia,
northern Australia, and Southern Africa. La
Niña events generally cause the opposite and
are associated with increased Atlantic
cyclones. Climate change may increase the
strength and frequency of the oscillation.

Extreme weather event

An event that is rare within its statistical

reference distribution at a particular place.
Definitions of ‘rare’ vary, but an extreme
weather event would normally be as rare as
or rarer than the 10th or 90th percentile. By
definition, the characteristics of what is
called ‘extreme weather’ may vary from place
to place. Extreme weather events may typi-
cally include floods and droughts (IPCC,
2007).

Forecast

Definite statement or statistical estimate of
the likely occurrence of a future event or
conditions for a specific area (UNISDR,
2009).

Geographic information system (GIS)

A computer-based system designed to
collect, store, manage, and analyse spatially
referenced information and associated
attribute data. Participatory GIS (PGIS)
facilitates the representation of local
people’s spatial knowledge using two- and
three-dimensional maps. These maps can
be used to facilitate decision-making
processes, as well as support communica-
tion and advocacy. Unlike traditional GIS
applications, PGIS places control over
access and use of culturally sensitive spatial
data in the hands of those communities that
generated it (Corbett et al., 2006).

Greenhouse gas

A gas that absorbs radiation at specific wave-
lengths within the spectrum of radiation
(infrared radiation) emitted by the Earth’s
surface and by clouds. The gas in turn emits
infrared radiation from a level where the
temperature is colder than the surface. The
net effect is a local trapping of part of the
absorbed energy and a tendency to warm
the planetary surface. Water vapour (H2O),
carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O),
methane (CH4), and ozone (O3) are the
primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s
atmosphere (IPCC, 2007).

Hazard impacts

Impacts related to dangerous phenomena,

substances, human activities or conditions
that may cause loss of life, injury or other
health impacts, property damage, loss of
livelihoods and services, social and
economic disruption, or environmental
damage (UNISDR, 2009).

Indigenous knowledge

Also referred to as local knowledge, is the
ancient, communal, holistic, and spiritual
knowledge that encompasses every aspect
of human existence (Brascoupé and Mann,
2001).

Institutions

Institutions are humanly created formal
and informal mechanisms that shape social
and individual expectations, interactions,
and behaviour. They can be classified as
falling into public (bureaucratic adminis-
trative units, and elected local govern-
ments), civic (membership and cooperative
organisations), and private sectors (service
and business organisations) (Uphoff and
Buck, 2006). Understanding how local
institutions and their organisational forms
shape the adaptation practices of poor
communities is important for strengthen-
ing communities’ adaptive capacities.

Livelihoods

A livelihood comprises the capabilities,
assets (stores, resources, claims, and access),
and activities required for a means of living.
A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope
with and recover from stress and shocks,
maintain or enhance its capabilities and
assets, and provide sustainable livelihood
opportunities for the next generation; and
which contributes net benefits to other
livelihoods at the local and global levels in
the long- and short-term (Chambers and
Conway, 1992).

Maladaptation

Actions that increase vulnerability to
climate change. This includes making
development or investment decisions while
neglecting the actual or potential impacts

Glossary

of both climate variability and longer-term
climate change (Burton, 1998).

Maladaptation feedbacks

Consequences of actions taken to reduce
short-term vulnerability which then accel-
erate medium or long-term vulnerability to
climate change.

National Adaptation Programmes of
Action (NAPAs)

Documents prepared by least developed
countries identifying urgent and immediate
needs for adapting to climate change. The
NAPAs are then presented to the interna-
tional donor community for support
(UNFCCC).

Remote sensing

The process of gathering information about
the Earth from a distance. Such data is
commonly gathered by satellite or air
(aerial) photography (IAPAD).

Resilience

The ability of a system, community or
society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb,
accommodate, and recover from the effects
of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner,
including through the preservation and
restoration of its essential basic structures
and functions (UNISDR, 2009).

Risk

Expected damage or loss due to the combi-
nation of vulnerability and hazards.

Scenario

A plausible and often simplified description
of how the future may develop, based on a
coherent and internally consistent set of

assumptions about driving forces and key
relationships. Scenarios may be derived
from projections, but are often based on
additional information from other sources,
sometimes combined with a narrative story-
line (IPCC, 2007).

Triangulation

The verification of information gained from
one source or methodology with that gained
from one or more other sources or method-
ologies.

Vulnerability

The extent to which a natural or social
system is susceptible to sustaining damage
from hazards caused by climate change, and
is a function of the magnitude of climate
change, the sensitivity of the system to
changes in climate, and the ability to adapt
the system to changes in climate. Hence, a
highly vulnerable system is one that is
highly sensitive to modest changes in
climate and one for which the ability to
adapt is severely constrained (IPCC, 2007).

SOURCE
Christian Aid (2009a). ‘Module I: Framework and Approach.’
Christian Aid Adaptation Toolkit: Integrating adaptation to climate
change into secure livelihoods. Christian Aid: UK

Definitions and figures that are unattributed were generally based on
original material, multiple information sources, and/or adapted
substantially to ensure they relate to the Christian Aid context (or a
combination of these).

REFERENCES
Brascoupé, S. and H. Mann (2001). A community guide to protecting

Indigenous Knowledge. Research and Analysis Directorate,
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development: Canada

Brooks, N. (2003). ‘Climate change, growth and sustainability: the

ideological context.’ Tyndall Centre Briefing Note 8. Online:
www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/publications/TynBNote08.pdf

Burton, I. (1998). ‘Adapting to Climate Change in the Context of

National Economic Planning and Development.’ In P. Veit (ed.)
Africa’s Valuable Assets: A Reader in Natural Resource
Management. World Resources Institute: Washington DC

Chambers R. and G. Conway (1992). ‘Sustainable rural livelihoods:

practical concepts for the 21st century.’ Institute of Development
Studies: Brighton. Online:
www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC12443.pdf

Corbett, J., G. Rambaldi, P.K. Kyem, D. Weiner, R. Olson, J. Muchemi,

IAPAD (Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development website).

Online community mapping glossary:
www.iapad.org/glossary/default.htm

IPCC (2007). IPCC 4th Assessment Report 2007. Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change. Online: www.ipcc.ch

IPCC online glossary: www.ipcc.ch/pdf/glossary/tar-ipcc-terms-en.pdf
Tearfund online glossary:

http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Glossary.htm

UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change). Website: http://unfccc.int

UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

(2009). UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. Online:
www.undp.org.ge/new/files/24_619_762164_UNISDR-
terminology-2009-eng.pdf

Uphoff, N. and L. Buck (2006). ‘Strengthening rural local institutional

capacities for sustainable livelihoods and equitable development.’
Paper prepared for the Social Development Department of the
World Bank: Mimeo

by ILAN KELMAN, JESSICA MERCER, and JENNIFER J. WEST

Combining different
knowledges:
community-based
climate change
adaptation in small
island developing
states

Introduction

Throughout history, indigenous peoples
around the world have successfully
adjusted to social and environmental
changes. However climate change is under-
mining many existing livelihoods based on
natural resources and challenging the rele-
vance of indigenous knowledge on which
those livelihoods are based. Similarly,
current scientific knowledge about climate
change and weather patterns is limited,
and can rarely provide all that is needed for
dealing with change. The challenge is to
find ways of combining indigenous and
scientific knowledge to help in successful
adaptation at community level.

This paper describes a community-based

framework for combining different types of
knowledge to address climate change. It
builds on earlier work by Mercer to develop
and pilot a framework for addressing disas-
ter risk reduction in Small Island Develop-
ing States (SIDS).

The 52 SIDS face similar

sustainability challenges, including excep-
tional vulnerability to climate change.

The framework also draws on an assess-

ment of climate change impacts, vulnera-
bility, and adaptation across SIDS prepared
by Kelman, West, and colleagues under the
Many Strong Voices (MSV) programme.

The MSV assessment work indicates that
many SIDS communities have extensive
indigenous knowledge and traditional
skills that have helped them to deal with

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines disaster risk

reduction as ‘systematic efforts to analyse and manage the causal factors of disasters,
including through reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and
property, wise management of land and the environment, and improved preparedness
for adverse events’. See Kelman and Gaillard (2008) for one discussion about similarities,
differences, and linkages between disaster risk reduction and climate change.

The programme is supported by a consortium of donors including the Government of

Norway and is led by UNEP/GRID-Arendal and the Center for International Climate and
Environmental Research – Oslo (CICERO), for whom two of the authors work. MSV seeks
to catalyse local action about climate change through capacity building, research,
education, and outreach. See www.manystrongvoices.org for more details.

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

which is 87% rural (PNG National Statis-
tical Office, 2003). More than 400 crop
species are grown for food across the
country – mainly on land passed down
through families for generations – reflect-
ing the country’s enormous environmen-
tal variations (Department of Lands and
Physical Planning, 2005). Indigenous
knowledge and indigenous practices are
being undermined by a combination of
‘modernisation’, national pressures includ-
ing urbanisation, and global changes
including climate change.

Mercer carried out fieldwork in PNG in

2006-2007 in three rural villages, Singas,
Kumalu, and Baliau (Figure 1). Respec-
tively, these communities are affected by
floods, floods and landslides, and an erupt-
ing volcano. The villages were selected
based principally on their previously
expressed interest in participating in
disaster risk reduction activities after
community members had approached
PNG authorities for assistance. Through-
out the work, rapport and trust were built
by participating in community tasks,
including gardening, cooking, playing with
children, and going to market to buy and
sell goods.

In each village, with the community

members’ agreement, the fieldwork
method used was ‘guided discovery’ in
which an external facilitator helps
community members draw on past expe-
riences and local knowledge to seek new
relationships, connections, and ideas that
assist them to take action. Guided discov-
ery was supplemented with other partici-
patory techniques, including mapping
exercises, timelines, and matrix rankings
(see Mercer et al., 2008, 2009a, b). In each
context, these exercises must be selected
in consultation with the population, espe-
cially regarding literacy levels.

As part of the guided discover y,

communities developed a process frame-
work (Figure 2). This helped guide
community members through an in-depth
exploration of factors contributing to their

disaster vulnerability and the use of
indigenous and external scientific knowl-
edge to reduce that vulnerability. Four
steps were used (Mercer et al. 2009a, b),
as described below.

Step one: collecting background
information

Mercer collected background information
through participatory group work (Figures
3 and 4), identifying general community
information, interests, and goals. Each
group session, and in the other steps too,
was attended by community representa-
tives selected themselves and covering a
variety of ages within the ethnically
homogenous villages. Genders were gener-
ally segregated and then brought together
to present to each other (Figure 4),
because in PNG men usually dominate
discussions whereas this work sought
input from both genders.

The results from the group sessions

were presented to the entire community at
a community meeting to confirm or revise
information. Examples of the information
gleaned were village history, hazard and
event timelines, maps, and environmental
and social trends, with examples given in
Figure 5.

Step two: identifying underlying vulnerability
factors

With this baseline, communities identified
underlying vulnerability factors, both
external and internal. External factors are
those beyond a community’s control, such
as storms and volcanic eruptions. Internal
factors can be controlled by the community
to a large extent, such as changing crops or
cropping patterns.

Although climate change was not this

work’s focus, climate change was
mentioned as an external factor in all three
villages. That is, through guided discovery,
the villagers – not outsiders – determined
that climate change was an important issue
that should be addressed. This conclusion
was reached during discussions about the

Kelman, Mercer, and West

Figure 2: The original process framework developed and used in PNG

Source: Mercer

et al. (2009b) with some text adjusted.

Community
engagement:

• Collaboration

with community
and stakeholders

• Identification of

community goals

• Establishing

rapport and trust

Indigenous strategies:

• Past and present
• Examples may include land use

planning, building methods,
food strategies, social linkages,
and environmental strategies

Scientific strategies:

• Past and present
• Examples may include land

use planning, building
methods, food strategies,
social linkages, and
environmental strategies

STEP 1:

COMMUNITY

ENGAGEMENT

STEP 2:

IDENTIFICATION

OF VULNERABILITY

FACTORS

STEP 3:

IDENTIFICATION OF INDIGENOUS
AND SCIENTIFIC STRATEGIES FOR

VULNERABILITY REDUCTION

Identification of
internal and external
components
contributing to
vulnerability.
Determined through:

• Community situation

analysis

• Identification of

priorities

Figure 3: An intense focus group discussion in Kumalu church where participants were discussing the impact of
landslides and flooding upon Kumalu village.

Photo:

essica Mer

cer

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

natural resources that sustain their liveli-
hoods. Villagers in all three locations
discussed weather patterns, raised the issue
of recently changing weather patterns, and
connected those experiences to climate
change. Whilst climate change was identi-
fied by the villagers as an external factor, it
was not discussed in depth. Rather, the
disaster risk reduction framework outlined
here focused on the consequences of
climate change internally and how these
consequences could be addressed. The
process highlighted the need to revise the
framework to consider climate change, as
this paper does.

Step three: identifying strategies for
vulnerability reduction

Community members separated into groups
to identify past and present indigenous and
scientific strategies used to cope with the
internal vulnerability factors identified. The
distinction between ‘external’ science and
‘internal’ indigenous, traditional, or local
knowledge(s) is not always straightforward.

Figure 4: Men and women in Singas discussing maps drawn of the village and associated hazards.

Photo:

essica Mer

cer

Integrated strategy:

• Addressing internal

components to
hazards

• Dependent on

effectiveness level
of each strategy
identified

Reduced
vulnerability

Ongoing revision and evaluation

STEP 4:

INTEGRATED

STRATEGY

Kelman, Mercer, and West

Differences frequently highlighted are the
different methods used to investigate and
interpret the surrounding world along with
science’s attempts to separate knowledge
from context compared to indigenous
knowledge being deeply rooted in particu-
lar contexts. Community members them-
selves distinguished between the categories
through identifying the knowledge, strate-
gies, and resources available to them and
through determining the source of each.
Once strategies for vulnerability reduction
were identified, community members
scored the effectiveness of each strategy in
reducing vulnerability.

Step four: prioritising vulnerability reduction
strategies

Community members prioritised possible
vulnerability reduction strategies, based on
the scoring. The scores were seen as a guide
rather than as being absolute. On occasion,
the scoring results led to qualitative discus-
sion that further revised the scoring to
reflect community members’ views. Thus,
the process was iterative and factored in
intangible, qualitative views rather than
rigidly adhering to numbers – an impor-
tant principle within the framework. Iden-
tifying and prioritising the most effective
strategies represented the integrated
approach for reducing vulnerability by
combining indigenous and scientific
knowledge (Figures 5, 6 and 7).

Feedback from community members

indicated that this approach enabled them
to identify strategies that they felt were
achievable using existing resources. The
process also enabled them to identify
varying stages and forms of vulnerability
through time and how their own decisions,
such as changing land use practices and
building materials, could have contributed.

Guided discovery through the frame-

work therefore focuses on the principle of
encouraging awareness and responsibility
within the communities to address their
own vulnerabilities by themselves, espe-
cially the internal factors, but within the

context of external factors. However, whilst
applying and using the framework has
been described for disaster risk reduction,
follow-up work has yet to be completed for
evaluating outcomes and for measuring
over the long-term any discernible reduc-
tions in vulnerability.

2006 – Major eruption, ash fall.

2005 – Major eruption, ash fall.

2004 – Major eruption causes
evacuation of whole Island including
Baliau Village. Chief of village
returned after a month followed by a
gradual return of villagers. Whilst
most of Baliau village have returned
a large part of the islanders still
reside in care centres on the
mainland.

2002 – Landslide and flooding on the
boundaries of Baliau village.

2001 – Strong winds flattened crops.

1997 – Drought.

1996 – Major eruption, 13 people
died, evacuation.

1992 – Lava flow destroys villages on
other side of island from Baliau.
Baliau village only affected by ash
fall.

1957 – Major eruption and
evacuation of whole island.

1937 – Major eruption.

Figure 5: Example of field results from
implementing the framework for
disaster risk reduction. Hazard timeline
developed by Baliau community
members, highlighting several climate-
and non-climate-related events.

(Mer

cer

et a

l.,

2009ab).

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

Figure 6: Example of field results from implementing the framework for disaster risk
reduction. Cause-effect vulnerability tree developed by Singas community members
outlining what they considered to be ‘internal’ and ‘external’ vulnerability factors.

Leads to
increased
vulnerability
to floods

SINGAS

}

Loss of land/bush

House
Location

Sickness

Loss of wildlife

Hunger

Death of cash
crop –-

buai

Introduction of
new diseases

Land boundaries

Climate
change
– excess
rainfall

Hazard:
flooding

High population
levels/growth

Mosquitoes

Geographical
structure/natural
environment:
• Soft soil
• Situated

between rivers

• Drinking water

source

Vulnerable
houses –
building
on ground

Erosion

Competition
with nearby
villages –
gardens and
population

Changes in
traditional
values/
structure

Increased
land
clearance
for gardens

Decreased
education/loss
of knowledge

EFFECTS

CAUSES

Globalisation:
• Introduction of medicines
• Missionary influence (loss

of old ways)

• Change of diet,

introduction to new
vegetables

• Increased access to

outside community with
roads

• Interaction with outside

community

• Marriage outside

Erosion

Limited
education

Kelman, Mercer, and West

Figure 7: Example of field results from implementing the framework for disaster risk
reduction. Example of a pairwise ranking grid completed by Kumalu community
members to prioritise pre-identified vulnerability factors.

Limited knowledge

Construction of houses in dangerous places

Lack of diversification of income sources

Minimal outside support

Land clearance (loss of bush/trees)

No community planning

Land loss (gardens and coffee due to hazards)

Vulnerable housing

Hunger

Changes in farming practices (coffee, vegetables etc.)

Garden accessibility

Market access

Notes:
•After discussion, people from Kumalu decided that ‘limited knowledge’ was more important than previously
identified and so the priority list order was changed to move ‘limited knowledge’ to number 5.
•N/A (meaning ‘not applicable’) is used throughout the centre of a grid to avoid two of the same factors being
compared against each other.

Priority list order
1

Vulnerable housing

Land loss

Land clearance

Construction of houses in
dangerous places

Garden accessibility

Hunger

Market access

Changes in farming practices

Lack of diversification of
income sources

No community planning

Lack of knowledge

Minimal outside support

Key:

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

Using the framework to address climate
change

The framework for disaster risk reduction
targeted mainly floods, storms, landslides,
and volcanic eruptions that the communi-
ties had previously experienced. Climate
change is likely to alter the timing, severity,
and frequency of some environmental
hazards along with affecting weather
seasonality. Consequently, the framework
provides a useful entry point for discussing
how and why communities could be
vulnerable to, and could deal with, longer-
term climate change. The framework has
not yet been applied in the field for only
climate change.

Figure 8 shows how the framework could

be revised to address climate change. It incor-
porates knowledge gained from the MSV
assessment (CICERO and UNEP/GRID-
Arendal, 2008) of climate change impacts,
vulnerability, and adaptation on SIDS.

Step one

Step one of the process remains unchanged,
as it is important for determining commu-
nities’ own priorities and concerns. In our
experience, climate change is a priority for
SIDS communities. SIDS communities are
reporting climate change challenges.

They

are actively seeking and supporting endeav-
ours to address climate change, as shown by
MSV. However, this may not be the case for
communities elsewhere. If communities do
not consider climate change to be a concern
yet scientific evidence suggests otherwise –
an unlikely occurrence for SIDS – then
practitioners involved in using the frame-
work will need to decide ethically and prac-
tically the appropriateness of trying to
introduce, or force, climate change onto the
community.

Step two

In step two, a global situation analysis is
carried out, with global climate change
causes and trends linked to local impacts

and vulnerabilities. External scientific infor-
mation indicating historical and potential
future consequences of climate variability
and change – for instance, satellite obser-
vations and downscaled climate projections
for short- and long-term scenarios – could
be presented and discussed to connect to
internal vulnerability factors. For example,
land use changes increased flood damage in
both Singas and Kumalu as an internal
vulnerability factor and that can be
redressed locally in each place. Any changes
must be done in the context of uncertainty
in how flood characteristics will change due
to climate change. The global situation
analysis would identify both components
and describe how they are linked. Suggested
strategies for understanding the complete
situation analysis range from fully accept-
ing responsibility, to specific internal
vulnerabilities, through to wider advocacy,
education, and awareness-raising strategies
regarding climate change causes and
impacts, both in the community and
beyond the community.

Rather than separating internal and

external factors as mutually exclusive cate-
gories, climate change reveals overlaps, as
shown above for Singas and Kumalu.
Including climate change suggests that
contingency and flexibility, rather than
fixed strategies or rigid goals, should be
considered for flood risk reduction.

Step three

When identifying indigenous strategies for
reducing vulnerability to both environ-
mental hazards and climate change, the
focus should be on determining how
people have responded to longer-term
changes in the past. Examples of past
responses that might be applicable under
current local realities, as well as under
projected future changes, can be found
within building construction methods:
building homes on stilts to avoid flooding
as undertaken in Singas and the construc-

See e.g. www.climatefrontlines.org

Kelman, Mercer, and West

See: http://unfccc.int/national_reports/napa/items/2719.php

tion of steeply sloped roofs to avoid fire risk
from volcanic ash and to ensure runoff
during heavy rainfall as in Baliau.

One part of identifying scientific strate-

gies should be requesting data that the
community decides might be useful for
long-term planning. Examples are down-
scaled climate scenarios or regularly
updated remote sensed observations. This
information could enable communities to
prepare in advance, through for example
identifying appropriate crops to plant given
the expected conditions, identifying appro-
priate areas for gardens, and adjusting the
agricultural growth cycle accordingly.

Step four

Strategies should include measures for
addressing climate change, especially
beyond already experienced environmental
hazards. One example is the potential for

invasive species that could change the pest
or disease profile of local agricultural
systems. Partners outside the community
may be needed to incorporate external
scientific knowledge about climatology and
ecology.

As another example of a potential strat-

egy, MSV provides cases of indigenous SIDS
peoples gaining capacity for dealing with
climate change in international fora, such
as the Conference of Parties (COP) negoti-
ations. Additionally, PNG is not currently
on the United Nations’ list of Least Devel-
oped Countries (LDCs), but it could
nonetheless be useful to consider pursuing
a National Adaptation Programme of
Action for climate change, as completed by
other SIDS that are LDCs, or to undertake
a similar process such as the Government
of St. Lucia (2003) has done.

As such, the community could identify

Figure 8: The revised process framework, for introducing and addressing climate change

Source: Mercer

et al. (2009b) with some text adjusted.

Community
engagement:

• Collaboration

with community
and stakeholders

• Identification of

community goals

• Establishing

rapport and trust

Indigenous strategies:

• Past and present, considering

both short-term and long-term
changes

• Examples may include moving

buildings, migration, and a
shift in crops grown

Scientific strategies:

• Past and present
• Examples may include:

downscaled climate scenarios
and coupling the climate
models to hydrological models
for the watershed

STEP 1:

COMMUNITY

ENGAGEMENT

STEP 2:

IDENTIFICATION OF

VULNERABILITY FACTORS

STEP 3:

IDENTIFICATION OF INDIGENOUS
AND SCIENTIFIC STRATEGIES FOR

VULNERABILITY REDUCTION

Identification of
internal and external
components
contributing to
vulnerability and their
links. Determined
through:
• Community and

global situation
analyses

• Identification of

priorities

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

strategies for addressing climate change
that go beyond the local level. The frame-
work explicitly permits different levels of
action that may be needed (e.g. local,
district, national, international) while
permitting and identifying links amongst
those different levels.

Main lessons

The lesson to highlight from this work is
the framework’s ability to relate local and
global topics, especially by combining
community knowledge and experiences
with external scientific information and
approaches. Two main points are detailed
here for emphasis when applying the
framework for climate change, based on
experience with the disaster risk reduction
framework (Mercer et al., 2009a, b).

First, by identifying community goals

and priorities, and by connecting these to
local and global situation analyses, climate
change adaptation and disaster risk reduc-

tion are supported simultaneously. The
focus is on the community’s needs, not on
climate change or disaster risk reduction as
the starting point. For example, all three
villages in PNG identified increased vege-
tation burning as being a land use change
that might exacerbate floods and erosion.
The framework helps to consider how land
use has changed, affecting community
vulnerability, over past decades. By consid-
ering indigenous and non-indigenous
strategies that improve land use and that
reduce burning, flood and erosion vulner-
ability is reduced, irrespective of climate
change affecting those hazards. The
communities identified land use challenges
and improvements, automatically support-
ing climate change adaptation and disaster
risk reduction simultaneously.

The second point, emphasised in MSV,

is that climate change and disaster risk
reduction should be integrated within
wider development contexts. The three
PNG villages exemplify development chal-
lenges faced by many SIDS communities,
irrespective of climate change. Meanwhile,
through MSV, SIDS peoples express a need
for climate change research, policy, and
action that acknowledges wider develop-
ment contexts.

One possible idea to explore with

caution for the PNG villages, based on the
experience there, could be reversing land
use changes to reduce flood and erosion
risk by expanding the crop profile. Crops
could include local species with multiple
uses, covering combinations of erosion
prevention, building materials, edibility,
and livestock fodder. The potential could
be explored for growing small amounts of
crops for selling and trading alongside food
crops. That could supplement income
while maintaining sufficient diversity in
case of shifts in external markets and/or
environmental conditions.

If such livelihood adjustments were

deemed to be appropriate, and if they were
accompanied by locally sensitive support
from external partners, the changes could

Integrated strategy:

• Addressing internal

and external
strategies for
addressing climate
change

• Draw on resources

outside the
communities and
develop long-term
cooperative
partnerships with
partners outside of
the community

Reduced
vulnerability

Ongoing revision and evaluation

STEP 4:

INTEGRATED

STRATEGY

Kelman, Mercer, and West

potentially bring livelihood benefits while
reducing vulnerability. Indigenous knowl-
edge would be needed regarding appropri-
ate cropping patterns and land use.
Non-indigenous local knowledge could
assist in identifying suitable crops that
might not have been grown before in the
community. External scientific knowledge
might help in identifying potential climate
scenarios.

Caution is essential before implemen-

tation in order to fully analyse the poten-
tial positive and negative consequences.
The uncertainties in future climate and
market analyses must be weighed carefully
against analysis of who may win and lose,
in the short-term and long-term, when
livelihood and land use systems are
adjusted. For instance, the introduction of
cash cropping for coffee in Kumalu in 1954
was identified by the community as leading
to later vulnerability.

This example highlights the challenges

of ensuring that climate change concerns
are addressed without causing or exacer-
bating other problems. MSV highlights
SIDS community concerns that climate
change is only one of many major topics to
be considered, with others being liveli-
hoods and disaster risk reduction. The
framework enables communities to find
solutions for adjusting and expanding
livelihoods to tackle many challenges
simultaneously.

Conclusion

The revised framework has the potential to
demonstrate the usefulness of combining
disaster risk reduction and climate change
(see also Kelman and Gaillard, 2008). Key

commonalities between the original and
revised frameworks are:
• the four-step structure;
• community members identifying factors
that should be addressed to reduce vulner-
ability; and
• the strategies combining indigenous and
external scientific knowledge.

Key differences are highlighted by

Figures 2 and 8.

An important strength of the frame-

work is recognising indigenous and exter-
nal scientific knowledge as resources upon
which to build successful local strategies for
vulnerability reduction. The ‘guided discov-
ery’ method adheres to principles within
both disaster risk reduction and climate
change endeavours, providing step-by-step
guidelines for working with a community
to move away from solely top-down
approaches. In describing the framework
and suggesting its application, though, this
paper does not analyse the new frame-
work’s implementation or evaluation.

The main expected outcome of imple-

menting the revised framework is reduced
community vulnerability through consider-
ing disaster risk reduction and climate
change simultaneously. Both entail explic-
itly recognising and acting on immediate
and long-term challenges. A second
outcome is establishing long-term coopera-
tive partnerships between communities and
collaborators outside the community at
regional, national, and international levels.
Those partnerships would be for exchang-
ing and applying local and scientific knowl-
edge and expertise to design vulnerability
reduction strategies that are locally contex-
tual without neglecting wider contexts.

CONTACT DETAILS
Ilan Kelman and Jennifer J. West
Center for International Climate and
Environmental Research – Oslo (CICERO)
PO Box 1129, Blindern, Oslo, N-0318 Norway
Tel: +47 2285 8566
www.ilankelman.org/contact.html
www.cicero.uio.no/employees/homepage.aspx?person_id=716&lang=en

Combining different knowledges:community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states

Jessica Mercer
CAFOD
Romero Close
London
SW9 9TY
UK
Tel: +44 20 7733 7900

REFERENCES
CICERO and UNEP/GRID-Arendal (2008). Many Strong Voices: Outline

for an assessment project design. CICERO Report 2008:05.
CICERO (Center for International Climate and Environmental
Research, Oslo), Oslo, Norway and UNEP/GRID, Arendal, Norway.
Online: www.cicero.uio.no/publications/detail.aspx?publication_
id=6359&lang=EN

Department of Lands and Physical Planning (2005). Land Tenure

System in Papua New Guinea. Department of Lands and Physical
Planning, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Online:
www.lands.gov.pg/Services/Land_Administration/LA_Services/Land_
Acquisition/Land_Tenure.htm

Government of Saint Lucia (2003). Saint Lucia National Climate

Change Policy and Adaptation Plan. Ministry of Physical
Development, Environment and Housing, Castries, St. Lucia.
Online: www.climatechange.gov.lc/NCC_Policy-
Adaptation_7April2003.pdf

Kelman, I. and J.C. Gaillard (2008). ‘Placing climate change within

disaster risk reduction.’ Disaster Advances 1(3): 3-5. Online:
www.managein.org/manage/disas/Back_Issue/editorial/edit_03_0 html

Mercer, J., I. Kelman, K. Lloyd, and S. Suchet-Pearson (2008).

‘Reflections on use of participatory research for disaster risk
reduction.’ Area, 40(2): 172-183.

Mercer, J., I. Kelman, L. Taranis, and S. Suchet (2009a). ‘Framework for

integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk
reduction.’ Disasters (forthcoming).

Mercer, J., I. Kelman, S. Suchet-Pearson, and K. Lloyd (2009b).

‘Integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge bases for disaster
risk reduction in Papua New Guinea.’ Geografiska Annaler: Series
B, Human Geography, 91(2): 157-183.

PNG National Statistical Office (2003). Census 2000: Population and

Social Statistics. Government of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea. Online: www.spc.int/prism/country/pg/stats/
Pop_Soc_%20Stats/popsoc.htm

Introduction

I am worried for the future generation for
they might only see mangroves in the books
and that is what I fear will happen.
Youth group member, Camotes, Philippines

In the face of increasing disaster events and
the ongoing and future impacts of global
climate change, a growing body of work is
emerging around community-based
responses to preventing disasters and adapt-
ing to a changing climate (known as ‘adap-
tation’). Initially, adaptation interventions
were commonly considered through top-
down assessments, with scientific models
projecting future change so that planning
decisions and policy could be made accord-
ingly. Recognising that individuals and
communities have been adapting to chang-
ing climates for many years, community-
based approaches to adaptation and the
related field of disaster risk reduction (DRR)

have emerged since 2005. These respond to
the realities of climate-related impacts,
which are adversely affecting people’s liveli-
hoods, particularly in poorer communities
in developing countries.

As an emerging field, reflection and

learning on adaptation and disaster risk
reduction (DRR) are crucial. However,
there is a danger that a focus on ‘the
community’ fails to look within and under-
stand the community itself. Children under
18 are often considered the vulnerable,
passive victims of disaster events and in
need of protection by parents and adults in
the community, who in turn make deci-
sions and take actions on their behalf. Yet
children have unique perceptions of the
world in which they live, and they have the
capacity to act as agents of change.

In this article, we argue that widening

community participation to include chil-
dren is crucial for successfully tackling
development issues in a changing climate.

We use the term ‘children’ here because the research has focused primarily on

participants under 18 years of age, including those as young as three. During the
research process, the term ‘youth’ is also used for teenage participants.

by THOMAS TANNER, MERCEDES GARCIA, JIMENA LAZCANO,
FATIMA MOLINA, GRACE MOLINA, GONZALO RODRIGUEZ,
BALTZ TRIBUNALO, and FRAN SEBALLOS

Children’s
participation in
community-based
disaster risk reduction
and adaptation to
climate change

Children’s participation in community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change

We show how child-friendly participatory
methodologies and processes can enable
children to take an active role in commu-
nicating their perspectives to other
members of the community, tackling
climate change impacts, and preventing
disasters.

Aims, location, and participants

The participator y action research
presented here seeks to understand how
children in developing countries can take
action within their communities to prevent
disasters and adapt to climate change. We
worked with child-led development proj-
ects being implemented by Plan Interna-
tional in El Salvador and the Philippines.

These countries are among the most disas-
ter-prone in the world, with hazard
burdens in many areas compounded by a
high incidence of poverty and dependence
on climate-sensitive natural resources.
Plan’s DRR programme was stimulated by
both experiences of disaster impacts on
children and communities, and the poten-
tial for child-led initiatives demonstrated
by children’s groups in these areas.

The research links with these ongoing

development projects to investigate how
children perceive risks and how they
communicate these risks and take action.
Children’s groups are actively engaged with
the research process, including reflecting on
design, methods, results, and analysis.
Research ethics are a central consideration,
particularly regarding processes for
informed consent and child protection.

The

continuing engagement of development
agencies will ensure continuity, space for
discussion, and support for initiatives once
researchers have left the communities.

The central actors in the process, which

is ongoing in 20 communities in El
Salvador and Philippines (see Table 1), are
children and children’s groups, although
the research process also works with adults
in communities and in related institutions.

Research process and methods

The research aims to both foster and study
the dynamics of children’s participation in
community development. In linking with
ongoing Plan projects, the research process
has been able provide an avenue for reflec-

The ongoing work is being led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, in

partnership with the University of El Salvador, the Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP),
Plan El Salvador, and Plan Philippines. The research is funded by Plan International and the
UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) until October 2010.

Research ethics are carefully considered for this work, including processes of informed

consent from children, parents/guardians and teachers, careful explanation of the voluntary
nature of the work, the right to non-participation in any activity, strict checks and protocols
on child protection, and guaranteed anonymity in data, analysis, and outputs.

Country

Region Community

El Salvador

Chalatenango

El Coyolar, El Pepetón, La Montañona, Los Prados, Potrerillos

La Libertad

Alvarez, El Matazano 1, San Isidro

San Salvador

El Cipres II, Palo Grande

Philippines

Camotes

Lower Poblacion, Villa Hermosa, Teguis

Eastern Samar

Cadian, Caga-ut, Barobo

Southern Leyte

Catig, Guinsaugon, Pinut-an

Rizal

Banaba

Table 1: Child-led adaptation and DRR action research locations

Tanner, Garcia, Lazcano, Molina F, Molina G, Rodriguez, Tribunalo, and Seballos

tion and learning in both the communities
and Plan offices alike. Researchers work
alongside Plan staff members, who have a
long-term engagement in the case study
communities, providing both greater rapport
with the children and longer-term sustain-
ability of the action research process.

allow a comparative perspective, the research
engaged children’s groups at different stages
of engagement in the Plan disaster risk
reduction and adaptation projects, including
those who had not yet participated.

In the field, children are first introduced

to the researchers and the research aims
using simple icebreaker techniques. Follow-
ing consent from parents and teachers, the
children are asked for their informed
consent to participate in the process, and
encouraged to leave if they are not enjoying
it (‘methods should be fun’ was the motto).
Research methods were piloted in an early
phase of the research to develop a toolkit of
approaches that are both culturally appro-
priate and enjoyable. These include estab-
lished activities for vulnerability and
capacity assessment such as hazard identi-
fication and ranking grids, mapping vulner-
abilities and capacities in the community,
stakeholder analysis and mapping, group
timelines, guided walks, and poems.
However, many of these were modified for
use with children. The research also devel-
oped hybrid methods to capture risk
perception, risk communication, and
action. These included short video ‘adverts’
for adaptation and risk reduction projects,
poems and songs, acting out hazards and
risks in situ, drawings to represent motiva-
tions for participation, information and
message flow diagrams, and local games
used to differentiate group characteristics
or opinions (see Molina, Molina, and
Tanner in the Tips for Trainers section of
this issue for descriptions of some of these
methods, and how established methods
were modified for use with children).

Semi-structured interviews were carried

out with children in leadership positions
and with small friendship groups, as well as
with groups of adults from the community
including local disaster management
committees, officials and parents, govern-
mental entities (local government,
ministries of education and health), and
NGOs in the area. In both adult- and child-
oriented research, groups were separated by
age and by gender where possible.

Research highlights to date: key
messages

Although ongoing, the research is reveal-
ing important insights for the policy and
practice of climate adaptation and disaster
risk reduction (DRR) at community level.
It shows that children and young people
can participate in climate change and DRR
activities in a number of different ways:
• as analysers of risk and risk reduction
activities;
• as designers and implementers of proj-
ects;
• as communicators of risks and risk
management options (especially commu-
nications to parents, other adults, or those
outside the community);
• as mobilisers of resources and people;
and
• as constructors of social networks and
capital.

The conditions for such participation

are varied, but the research is investigating
how the nature and mode of participation
is influenced by a combination of commu-
nity and institutional dynamics, livelihoods
strategies and living standards, and
cultural factors, as well as the hazard
burden facing the communities.

Children can conceptualise and analyse the
risks affecting their lives

The research demonstrates first and fore-
most that children represent more than

The researchers are aware of the contradiction in using participatory research tools for

processes that remain largely extractive. This is why they are working through the
ongoing child-led community-based development programmes of Plan International.

Children’s participation in community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change

simply a passive, vulnerable group in
society who require protection through
decisions made by adults. Rather, they hold
a valuable understanding of the risks facing
their lives, not only those related to natural
hazards but also human-induced risks, and
societal risks (Table 2). This suggests that
interventions that focus on climate-related
risks alone are unlikely to reflect commu-
nity perceptions or priorities.

Risk perceptions are related to the lived

experience of individuals as well as the
socio-economic and geographic context

within which they are situated, and reflect
combinations of age, gender, educational
attainment, and occupation. Table 3 shows
how perceptions of types of hazard and risk
types in the Philippines were linked to
gender and age differences.

Similarly, motivations for participation

in group activities also showed marked
gender differences. In El Salvador, for
example, both genders (46% of females
and 57% of males) stated learning as their
main motivation. However, girls’ motiva-
tions are more likely to concern others

Natural hazards

Hurricanes, earthquakes, windstorms, droughts, heavy rains, falling trees, rivers and
gorges, rockfalls, landslides.

Human-induced risks

Electricity posts, retention walls, poorly maintained housing, houses near ravines,
burning waste, contaminated waste, winding and steep roads, rainy season water
ponding, houses located in landslide/rockfall zones.

Social risks

Speeding traffic on the main road through the community, gangs, drug and alcohol
abuse, poverty, delinquency, unemployment.

Table 2: Risks identified by children during research in Palo Grande, El Salvador

Table 3: Gender and age differences in risk perceptions in the Philippines

Identified predominantly by which age/gender group

All (based on personal experience) although ‘extreme weather’ is
dominant among children as it prevents access to school or play.

Adults, as providers for the family (women, as household budget
managers, stressed commodity prices).

Adults.

Men, as farmers.

Women and children as witnesses of male perpetrators, and sometimes
as victims of drunken behaviour (wives).

Women and children (community health workers and mothers, and those
who are susceptible).

Mainly children, due to school-based learning. Although women are often
aware too, men focus on meeting immediate needs of the family e.g.
food, school allowance.

Mainly children, primarily due to school-based learning and Plan training.

Children, primarily due to school-based learning.

Hazard/risk type

‘Natural disasters’

Food and financial crisis

Unemployment/livelihood
opportunities

Agricultural hazards such as
pests and drought

Social hazards (gambling,
drugs, community conflict)

Health and disease

Environmentally unsound
livelihood practices

Poor waste management

Global environmental problems

Tanner, Garcia, Lazcano, Molina F, Molina G, Rodriguez, Tribunalo, and Seballos

rather than the ‘self ’, including helping
other people and teamwork. Boys were
more likely to be motivated by activities
which benefit them as individuals, such as
having fun and making new friends. Other
reasons for participating included the
exchange of experiences, protecting the
environment, and the support of the group.

Children can be the agents of change to
tackle disasters and climate change

In many of the study communities, children
were already taking community-based
action to reduce disaster risks. In some
cases this was explicitly linked to adapting
to the changing climate. In some areas, Plan
support had enabled the development of

In the community of Potrerillos in
Chalatenango Department, El Salvador,
analysis and prioritisation by a children’s
group pinpointed risk to children from a
ravine neighbouring the school. Enlisting
the help of other community members,
they led a process to create a supporting
wall at the rear of the school and the
construction of a concrete platform to
stabilise the grounds and create a safe
area which is now used for recreational
activities.

Box 1: School safety mini-projects in El Salvador

Children mixing cement for school
retaining wall, Potrerillos, El Salvador.

Photo:

Thomas T

anner

Children in community groups in Teguis, on the Camotes Islands of the Philippines, have worked together to
restore degraded mangrove ecosystems by assembling teams to collect and replant saplings in sanctuaries
behind protective barriers. The groups combined knowledge from a range of sources including school
textbooks, training sessions, discussion with parents, and the media. In doing so they identified the multiple
benefits of restoration, including livelihoods gains through the provision of spawning grounds, biodiversity
gains, disaster protection from typhoon winds and surges, adaptation to climate change impacts, and the
removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases causing climate change. Notably, in the mangrove planting it is
usually the girls who participate as the boys often go fishing with the fathers.

Box 2: Child-led mangrove restoration projects in the Philippines

Photo:

Thomas T

anner

Child-led mangrove
restoration project,
Camotes Islands,
Philippines.

Children’s participation in community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change

mini-projects conceived, managed, and
implemented by the children’s groups,
based on risks prioritised during vulnera-
bility and capacity assessments.

Community-based projects have

demonstrated children’s ability to work
together to tackle problems (Boxes 1, 2 and
3). They have given the participants valu-
able experiences in group decision-making,
teamwork, project management, financial
accounting, and dissemination. They also
create an awareness locally of children as
agents of change, often stimulating support
and cooperation from adults within the
community.

In El Salvador, researchers found that

younger children tend to work more on
preventative measures, passing on infor-
mation and understanding from training
received from outside agencies to others.
Older children have been able to further
develop guidance from Plan training events

and have taken the initiative in developing
actions to mitigate risks, such as building
live barriers, improving waste disposal
containers, and trimming trees.

Children can act as risk communicators to
others in the community

Children have voice – they are not just
passive listeners, they can speak of the real
situation. I can attest to that since during the
death of my grandmother, I was able to share
what I’ve learnt about disaster risk reduction
and climate change adaptation to my
cousins, grandparents, and other relatives.

Member, Young Environmental
Guardians of Poro, Camotes Islands,
Philippines

Our research suggests that children can play
an important role in communicating about
risk and climate change within and beyond

During Hurricane Stan in 2005, the
Youth Emergency Committee
facilitated the process of evacuating
seven families whose houses were at
risk of collapsing. They established
and managed an emergency camp in
the community’s school building, and
grouped together to request support
from the mayor’s office and other
institutions, constructing a support
network for the affected families until
they were donated safer and stronger
houses several months later.

Their actions gained the Youth

Group strong recognition within the
community. They continue to work on
community projects, supported by
NGOs, and the Community
Development Association, which
legally represents the community to
the mayor’s office, has recognised
their role and is looking to include
them in the future.

Box 3: Mobilisation during emergencies in El Ciprés

Members of the Youth Emergency
Committee in El Ciprés, El Salvador.

Photo:

Jimena Lazcano

Tanner, Garcia, Lazcano, Molina F, Molina G, Rodriguez, Tribunalo, and Seballos

the community (Box 4). Children concep-
tualise and understand risks in their own
terms, often relating hazards and factors
driving vulnerability to their own experi-
ences (such as localised landslides, polluted
watercourses, or dangerous roads). They
combine their own understanding with
technical information gained from external
information sources such as the media,
school curricula, and training sessions. Chil-
dren’s understanding of the implications of
wider-scale processes, such as global
climate change, for local livelihoods is often
more advanced than that of adults.

Children’s groups can effectively mobilise
people

In the Philippines, child-led mobilisation
around environmental issues such as
mining in Eastern Samar (see Box 5) and
relocation of schools away from disaster
zones in communities neighbouring Guin-
saugon, Southern Leyte demonstrate the
potential of children’s groups to mobilise
others. Drawing in other members of the
community and developing social
networks, they have mobilised constituen-
cies behind key issues affecting their
communities.

Buklod ng Kabataan (Children Bonded Together), a group of children and youth in Banaba, has become an
effective advocate of DRR and adaptation through theatre performances. Using singing, dancing, and
acting, they communicated their perceptions of local hazards such as flooding and river bank erosion, and
the potentially destructive impacts of these hazards on people’s livelihoods, properties, and lives. The group
also became dynamic communicators of risk reduction activities such as tree planting and solid waste
management which can achieve a cleaner environment, fresh air, stabilise river banks and reduce river
pollution, and reduce health risks. Through their advocacy, different sectors of the community and
stakeholders up to the national scale were encouraged to take action.

Box 4: Communicating risks and responses through child-led theatre in the Rizal,
Philippines

Photo:

ace Molina

Communicating risk
through children’s
theatre in the
Philippines.

Children’s participation in community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change

Future challenges: bringing children to
the fore in community-based adaptation
and DRR

The research highlights the potential of
putting children at the heart of community-
based efforts to tackle climate change
impacts. They form a central part of the
community yet their potential as agents of
change has been largely overlooked by
community-based adaptation programmes.
As the generation inheriting climate
impacts, they have a right to be included in
decision-making affecting their future. This
research demonstrates that this moral
imperative is reinforced by their demon-
strated ability to conceptualise, analyse,
communicate, and take action to improve
their current and future wellbeing in a

changing climate.

Scaling up the participation of children

in DRR and adaptation requires enhanced
efforts to incorporate children’s perspec-
tives, knowledge, and potential for action
into regular community-driven develop-
ment programmes. Some of the participa-
tory methods we share here and later in
this issue will facilitate this. However,
scaling up also requires advocacy outside
of communities to raise awareness of chil-
dren’s contribution and to bring about
policy changes that enable children to
participate in community DRR and adap-
tation processes.

The research also contributes to a

growing awareness of the need to differen-
tiate DRR and adaptation activities and

Children in the community of Caga-ut in Eastern Samar, the Philippines have been communicating a range
of environmental, economic, and social risks posed by chromite mining to a wide audience. Children directly
targeted miners, operators, and those licensing the mining, communicating their concerns through meetings
and dialogue. Alongside this they have led dialogue with family, resident miners, and community members
about the risks posed by the mining activities to present and future generations.

Box 5: Child-led anti-mining advocacy in Eastern Samar, Philippines

Participatory video shoot on chromite mining activity at Caga-ut, Eastern Samar, Philippines.

Photo:

ace Molina

Tanner, Garcia, Lazcano, Molina F, Molina G, Rodriguez, Tribunalo, and Seballos

processes by different groups within
communities (Tanner and Mitchell, 2008).
Within children’s groups there are differ-
ences in perceptions of risks and prioriti-
sation of adaptation and risk reduction
actions, depending on age and gender.
There may also be differences between, for
example, children not participating in
schools or in established groups and those
who do participate. At the same time, a
holistic vision for child-led adaptation and
DRR is required that includes both adults
and children to provide wider and more
consensual support for actions at the
community level.

CONTACT DETAILS
Thomas Tanner
Research Fellow
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton
UK
Tel: + 44 1273 915766
Email: t.tanner@ids.ac.uk
Website: www.ids.ac.uk/climatechange

AUTHORS’ INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Mercedes Garcia – Plan El Salvador.
Fatima Molina, Grace Molina – Center for Disaster Preparedness
(CDP), Philippines.
Jimena Lazcano – Independent consultant.
Gonzalo Rodriguez – National University of El Salvador.
Thomas Tanner, Fran Seballos – Institute of Development Studies (IDS),
UK.
Baltz Tribunalo – Plan Philippines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all participants in the research and are
grateful for logistical and financial support from Plan International and
the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information about work on children, disaster risk reduction,
and climate change adaptation please visit:
www.childreninachangingclimate.org. Children in a Changing Climate
is a global action-research, advocacy, and learning programme,
bringing together leading research and development organisations
with a commitment to share knowledge, coordinate activities, and
work with children as protagonists with a voice needing to be heard.

REFERENCES
Tanner, T.M. and T. Mitchell (Eds.) (2008) ‘Poverty in a Changing

Climate.’ IDS Bulletin 39 (4). Institute of Development Studies,
University of Sussex: UK

Introduction

The Andes have daily (rather than
seasonal) temperature extremes, unpre-
dictable weather from one year to the next,
and a myriad of environmental niches scat-
tered across the elevations. To survive in
such an adverse environment, highland
farming evolved to be robust, with complex
soil and water management, a rich diver-
sity of crops and varieties, and planting
schemes adapted to altitude. Much of the
work is done through collective labour and
sharecropping. Spanish colonialism and
then the market-orientation of the last
century privileged distant consumer
demands and external knowledge and
technology. As a result, local knowledge
and practice have been largely supplanted,
and agriculture is based on fewer crops and
varieties and less sophisticated planting
schemes. In addition, the arrival of indus-
trial-era technology, such as mechanised
tillage and agrochemicals, commonly has
led to the degradation of soil, water, and
biological resources. Climate change is
likely to aggravate greatly this already

precarious situation.

Recent studies of global climate change

paint a bleak picture for the Andes. The
UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has shortened previous
predictions for the melting of Andean
glaciers from 30 to 15 years. Droughts and
flooding will become more common in the
region, as will wind and cyclones, disease
and pests, soil erosion, and losses of soil
organic matter. Stream flow will decrease.

Researchers have proposed expert-led

solutions, such as improved climatic
modelling and forecasting, and the breed-
ing of drought-tolerant crop varieties.
Climate models are most useful for deter-
mining large-scale mean temperatures over
relatively uniform geographies – not the
Andes! General forecasts are of little help
to farmers who are more interested in local,
short-term predictions, especially of rain-
fall. For these sorts of predictions, rural
people are often at least as accurate as
meteorologists (Orlove et al., 2002).
Instead, mountain people need greater
ability to cope with weather fluctuations.

by STEPHEN SHERWOOD and JEFFERY BENTLEY

Katalysis: helping
Andean farmers adapt
to climate change

Sherwood and Bentley

Drought-tolerant varieties may be impor-
tant in some regions, but in the Andes,
traditional crops and potato varieties are
already adapted to a much wider range of
altitudes than previously suspected (de
Haan, 2009). Maintaining the varieties
that farmers have and love may be as
important as breeding new ones.

We believe that farmers need to shape

the research agenda according to local
priorities, and that smallholders and
researchers should learn together. These
are the aims of the Katalysis approach to
climate change adaptation described in this
paper.

Katalysis: an experiential learning-
action approach

Piloting the Katalysis approach

During 2005 and 2006, with a grant of

US$60,000 from the Challenge Program
on Water and Food, World Neighbors
worked with several partner organisations,
especially the Ecuadorian Network for
Community-based Natural Resource
Management (MACRENA) and the Boli-
vian Programme for Integrated Develop-
ment of Potosí (PRODINPO).

The work

involved communities in intensive, locally
led learning-action on climate change and
resilience, including process design,
curriculum development, and subsequent
follow-up visits to document learning and
innovations. We named the approach
‘Katalysis’ because of the catalytic changes
it inspired. The pilot project worked at two
highland locations in Bolivia and Ecuador,
in the poorest regions of the Andes (Figures
1 and 2). Both sites are semi-arid, with
marked dry seasons and average yearly
rainfall of between 300 and 600 mm.

See www.waterandfood.org

Figure 1: Ambuqui watershed in northern Ecuador, 2000 to 3100 metres above sea level.

Photo:

Stephen Sherwood

Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

During the pilot period we worked with

107 families, selected according to criteria
established during community meetings.
Partners subsequently incorporated parts
of the approach at new sites in Bolivia
(Potosí), Peru (Apurímac), and Ecuador
(Imbabura and Pichincha), enabling Katal-
ysis to reach over 500 families.

Katalysis builds on the ‘discovery learn-

ing’ tradition of Farmer Field Schools
(FFS), in which farmers share their experi-
ence, strengthen their ecological literacy
through learning experiments, and identify
ways of improving agriculture through
group problem-solving (Box 1).

In Katalysis the focus is on enhancing

local knowledge of climate change and
creating opportunities for coping with it.
Katalysis starts with the experience and
priorities of participants (usually married
couples). Through problem-solving and
action around priority interests, the focus
shifts from concerns at the individual farm

Katalysis emerged from Farmer Field
Schools (FFS) in South-East Asia and more
recently the Andes (Pumisacho and
Sherwood, 2005). Field Schools involve
about 25 farmers who manage learning
plots. Groups focus on Integrated Pest
Management (IPM), meeting weekly to
conduct agroecological analyses and run
experiments, such as insect zoos to learn
about the life cycles of pests. Through joint
learning on potato IPM, Andean farmers
were able to reduce their reliance on
agrochemicals, saving money, time, and
avoiding harm to their families and the
environment.

In practice, the FFS method has

broadened beyond IPM to a more holistic
focus on plant and soil health. Over time,
FFS participants fill knowledge gaps that
prevent them from innovating, and
discover new ways to improve their
agriculture. FFS ultimately aspires to
catalyse the innovative capacity of farmers.

Box 1: The educational roots of Katalysis:
Farmer Field Schools

Figure 2: San Pedro watershed in northern Potosí, Bolivia, 2000 to 4000 metres above sea level.

Photo:

Stephen Sherwood

Sherwood and Bentley

level to those at community and watershed
level (Figure 3).

The Katalysis process

In each location, we convened communi-
ties and asked them to select a group of
about 20 farmers willing to meet every two
weeks for six months for co-learning and
action on climate change. Learning
methods included cross-learning between
families, visits to local farmers who are
particularly innovative, discovery-based
learning, and farmer-led experimentation.

Visits to local innovators

Early on we seek to inspire participants
through a learning tour of outstanding
local innovators, to see new possibilities.
For example, in Ambuqui we visited the
farm of two graduates from our first cycle,
Alfonso and Olga Juma, who through
improving their management of organic
matter and mulching and by making a rela-
tively small investment in tubing, a filter,

drip tape, and the creative use of plants and
animals, transformed their farm from a
‘desert wasteland’ into an ‘oasis’ in just 18
months. As don Alfonso said:

Once I learnt where the water was, I could
grow that small plot of alfalfa. With the
alfalfa, I could have cuy [guinea pig]. The
cuy produced manure for my soil. We still
have a long way to go, but with just the
cuyes, we have already paid back our $200
investment in materials. When I started we
had no cuy. Today we have 300 cuyes that
are worth about $5.00 each or $1,500 in
all. That is much more than I used to earn
in the city. Now I can stay home with my
family. With the manure, I’ve planted 75
mango and avocado trees. My farm has
become an oasis. Every year it will grow
greener and greener. My farm used to be
barren of plants. My biggest problem today
is that I’ve run out of land to plant.

Recently Alfonso and Olga bought two

more hectares of neighbouring land. Katal-

Figure 3: Katalysis involves farmers in self-directed learning about climate change

Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

ysis has helped dozens of families generate
such locally financed transformations.

Dream maps

After learning visits, we asked participants
to identify their goals for the future through
a ‘dream map’, which was then presented
to their colleagues for comments and
advice (Figure 4). The group then organ-
ised to help each participant advance
towards his or her dreams.

Co-learning about climate change

We adapted a participatory method devel-
oped by the organisation Agrecol-Andes
to study local indicators of climate.

Through field visits and interactive work-
shops, participants explained how they
‘read’ wind patterns, cloud formations, the
position of rainbows, the resolution of
stars, and animal behaviour (e.g. where
foxes deposited their faeces, location of

terrestrial bird eggs, or the migration
patterns of different animals) to predict
the coming season.

We found that ‘ease of observation’ and

‘perceived relevance’ influenced local
knowledge on climate (Figure 5). Knowl-
edge was ‘deepest’ for topics that were both
important to local people and easy for them
to observe. This included local weather
prediction – will the rains come early or
will this be a cold or warm year? Local
knowledge was largely missing for topics
that were both difficult to observe and of
low perceived importance. For example,
highland farmers knew little about sea
surface temperatures and their relationship
to local weather patterns. There usually
were no local explanations for such topics.

Our priority was practicality, so we

focused attention on helping people to
overcome weaknesses in their knowledge.
This involved introducing new tools of

Photo:

Stephen Sherwood

Figure 4: Margoth presents her ‘map of dreams’ – her project to transform her farm through water harvesting.

See www.agrecolandes.org

Sherwood and Bentley

observation and information, e.g. simple
weather stations or rainfall data that could
reveal historical weather trends.

Co-learning about water management

It soon became clear in both Bolivia and
Ecuador that water management was
central for learning how to cope with
climate change. Communities were suffer-
ing from both drought and floods at differ-
ent times of year. The real challenge was
better water management to help cope
with drought and prevent flooding and
erosion of soils during heavy rains. With
our partners, we developed over 30 activi-
ties for discovery learning on four water
management-related themes: water and
the home; water on the farm; watershed
and the community; and water and the
world and global warming.

We started with activities to help people

see the value of the rain that fell on their
fields, homes, and roadways, which just
drained away. For example, we measured
the runoff of an ordinary rooftop, which

amounted to thousands of litres of water
each rainfall. Then, we valued it, applying
the local market price for bottled water
(which in the Andes, is commonly more
expensive than gasoline!). Participants
learnt that they give away tens of thousands
of dollars of water each year.

We then explored ways of storing water.

Participants often want to invest in expen-
sive water storage tanks, but we introduced
learning experiments on less costly alter-
natives, such as the holding capacity of soil
organic matter (SOM). By weighing socks
filled with organic matter before and after
immersing them in a bucket of water,
farmers learnt that their fields hold
millions of litres of water and that increas-
ing SOM by 1% across a hectare could
capture an additional 100,000 litres each
rainfall. Participants then identified many
ways of increasing the organic matter in
soil to capture water, e.g. incorporating
crop residues, applying manure, reducing
tillage, dead and live barriers, conservation
ditches, and covering the soil through

Figure 5: Strengths and weaknesses of rural technical knowledge associated with
climate and agriculture (based on Bentley, 1991)

(-) Ease of observation (+)

(influenced by size, time, and scale)

(-) Importance (+)

(perceived relev

ance and immediacy)

Gritty
• biological indicators of weather
• lunar stages and water
• wind patterns
• varietal resistance to disease
• effect of trees/bushes on sub-surface water

Deep
• water sources
• drought tolerance of crops
• phenology of food crops
• reproduction of cattle
• lifecycle of bees
• rainfall patterns

Thin
• phenology of non-food crops
• soil cover
• varietal resistance to disease
• predator insects (wasps)
• water harvesting
• soil erosion

Empty
• evapotransportation
• ocean temperatures
• lifecycle of soil pests
• disease cycles
• parasitoids and entomopathogens
• water capture in soils

Sherwood and Bentley

mulches and cover crops. After evaluating
options, the farmers found that cover crops
were the most cost-effective way of increas-
ing SOM (Figure 6).

Farmers also conducted studies on

alternative types of irrigation, comparing
canal irrigation, tubing, sprinklers, and
drip tapes. Though more expensive, drip
tapes were found to be 20 times more effi-
cient than sprinklers, which led one partic-
ipant to conclude, ‘A farmer can either
build his tank 20 times as large or use drip
tapes’.

Individual and collective action

Over time, the priority of Katalysis has
shifted from individual to collective action.
Each individual took responsibility for
collecting weather data, which was inte-
grated into a report and discussions on
local weather patterns. Some groups
decided to organise to measure the flow of
different streams in relation to rainfall
across the year. We held mingas (group

work parties), during which participants
worked together to design and install inno-
vations such as soil conservation and water
catchments on different farms (Figure 7).
This usually included a training visit from
a more experienced farmer to guide the
activity. We then supported follow-up visits
across farms to document and discuss
innovations at community or watershed
level, such as controlling goats and cattle,
the reforestation of a vulnerable hillside, or
planting a windbreak.

As in the example of Alfonso and Olga

Juma, early successes built self-confidence
in participants, stimulating enthusiasm
and creative ideas. Participants began
more sophisticated activities and more
ambitious tasks. For example, four
communities living on the Ilalo Volcano in
northern Ecuador began by addressing a
priority agenda around soil conservation
and water harvesting for home consump-
tion and gardens. Through group learning,
cross-visits, and mingas, participants met

Figure 7: A

minga or work party helps a colleague install his first geomembrane tank.

Photo:

Stephen Sherwood

Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

one another and built friendships. This led
to a more ambitious agenda. They created
a three-dimensional map of their water-
shed, which identified water sources,
vulnerable areas, and conflict zones
(Figure 8).

Subsequent field studies and discus-

sions led to a management plan, which the
communities then turned into a project
proposal that was later funded by the
municipality.

Other groups have created their own

savings and loan funds to help finance
investments in purchasing fencing materi-
als to control animals, local weather
stations, and water harvesting tanks or
micro-irrigation technology.

Why Katalysis works

It is too early to think about long-term
impacts of Katalysis, but we feel its
successes so far are due to the following:
• Draws on time-proven approaches, such
as ‘farmer-to-farmer’ (see Bunch, 1982 and

Holt-Gimenez, 2006) and FFS (see van
den Berg and Jiggins, 2007).
• Adds value to farming experience in
communities, drawing on the experiences
of both wealthier and poorer smallholders,
and involves families rather than individu-
als to address gender concerns.
• Gives participants control over a flexible
curriculum co-designed by the group and
the facilitator.
• Focuses on technologies already in use by
local farmers. Sometimes introduces
outside technology, such as micro-irriga-
tion, but only after local alternatives have
been exhausted and after careful cost-
benefit analysis.
• Quick, tangible successes are the primary
source of motivation. No gift-giving or
subsidies. Seed money is provided for local
savings and credit groups, with loans paid
back through returns on investments.
• Starts simple and diversifies with time.
Early experiments require small invest-
ments and are of limited scale. Begins by

Figure 8: Three-dimensional map of watershed, Ilalo Volcano, northern Ecuador.

Photo:

Stephen Sherwood

Sherwood and Bentley

emphasising individual farm-level priori-
ties and then works towards addressing
concerns at social, community, and water-
shed level.
• Many farmers continue to invest in
changes well after the Katalysis experience.

Constraints

As with other people-centred, community-
based approaches, Katalysis faces some
obstacles:
• Like FFS, Katalysis is in conflict with
dominant institutional designs (Schut and
Sherwood, 2007). For example, the exter-
nal agent ‘accompanies’ the learning-action
process rather than providing heavy guid-
ance. Outcomes depend on the creativity of
participants rather than on pre-deter-
mined calendars, budgets, and outputs.
Katalysis depends on an open agenda, flex-
ible funding, and strong facilitation skills,
which may lie outside the capabilities of
common research and development proj-
ects.
• The initial spark of Katalysis often came
from visits to farms run by innovative fami-
lies. While the visitors from other commu-
nities are impressed by the examples of
these extraordinary farms, sometimes the
prospect of catching up seems overwhelm-
ing. Farmers have to be helped to innovate
at their own pace, sometimes requiring
special attention, technical support, and
encouragement over long periods of time.
• Severe degradation of watersheds is now
characteristic of much of the Andes.
Reversing this environmental damage can
take years and demands investments in
infrastructure beyond the capabilities of
individuals and communities.

Conclusions

From previous work on pest management
(Bentley, 1989), we knew that farmers often
missed opportunities for improving their
agriculture because of knowledge gaps.
Katalysis aims at helping rural people
bridge those gaps so that they may
creatively manage their own resources in

response to the growing threat of climate
change.

Katalysis builds on Farmer Field

Schools and other flexible, knowledge-
based approaches for improving agricul-
ture. Participants aim to enhance the
environmental resilience of their farms and
production systems through targeted
learning and action about water, soils,
plants, and animals. They find better ways
of using local resources (e.g. cover crops),
complemented by experiments with exter-
nal, but accessible, technologies (e.g. low-
cost weather stations, micro-irrigation
equipment).

Early results are promising. Katalysis

has enabled people to discover hidden
sources of water and to gain new appreci-
ation for the potential of plants and
animals. Participants have ‘greened’ previ-
ously dry and barren farms, increasing land
cover and family wealth.

A sensitive appreciation of local knowl-

edge and creative adaptations, blended
with scientific insights, is a realistic way to
help farmers start addressing climate
change. But that is easier said than done.
Development practitioners need to be
strong facilitators with flexible
programmes and funding to support open-
ended learning-action, which goes against
the grain of standard pre-planned projects
and technology transfer. Donor and devel-
opment agencies must hand over more
trust and responsibility to communities to
design and implement their own agendas.
Local people and outsiders need to be free
to learn from each other, and to learn as
they go along.

Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

CONTACT DETAILS
Stephen Sherwood
Rural Innovation Specialist
EkoRural and Wageningen University
Avenida Florencia 203 y Bramante
Cumbaya
Quito
Ecuador
Tel: +593 2 289 1669
Email: sherwood@uio.satnet.net

Jeffery Bentley
Agricultural Anthropologist
International Consultant
Casilla 2695
Cochabamba
Bolivia
Tel: +591 7 938 9455
Email: jefferywbentley@hotmail.com

REFERENCES
Bentley, J.W. (1989). 'What farmers don't know can't help them: the

strengths and weaknesses of indigenous technical knowledge in
Honduras.' Agriculture and Human Values 6(3), pp. 25-31

Bentley, J.W. (1991). 'The epistemology of plant protection: Honduran

campesinsos knowledge of pests and natural enemies.' Crop
Protection for Resource-Poor Farmers. East Sussex, UK

Bunch, R. (1982). Two Ears of Corn: a guide to people-centred

agricultural development. World Neighbors: Oklahoma City, OK

De Haan, S. (2009). Potato Diversity at Height: multiple dimensions

of farmer-driven in-situ conservation in the Andes. PhD
dissertation, Wageningen University: The Netherlands

Holt-Gimenez (2006). Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin

America's farmer-to-farmer movement for sustainable agriculture.
Food First Books: Oakland, CA

Magrin, G., C. Gay García, D. Cruz Choque, J. C. Giménez, A. R.

Moreno, G. J. Nagy, C. Nobre and A. Villamizar (2007). ‘Latin
America. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and
Vulnerability.’ Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden
and C.E. Hanson (Eds). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,
UK, 581-615

Orlove, B. S., John C. H. Chiang and Mark A. Cane (2002).

‘Ethnoclimatology in the Andes.’ American Scientist, 90:428-435.

Pumisacho, M. and S. Sherwood (Eds.) (2005). Guía Metodológica

sobre ECAs: escuelas de campo de agricultores.
FAO/CIP/INIAP/WN. Quito, Ecuador. 288 pp. See:
www.farmerfieldschool.info

Schut, M. and S. Sherwood (2007). ‘FFS in translation: scaling up in

name, but not in meaning.’ LEISA Magazine on Low External
Input and Sustainable Agriculture, December, 24(4): 28-29

van den Berg, H. and J. Jiggins (2007). ‘Investing in farmers: the

impacts of Farmer Field Schools in relation to IPM.’ World
Development, 35(4): 663-686

Introduction

In this article I critically reflect on partici-
patory processes in vulnerability research
in the context of community-based adap-
tation to climate change (CBA). CBA is an
emerging form of bottom-up adaptation to
climate change. CBA is distinct in that it
focuses largely on empowerment or
‘ helping people to help themselves’.
Planned CBA aims to reduce vulnerability
to climate change by addressing local prior-
ities and building on local knowledge and
capacity. Unequivocally, CBA is something
done ‘with’ rather than ‘to’ communities. As
such, participatory learning and action
(PLA) methodologies have an important
role. CBA-specific toolkits are emerging,
based largely on methods established in the
disaster risk reduction (DRR) field.

Here, I reflect on the application of

various participatory methods in the initial
research or scoping stages, where the goal
is to establish the problem and reflect local
voices in knowledge creation. These reflec-
tions are based on my experiences conduct-
ing PhD research in rural Vanuatu, a

Pacific island Least Developed Country
(LDC). I discuss the strengths and limita-
tions of specific methods in the Vanuatu
socio-cultural and climatic context and
convey some lessons learnt from undertak-
ing participatory vulnerability research
outside the context of a funded project. I
intend these observations to be useful for
practitioners working in the CBA sphere,
as vulnerability research is important for
advancing knowledge for suitable adapta-
tion and is often an important precursor to
planning and action in a project setting.

Vanuatu and climate change

My research took place in three rural
communities in Vanuatu between 2006
and 2008: Tangoa Island (Sanma
Province), Mangaliliu Village/Lelepa
Island (Shefa Province), and Mota Lava
(Torba Province) (see Figure 1).

Vanuatu is in the path of tropical

cyclones (November to May). It is subject
to cycles of El Niño and La Niña, which,
respectively, increase the risks of droughts
and floods. Future climate change and sea-

by OLIVIA WARRICK

Ethics and methods in
research for community-
based adaptation:
reflections from rural
Vanuatu

Warrick

have been dealing with climate stress for
generations and, accordingly, participants
in my research did not always have strong
views on climate stress or climate change,
and did not always consider these problems
as priority concerns in the community
context.

Climate change was an issue about

which most participants already had a basic
knowledge via radio, school, or government
awareness programmes. In my introductory
meeting in each community (and through-
out the research process) I presented a
simple awareness talk aided by pictures and
diagrams. There were many questions and
people showed much interest.

Research context and methodology

I spent approximately two months in each
community. My research – in response to
gaps identified by the Vanuatu Meteorolog-
ical Service (VMS) – aimed to characterise
local perceptions of vulnerability to climate
stress to help bridge the gap between local-
scale realities and higher scale decision-
making processes for adaptation in Vanuatu
and the wider Pacific. I worked via the VMS
and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VCC).
Field sites were chosen in response to VMS-
identified data gaps. In each community I
worked alongside a VCC fieldworker volun-
teer (or equivalent). The fieldworkers
gained an in-depth understanding of
climate change issues and community
priorities which will enhance knowledge
sharing and help to facilitate action past my
visits. The VMS will use the research results
to assist in adaptation project development.
Although Vanuatu currently lacks ongoing
community adaptation projects the
research is intended to increase the knowl-
edge base in Vanuatu to enable this to occur,
particularly as part of the implementation
of Vanuatu’s National Adaptation
Programme of Action (NAPA), completed
in 2007.

As this was a PhD, my ‘on-the-ground’

research was not linked to a specific project
or funding. There was no promise of exter-

nally facilitated follow-up activities in the
communities involved. There are few
organisations engaged in relevant and
ongoing community-based project work in
the outer islands of Vanuatu that I could
have successfully linked up with. Where
there is no clear, tangible, or material
benefit for the community, the ethics of
such an approach may be questioned.
However, similar concerns may relate to
ongoing adaptation work that is not
informed by a foundation of intensive,
detailed research. In this article, I will
restrict discussion to the ethics and quality
of various participatory methods within
this ‘research only’ context, accepting that
this, in itself, may be ethically questionable
in the CBA field.

I used a mixture of participatory group

and one-on-one methods to assess local
perceptions and experiences of the:
• impacts of climate stress;
• ability to deal with climate stress; and
• relationship of this to wider non-climate
stresses and processes of change in the
community (‘multiple stressors’).

Methods were drawn from CBA and

DRR toolkits (see Nakalevu, 2006,
McFadzien et al., 2005, International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, 2007 and Vrolijks, 1998), and
were trialled and modified during the
research. All methods were gender segre-
gated to suit local cultural situations.
Group activities used existing community
groupings (usually church-related) to limit
intrusiveness and difficulties with logistics.
Groups generally included five to 15 indi-
viduals. Some were age specific. For
instance, historical timelines were under-
taken with elders. All research activities
were undertaken in Bislama (a Vanuatu
dialect).

I ended each visit with an interactive

community meeting, where knowledge was
shared and discussed. This also provided a
good opportunity for triangulation. Discus-
sions often continued well into the evening.
In addition, knowledge was documented in

Ethics and methods in research for community-based adaptation: reflections from rural Vanuatu

Table 1: Strengths and limitations of participatory techniques employed in the
research context

Method

Seasonal
calendar

Community
and resource
mapping

Matrix rating
e.g. of
resource use,
coping
strategies
etc.

Focus group

Transect walk

Historical
timeline

Storian:
Semi-
structured
and informal
interview

Observation

Strengths

Highly beneficial to researcher for
understanding relationships between
natural resource-based livelihoods, climate,
weather, and disasters.

Beneficial to researcher and participants
for identifying locations at risk and access
to resources and services important to
livelihoods and coping with disaster.

Good for stimulating group discussion and
interaction as the rating is impossible to do
with one or two of the most vocal or
confident group members only. The
concept is relatively straightforward and
the matrix grid can be prepared
beforehand leaving more time for
discussion.

Few.

Flexible, interactive, informal, enjoyable for
participants, informative for researcher.
Very useful for researcher orientation early
on in the research.

Effective catalyst for discussion regarding
changes and trends over time in coping
strategies etc. Effective tool for analysing
the underlying drivers of vulnerability. Best
done over multiple visits with a small
group. Enjoyable for older participants.

Effective for building rapport enabling in-
depth participant-researcher knowledge
exchange and accurate representation of
concerns. Enables depth of discussion
necessary for understanding underlying
drivers of vulnerability. Less intrusive to
daily life than group activities.

Non-intrusive, effective for building
rapport, informal and enjoyable for
participants.

Limitations

Limited learning outcomes for participants.
The complex and time-consuming
construction of the calendar allowed little
time for discussion. Would be better done
in two sessions: one for construction, one
for discussion. Participants were unfamiliar
with a ‘calendar’ format and therefore
reluctant to engage.

Maps generated superficial information as
construction was time-consuming at the
expense of discussion – participants
concentrated on drawing an accurate map.
Best done in two sessions to allow for in-
depth discussion.

Limited outcomes for researcher as the
ratings tended to be ‘ad hoc’, disguising
complex contextual and temporal
differences.

Shyness and overall reluctance to
participate in the absence of a visual
activity around which to focus discussion.

Can be difficult to maintain focus as many
issues are addressed. Limited participant
learning outcomes as limited opportunity
for collective discussion about any one
topic.

Time-consuming, easy to get off track.

Little participant-participant collective
knowledge exchange and consolidation.

Time-consuming for researcher and
unstructured.

Warrick

short reports (in Bislama) and sent back on
request to community leaders. They felt
that having ‘formal’ documentation
increased legitimacy and pride in the
consolidated knowledge, increasing moti-
vation to address the issues highlighted by
the community.

Limitations and strengths of
participatory methods

Table 1 summarises the specific participa-
tor y techniques used, and the main
strengths and limitations of each in this
particular research context.

Using a participatory approach I

intended to maximise community benefits
via the research process itself, even though
I was unable to provide material outcomes.
My intention was to facilitate community
learning and empowerment through
collective discussion of problems, knowl-
edge consolidation, opinion sharing, and
realisation of existing capacities. In reality,
what I could achieve was less than

expected. This subsequently influenced the
methods I decided to prioritise. ‘Interview-
ing’ methods emphasising participant-
researcher knowledge exchange were
generally more successful than larger-
group activities aimed at collective partic-
ipant-participant knowledge sharing.

Limitations

I began my research in Tangoa Island
using predominantly group methods. At
the conclusion of my research in Mota
Lava, I was using predominantly inter-
viewing methods. This was largely a result
of the research context. In a more practi-
cally orientated project setting, group
methods may have been more effective.
Most limitations stemmed from the diffi-
culties of being a single, independent
researcher, from the low priority of climate
concerns in the communities, and from
the cultural specificities of Ni-Vanuatu
society. However, I do not view this as a
‘failure’ of participation. Rather, a flexible

A participant draws a trend line showing change over time in knowledge of traditional medicine, as part of a
historical timeline activity.

Photo:

Olivia

arrick

Warrick

relative inexperience as a facilitator, my
status as a community and cultural
outsider, and logistical problems as a single
researcher, I felt unable to create the envi-
ronment to achieve this. Group activities
often felt forced and ‘unnatural’. Partici-
pants were reluctant to interact or engage
in the activity or discussion. I sensed that
more educated participants found the
activities somewhat patronising, and less
educated or older participants were
confused, shy, and unwilling to voice view-
points. Finding a balance in the group
setting was a challenge.

A major limiting factor was that partic-

ipants often expected me to lead the activ-
ity. They were unaccustomed to interacting
and discussing freely in a group. It was
often difficult to convey that discussion and
opinion sharing was the most important
part – not drawing an accurate map, for
example. In the communities, organised
group meetings and decision-making
processes are usually led by a ‘chairman’ or
other leadership figure, with people
contributing in turn. Another contributing
factor may be the nature of ‘awareness
talks’ administered by NGOs, aid organi-
sations, and government in rural Vanuatu.
Local people said that these mainly consist
of an ‘expert’ administering a lecture. So an
‘in-expert’ outsider (me) facilitating discus-
sion and interaction may be an unfamiliar
and ‘unnatural’ concept.

The purpose of the group activities was

somewhat unfulfilled. For example, in the
seasonal calendar exercise participants
requested that I ask questions which they
then answered. Although this generated
useful information for me, participant
learning outcomes were not great. Similar
situations arose when my local counterpart
facilitated the activity. This type of activity
would probably work better in a planning
context. However, engaging in the activity
itself may have contributed to the process
of consolidating and clarifying knowledge
and viewpoints, despite seemingly reluc-
tant participants.

Research outcomes

Group activities were beneficial to my
research, as they provided triangulation
and a range of information in a short time.
They also highlighted issues for further
follow-up. However, most information
generated was superficial due to time
constraints and group size, with most time
and effort dedicated to completing the
actual activity (i.e. map, seasonal calendar)
rather than to discussion. Often, the
reasons behind the answers given were
most important. However, group situations
were not always conducive to exploring
these.

Group activities generally generate

good information regarding direct climate-
related problems, ways of coping with
them, and the strengths and weaknesses of
these. In the context of CBA however, it is
important to dig deeper, to understand the
indirect situational factors and processes
determining this over time. These will ulti-
mately shape the ability of a community to
generate their own solutions to climate
stress and increased uncertainty in future.
This required lengthy and in-depth discus-
sion difficult to achieve in the large group
activity setting. Successful instances were
facilitated by smaller groups and by
approaching the exercise informally;
generally starting with an informal discus-
sion with the actual activity as incidental.

Ethics

I decided to limit the use of large-group
activities, instead emphasising interview-
ing techniques. Group activities can be
disruptive to daily subsistence and
economic activities. Climate stress is not
generally viewed as a priority concern in
the community, so interest in the activities
was often low. Although participation was
voluntary, I felt that given the ‘research
only’ context, participants were not receiv-
ing enough gain from group activities to
justify this intrusiveness on their busy daily
lives. Perhaps in a project or decision-
making context with tangible benefits to

Ethics and methods in research for community-based adaptation: reflections from rural Vanuatu

follow, these participation limitations
would have been less.

Strengths

One-on-one and small group interviews
successfully facilitated participant-
researcher knowledge exchange, catalysing
further knowledge sharing between
community members. This was largely at
the expense of extensive collective partici-
pant knowledge sharing and exchange, but
most beneficial to both participants and
researcher in the particular socio-cultural
and research context. I use the Bislama
term storian – to ‘chat, yarn, swap stories’
(Crowley, 1995: 235) – to indicate this
approach rather than ‘interview’, as this
could be seen as an extractive and ‘Western’
method. Storian is an umbrella term indi-
cating semi-structured interview, informal
interview, and opportunistic discussion as
part of observation. Irrespective of specific

method, the central feature of storian is
building rapport with participants. Storian
is essentially a Vanuatu-specific form of
‘Talanoa’: an established, culturally appro-
priate Pacific research methodology refer-
ring to ‘a personal encounter where people
story their issues, their realities and aspi-
rations’ (Vaioleti, 1999-2003 cited in Vaio-
leti, 2006:21). Box 1 provides an example
of storian.

Participant outcomes

To ‘stori’ is culturally a central and normal
part of daily life. Knowledge is traditionally
disseminated orally in Ni-Vanuatu culture.
I found storian to be the most ‘natural’,
non-threatening, and enjoyable research
method for participants. Many community
members enthusiastically volunteered for
discussions, and were happy to dedicate
long periods of time to storian. Many
participants who were shy in group situa-

I am talking to participants A and B about the impacts of tropical cyclones (

hariken), whilst we work in B’s

garden:

: So when the

hariken came in 1939 you must have been 10 – do you remember it?

: Yes! That’s how I know I was born in 1929! …Every tree went down, we were in Nerenigman [village]

and we could see everyone at Totolag and Queremande as they made their cooking fires in the morning...
there was a white man that had a small store on Ra island where my father worked and that day I went
with him – and the big wind comes now! It came, it came, until it pulled off the roof belonging to the white
man... the sea carried everything from the store right up into the middle of the island! We went and dug out
tinned fish, soap – all things belonging to the store.

: Worst

hariken – we can’t remember a worse one.

: You had a

hariken this year – can you tell me about that one?

: Food shortage now! Oh yes. First time is this year. Small, small

hariken but...

: Plenty

hariken have hit us but we have not had food shortage. But this year – we have a shortage!

: So in 1939 do you remember a shortage?

: Small, small. But all the old people before, they had good gardens and they stored plenty of dried

breadfruit...

: In 1972 it was the same. The gardens were strong.

: So what’s different now?

: I can’t tell you straight – but I think it’s because of a lazy fashion now! Oh, yes, they’ll say they don’t have

enough land now, but the real reason is they don’t want to work. There is enough land. We must plant
something every day to make sure we have no shortage of anything – that was the fashion of the people
before...

: Custom! Custom belonging to us... must plant banana, taro, cabbage or what – every day.

: That was the teaching belonging to our grandparents, that was the talk we used to hear in the

Nakamal

[meeting house], that was the talk we used to hear in the gardens with our parents. That was the talk
before – before school came to Mota Lava. Plant plenty, plant a strong garden, then if disaster comes, you
have food.

...losing custom, that’s why it happens. Losing the custom fashion belonging to the old people before.

Box 1: Excerpt from a storian on Mota Lava, 2nd November 2008 (English translation)

Warrick

tions – especially women and elderly
participants – were more comfortable with
voicing their opinion in a more person-
alised situation. Importantly, storian was
generally less intrusive to daily commit-
ments than group activities.

The approach was flexible – although

guided to a degree by topic, discussions
were led primarily by participant
responses, enabling participants to high-
light issues most significant to them.
Importantly, knowledge generation was a
two-way process. The relaxed and highly
personal context of storian provided an
opportunity for participants to ask ques-
tions of me. In this way, storian became an
important platform for raising awareness
of climate change issues in the community.
Furthermore, through the course of discus-
sion and issue probing, links between
climate-related problems (such as decreas-

ing food security after cyclones) and more
general problems (such as loss of tradi-
tional knowledge and ineffective commu-
nity governance) were clarified for
participants as well as researcher. In this
way, the research was interactive, not
extractive.

Research outcomes

One of the most significant benefits of
storian is that it allows people’s perspec-
tives to be more adequately reflected as
they talk around the topic in their own way.
As such, the relative priority of climate-
related problems in a context of multiple
stressors could be better represented. This
is fundamental to successful CBA as
community-based initiatives or projects
need to directly address locally perceived
needs. Storian often began with an exten-
sive discussion of general problems and

A participant explains traditional methods of minimising erosion risk to me during

storian.

Photo:

Amanda

Leather

Ethics and methods in research for community-based adaptation: reflections from rural Vanuatu

concerns in the community before address-
ing anything climate-related. Group activ-
ities were often either too climate
stress-focused or too general to allow this
relative priority to be accurately repre-
sented.

The storian technique built participant-

researcher rapport. This was fundamental
to the ‘accuracy’ of information created. In
a project setting, concise participatory
workshops are a good way of obtaining a
range of viewpoints in a relatively short
amount of time, as a basis for planning and
action (van Aalst et al., 2008). However,
this has limitations as well as strengths.
Based on experiences in Papua New
Guinea, Mercer et al. (2008) identify that
information gathered in initial scoping
research can be incomplete and skewed in
order to maximise assistance from external
agencies. In my own experience I found
that information (in both group activities
and storian) was often initially biased
towards what participants believed I
wanted to hear – this was their way of being
polite to a ‘guest’. During the course of
storian, as personal relationships were
built, discussions became far more frank.
This is important to stress because CBA
initiatives built upon less intensive and
detailed assessment may be skewed
towards the known agenda of the imple-
menting agency – and may not be inte-
grated with true community priorities. This
is particularly important in communities
like the three I visited, where the implica-
tions of climate change or climate stress are
not a local priority and a more pro-active
approach to adaptation is required.

Storian was often used in conjunction

with a participatory activity, for example,
historical timelines with small groups of
community elders, developed over multi-
ple sessions. A comprehensive historical
picture was first built. I then focused
storian around memorable periods of
climate stress such as major cyclones or
droughts, the impacts these had, and the
ways in which people coped. The activity

often concluded with a lengthy discussion
regarding the imagined implications of the
most major climate event identified occur-
ring today. Historical timelines were partic-
ularly effective at characterising the
relationships between vulnerability to
climate stress, and the ‘everyday’ stresses
and opportunities shaping this.

Additional challenges in integrating
climate change knowledge in PLA

Climate change adds an additional layer of
complexity in PLA. Many CBA toolkits are
based on those intended for disaster risk
reduction. The difference is that knowledge
of potential future changes in climate – and
therefore an understanding of the need for
adaptation – is largely held by ‘outsiders’
and is ‘top-down’. This creates particular
challenges. CBA is ostensibly a community-
driven process with local people, rather
than outsiders, as the ‘experts’ in adapta-
tion processes. In Vanuatu, addressing
climate stress is not generally a community
priority. Although at times extremely
disruptive, cyclones, drought, and flooding
are viewed largely as part of ‘normal’ life.
Furthermore, where the implications of
climate change are not yet obvious, moti-
vation for adaptation (even if this is merely
improved DRR) is likely to be external, at
least early on. The nuances and challenges
of integrating the concept of climate
change into PLA warrants a paper in itself.
Here, I address one aspect only: the way
and extent in which I actually emphasised
the notion of ‘climate change’ in storian
and other activities.

Often, CBA-focused PLA toolkits

emphasise ascertaining local observations
of changes to climate or weather and
resultant problems as a basis for develop-
ing adaptation strategies. I found that this
approach usually over-emphasised shorter-
term variability rather than identifying
longer-term trends (including increased
irregularity and uncertainty) as the toolkits
intend. For example, participants in one
community claimed to be experiencing

Warrick

increases in various monthly rainfalls, but
this perception was likely influenced by the
La Niña occurring at the time – local
weather station data did not back up this
perception. Mataki et al., (2007) experi-
enced a similar issue in their work in Fiji.
The Vanuatu climate is highly variable and
this may risk attributing anthropogenic
climate change – a problem caused by
developed countries – to problems that
likely result (mainly) from ‘natural’ vari-
ability, in participants’ minds. In the
Vanuatu community context, vulnerability
to climate change is primarily driven by
decreasing ability to deal with current
climate stresses (due mainly to social and
economic pressures) rather than by
‘weather changes’ per se. In this situation, I
found that this approach risked erro-
neously blaming climate change for
decreases in adaptive capacity. The conse-
quences of this may be a sense of disem-
powerment amongst participants.
Although climatic variability and extremes
have been locally dealt with for genera-
tions, I observed that many began to
discuss these problems as stemming from
forces outside community control and
therefore, as requiring externally driven
solutions (by government, aid donors, and
NGOs). Creating a sense of ‘victimisation’
is not particularly constructive in the
context of CBA in Vanuatu.

Emphasising how people respond to

climate stress and how this has changed
over time aided in avoiding this unnecessary
misconception and sense of helplessness. I
found that maintaining focus on issues
which the community could potentially
address itself enabled participants to realise
and legitimise their own (fairly extensive)
capacities to deal with an uncertain climate.
In these specific community situations,
vulnerability is constructed primarily by
declining adaptive and coping capacity as a
result of social and economic pressures.
Changes in climate play a somewhat
secondary (although obviously important)
role in vulnerability to climate change.

Climate change mostly increases the impor-
tance of soundly dealing with current
climate stresses rather than requiring signif-
icantly different responses at this scale. I
emphasise that this may not make sense in
every climate change impacts context.
Again, the important lesson here is that
different contexts call for different
approaches in participatory vulnerability
research – in both a cultural and climatic
sense.

Conclusion

In this paper I offer some reflections on the
ethics and quality of participator y
processes in the context of community-
scale vulnerability research. In CBA, a
‘ learning-by-doing’, action research
approach is heavily advocated. Developing
practical solutions to problems via the
research process itself is often emphasised,
and this is reflected in many participatory
toolkits. It is important however, that this
does not come at the expense of first
adequately establishing the problem, and
this is where intensive and detailed
research is important. Vulnerability to
climate change is complex and place-
specific and a realistic understanding of
local perceptions is essential if resources
and funding are to meet community adap-
tation needs. Climate change adds a further
layer of complexity to disaster risk reduc-
tion in Vanuatu. Often, sustainable CBA
initiatives will require finding creative ways
to address local priorities whilst being pro-
actively adaptive. Due to the ‘top-down’
nature of climate change knowledge,
people will have little faith in an initiative
that does not address current local priori-
ties in some way. In this sense, locally
perceived climate problems and priorities
must be well contextualised and under-
stood before planning and action takes
place.

The methods most suitable for

maximising positive participant and
research outcomes for CBA are likely to be
very context specific – both in terms of local

Ethics and methods in research for community-based adaptation: reflections from rural Vanuatu

socio-cultural situations and research
background and purpose. An important
lesson learnt through my research is that
flexibility, openness, and innovation in the
research approach are most important to
maximising learning and knowledge
consolidation, accurately representing local
voices, and ensuring research is informed
by, and developed from, local priorities.

Participation may have somewhat

different objectives in the ‘research’ than
in the ‘decision-making’ stages of the CBA
process, where planning and action is

more the focus. In my experience, tech-
niques enabling depth of both information
gleaned and participant-researcher knowl-
edge exchange were more effective in a
‘research only’ context than techniques
aimed at group, collective (or participant-
participant) knowledge sharing, and
capacity realisation. These may be more
beneficial in the ‘decision-making’ phases
of a project where the collective organisa-
tion, documentation, and clarification of
knowledge can pave the way to action
planning.

CONTACT DETAILS
Olivia Warrick
Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning
The University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton, 3240
New Zealand
Email: ocwarrick@hotmail.com

REFERENCES
Crowley, T. (1995). A new Bislama dictionary. University of the South

Pacific: Suva, Fiji

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

(2007). VCA toolbox with reference sheets. Author: Geneva,
Switzerland

Mataki, M., K. Koshy, and V. Nair (2007). ‘Top-down, bottom-up:

Mainstreaming adaptation in Pacific island townships.’ In Leary, N.
(Ed.) Climate change and adaptation (pp.264-277). Earthscan:
London

McFadzien, D., F. Areki, T. Biuvakadua, and M. Fiu (2005). Climate

witness: community toolkit. World Wildlife Fund: Suva, Fiji

Mercer, J., I. Kelman, K. Lloyd and S. Suchet-Pearson (2008).

‘Reflections on use of participatory research for disaster risk
reduction.’ Area, 40(2)

Nakalevu, T. (2006). CV&A: a guide to community vulnerability and

adaptation assessment and action. South Pacific Regional
Environment Programme: Apia, Samoa

Vaioleti , M.T. (2006). ‘Talanoa research methodology: a developing

position on Pacific research.’ Waikato Journal of Education 12

van Aalst, M.K., T. Cannon and I. Burton (2008). ‘Community level

adaptation to climate change: the potential role of participatory
community risk assessment.’ Global Environmental Change 18

Vrolijks, L. (1998). Guidelines for community vulnerability analysis: an

approach for Pacific island countries. United Nations Development
Programme: Suva, Fiji

Introduction

Hambantota District is a major paddy (rice)
producing area in the southern coastal
region of Sri Lanka. Communities here have
been experiencing salt water intrusion into
their rice fields, leading to reduced yields.
This has been caused largely by seawater
contamination of irrigation systems.
Farmers had been using saline-resistant
varieties developed at the rice research
station, Ambalantota, but in badly affected
areas these varieties were still failing. This
article focuses on work done to identify
traditional rice varieties suitable for culti-
vation in the degraded paddies through a
process of participatory research.

Background

The activities described here were part of a
three-year project (2005 to 2007) carried
out in four countries of south Asia by Prac-
tical Action, a UK-based international
development organisation. The work in Sri
Lanka was implemented by Practical

Action’s south Asia office based in
Colombo. Practical Action had funding to
develop a pilot project. Its objective was to
increase the resilience of communities to
cope with the impacts of increased climate
variability in their localities.

In Sri Lanka,

these were the likelihood of climate change
worsening existing problems of salinisation
and flooding.

The project worked with 500 house-

holds in Godawaya and Walawa Grama
Niladhari divisions in Hambantota district
along the Walava river estuary. Most
people’s assets comprise physical capital:
crop harvests, livestock, boats, and other
equipment.

The villages were selected to participate

for several reasons:
• The majority of people were relatively
poor – farmers owned typically less than
one hectare of paddy land.
• The site lay close to an area where Practi-
cal Action was involved in a post-tsunami
reconstruction programme, so manage-

Funding was provided by the UK-based Allachy Trust.

by RACHEL BERGER, with ROHANA WEREGODA and
VARUNA RATHNABHARATHIE

Participatory rice variety
selection in Sri Lanka

Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

ment and travel costs could be reduced. The
project site was sufficiently far inland not to
have been directly impacted, though fisher-
men’s livelihoods clearly were affected.
• The problems faced by the community
(coastal erosion, saline intrusion into
paddy fields) were typical of those likely to
be experienced by rural Sri Lankan
communities under climate change, even if
the current problems cannot be directly
attributable to climate change.

Paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka is largely

a smallholder activity. Rice growing is
important culturally for smallholder
farmers. So even when faced with problems
of salinity, farmers were reluctant to switch
to other crops.

Salinisation and soil erosion have led to

the abandonment of paddy land along the
river estuary. Salts drawn up from ground-
water are deposited on the surface, and

spread as poorly maintained irrigation
channels become polluted from the saline
estuary. Coastal erosion also reduces the
availability of land and forests that are
increasingly – and illegally – used by local
people as the scarcity of productive farm-
land increases across the district.

In future, storm surges and rising sea

levels are likely to increase salt water
contamination. Combined with intense
rainfall these problems are anticipated to
increase under current climate change
predictions. The main focus of the Rice
Research Institute in Sri Lanka is on
larger-scale irrigated paddy cultivation.
However, it has developed a few varieties
suitable for saline conditions faced by
small-scale farmers, although without the
involvement of farmers. In the experience
of farmers in the project area, the varieties
only tolerate limited levels of salinity.

Traditional paddy trial locations in Sri Lanka.

Sour

ce:

http://images.google

.lk/images

Berger, Weregoda, and Rathnabharathie

Methods and processes

Understanding the situation faced by the
Hambantota communities was essential
for designing project activities. Gathering
sufficient information was critical. In the
first six months, we used a range of data
gathering approaches:
• Secondary data. To select project sites,
we used data from e.g. the Sri Lankan
census and statistics and International

Union for Conservation and Nature
(IUCN) reports on coastal recourses. This
showed that the Ambalantota division of
Hambantota district was highly vulnerable
to floods, sea water intrusion, and natural
resource depletion.
• Focus group discussions. These were
used to initiate discussions in the villages
and collect background information to vali-
date the secondary data. We held two

There were no records of any kind held at the local level. Inhabitants’ memories were the only source of
information. Groups were formed with participants of similar ages to enable discussions amongst
individuals with similar knowledge. Participants were grouped into those over 60 years old, between 45 and
60 years, and the younger generation (below 45 years). Women were included, since their work of firewood
collection, farming, and homestead vegetable gardening made them more aware of changes in resource
availability and temperature than men.

While people had access to modern weather information, farmers still used a forecasting system known as
‘

Litha’. Litha is a table prepared by an astrologist, using the phases of the moon and the positions of the

stars and planets. A full moon, for instance, is associated with rain. The table indicates times when seeds will
germinate, or the best time to plant crops so as to avoid pest attacks. However, whilst respondents reported
the

Litha as still in use, it was judged to have become less effective in recent years. This may suggest that

climate change is undermining traditional techniques – or perhaps only that modern forecasts are
increasingly reliable.

A variety of other traditional forecasting indicators were used (see table below). Their effectiveness was
being debated within the community. It was also reported that traditional techniques are not being passed
on to the younger generation, who prefer to rely on modern farming and forecasting practices.

Box 1: Community perceptions on changing climate

Observation

Large termites start breeding during a dry period.
.
Ants appear with their eggs and move to a new
nest.

Small termites start breeding during a rainy period.

A noise is heard emanating from the sea.

Off-season trees such as tamarind and wood apple
give good yields.

Dogs and cattle make unusual sounds.

Prediction

Rain will come soon.

Rain will start within 24 hours.

Rain will stop soon.

Rain will come within seven hours and last for seven
days.

Good future rainy season – farmers cultivate large
areas.

Destructive rainy season leading to disasters is
anticipated.

Table 1: Traditional forecasting indicators

The representatives were the Assistant Divisional Secretary (who reports to the District

Secretary, a government appointee, via the Divisional Secretary), local government
officials from the area, village farmer group leaders, and officers of the Rice Research
Institute in the area.

Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

meetings with government representatives
and non-governmental and community-
based organisations to discuss problems
relevant to livelihoods and to understand
resource use and vulnerability.

This led to

the selection of two paddy farming
communities (from Manajjawa and
Walawa) for further vulnerability assess-
ment. One key issue discussed with focus
groups in the community was knowledge
relating to weather and climate. This is
summarised in Box 1.
• Community resource mapping. Follow-
ing the focus group discussions, we intro-
duced resource and risk mapping to
identify the natural resource base and
management approaches. Selected farmer
organisations and other community
members drew maps of community
resources, illustrating natural resources
important for livelihoods such as paddy

lands, home gardens, plantation lands,
settlements, and water bodies.
• Risk mapping. The groups involved in
risk mapping included community office
bearers (such as the president of the village
agricultural society) and members of
farmer organisations. Using the commu-
nity resource maps, the groups identified
areas at risk from salinisation and flooding,
water-scarce areas, and irrigation canals.
The main issues identified were flooding,
salinity, conflicts between water resource
users, and risks due to changing land use
patterns (the conversion of coastal forests
to paddy land). Participants were not asked
to rank risks.
• Field observations and transect walks.
Practical Action project staff joined
community members in village visits to
complement the results of the focus group
discussions and mapping exercises.

Participatory method used

Key informant discussions

Focus group discussions

Community resource
mapping

Risk mapping

Field observation

Transect walks

Objective

To collect information on natural
resources, livelihoods, and social and
institutional arrangements in the area.

To collect background information on
resource use, vulnerabilities, and
capacities to validate secondary
information.

To identify the natural resource base
and natural resource management
methods.

To identify risks to livelihoods within
the area.

To further understand biophysical
resources, vulnerability, and existing
problems affecting farmers'
livelihoods.

To further understand biophysical
resource vulnerability and existing
problems affecting farmers'
livelihoods.

Information gathered

• Sources of livelihood
• Use of natural resources
• Existing socio-economic systems

• Vulnerabilities
• Livelihood system problems

• Vulnerabilities
• Availability and use of natural
resources
• Area landscape

• Types and causes of risks and
threats
• Extent of vulnerable areas

• Risks and threats in relation to
biophysical resources
• Encroachments
• Severity of problems identified

• Linking upstream and
downstream farmers
• Variation in vulnerability

Table 2: Summary of the data-gathering methods

Berger, Weregoda, and Rathnabharathie

Most families were members of the fish-

eries or farming society when the project
began. Farmer organisations in each village
act as the decision-making forum for issues
such as the farming calendar, water distri-
bution, and seed selection. In preparing
paddy land for sowing, all farmers need to
work the land together, since channels
between fields are interconnected. The
whole system will not operate until all fields
and the dividing mud walls are ready.
These farmer organisations are also linked
with government agrarian services centres.
Farmers also reported being involved in
informal institutions such as the Yaya
(field) groups and Seettu (community-
managed revolving fund) groups. In the
project villages, association members are
primarily small-scale farmers.

The participatory process sought to

prioritise the main threats to people’s liveli-
hoods that could be attributable to increas-
ing climate variability. The community
reached a consensus during the participa-
tor y assessment process that floods
(leading to crop losses) and salinisation
(low yields and crop damage) are the main
threats to livelihoods. They expressed a
clear desire to reduce the risks of crop
failure and unprofitable yields.

After the survey, we developed a strat-

egy to build capacity around resource use
and management and, in particular, to
establish and replicate best practices in
crop cultivation. The main vehicle for train-
ing was the paddy farmer group. The group
was mobilised to adopt and develop
sustainable farming practices, such as
compost making from rice husks. However,
while farming activities are carried out by
men and women, the group trialling the
rice varieties was dominated by men. In
small-scale paddy farming in Sri Lanka,
women and men carry out separate tasks:
men prepare the land, and the water
control mechanisms; women plant

seedlings and weed crops. Pesticides, when
used, are applied by men, and harvesting is
women’s work. In most households, men
traditionally make many of the farming
decisions, though there are women who
take on this role. Women’s time commit-
ment to household activities was an obsta-
cle to attendance at meetings. The project
team made efforts to accommodate women
by finding alternative meeting times, but
did not challenge the cultural norm of
male-dominated decision-making.

The paddy farmer group consisted of 16

farm families. They volunteered to set aside
land in their own fields for the trials. The
farmers had some success with saline-resis-
tant varieties developed at the Ambalan-
tota Rice Research Institute. However, in
badly affected areas the resistant varieties
were still failing.

The farmer group agreed to trial some

traditional rice varieties alongside the
research station varieties. The trial was
supported by the National Federation for
Conservation of Traditional Seeds and
Agricultural Resources (NFCTSAR), a
non-governmental organisation, which
supplied farmers with traditional seeds.

The Federation selected ten varieties that
it thought would tolerate the level of salin-
ity present. The varieties had different
characteristics in terms of growth, yield,
and flavour.

In the first year, both conventional and

traditional varieties were grown. The
conventional varieties were treated with
chemical fertilisers and pesticides and the
traditional varieties with home-made
organic compost and neem oil.

A further

trial, in the next rice growing season, was
of different varieties of traditional rice.
Each variety received the same treatment
– neem oil and organic compost. The
farmers planted up to 5kg of each variety
in the saline affected areas of their paddy
fields and continuously observed the

Local seed banks had fallen out of use following the introduction of high-yielding

hybrids in the 1960s and 1970s.

Homemade neem oil is used as a pest-control.

Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

growth and changes in the plants up to
harvesting. Two farmers out of 16 culti-
vated all 10 varieties while the rest culti-
vated three or four varieties after seeing
how the 10 varieties performed in the first
trials.

Which varieties to grow on a larger

scale were chosen by scoring each variety
from one to 10, based on the farmer’s pref-
erence, where one was the best score. The
farmers chose the criteria e.g. plant height,
duration of the crop, grain quality, grain
colour, saline tolerance, and yield. The
selection process was supported by activi-
ties to help improve soil quality (much
degraded in the saline-affected areas) and
soil water retention, by using organic
mulches. Mulches reduce the amount of
tilling required, which in turn reduces soil
salinity caused by bringing salts up from
deeper soil levels.

Outcome of the field trials

The results clearly showed improved yields
from the trial varieties. The traditional rice
varieties also carried a premium market
price of up to 50% per kilogram compared

to hybrid varieties. After seeing that some
varieties performed well in saline soils the
farmers developed confidence in their
researching and selecting varieties. Prior to
developing this network the role of the insti-
tute was to provide seed to the farmers with
little or no interaction. During the project,
the community were able to form good links
between the farmer organisations and the
government Rice Research Institute. The
project also facilitated contact with local
government via the Grama Niladhari
(village-level administration) and the irri-
gation department. This prompted impor-
tant actions such as sluice gate renovation
(to prevent seawater flowing into the paddy
fields) and support in improving freshwa-
ter irrigation. The farmer groups also
extended their network to other farmers in
the area. Farmer-to-farmer learning was a
major development. Farmers testing tradi-
tional varieties shared their findings with
farmers from the adjacent village who faced
similar problems. This stimulated discus-
sions between farmers on variety selection,
increased the knowledge of neighbouring
farmers on climate change issues, and

Meetings with the community (Bundala).

Photo:

aruna

Rathnabhar

athie

Berger, Weregoda, and Rathnabharathie

enabled the farmer groups to become
change agents at the community level. By
the end of the project a traditional paddy
cultivator group had been established and
was formally attached to the seed conserva-
tion organisation, providing a wider
network of contacts and support for the
Hambantota farmers and helping sustain
the project developments once Practical
Action withdrew.

Lessons learnt, critical reflections, and
analysis

Methodology for collecting information

This article was written after the project
ended and after a change in project staff,
resulting in some loss of institutional knowl-
edge. Writing it has highlighted some insti-
tutional weaknesses within Practical Action:
while there is certainly a high commitment
to participatory processes, there is no formal
across-organisation manual for training in

this area. Evaluations of the organisation’s
work are generally very positive, but there is
clearly room for improvement in the amount
and depth of information gathered during
the initial stages of project development. For
example, very little information was
collected on social class or power issues in
the community, nor on land tenure – possi-
bly because the situation was so typical of the
region, and so familiar to the project
managers that it did not seem worth record-
ing. This was a small project, with limited
funds. The initial activities, including the
baseline study and PRA were limited in
scope. It can certainly be argued that
improving rice yields under salinisation
would need to be part of a much broader
strategy for adaptation, for which the project
funding was inadequate to develop.

Value of the process

Improved varieties are frequently intro-
duced by research stations, but are not

‘Fertiliser pond’ in a paddy slot to provide liquid fertiliser (Bundala).

Photo:

aruna

Rathnabhar

athie

Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

always suitable for use in different local
contexts. The formal research process fails
to address farmer needs, does not build
their decision-making capacity, and ignores
local knowledge in the selection process.
Participatory variety selection aims to
address these shortcomings. In this small
trial, the process was successful. It built
connections between farmers’groups and
the Rice Research Institute. These connec-
tions should be sustainable, and may lead
to a more participatory approach within
the Institute’s main research programme.

The trial was small-scale, due to limited

resources. The method was weakened by
not having control plots where conven-
tional and traditional varieties both
received either chemical or organic treat-
ment. This has since been rectified in
subsequent replication in areas also
affected by salinity, where the results have
also been favourable. The methods and
process would need wider testing before

concluding on the success of the approach,
or the sustainability of the varieties selected
by the farmers. The yield of traditional vari-
eties on average has proved slightly lower
than conventional varieties. However,
traditional varieties are more profitable
than conventional varieties. They are in
short supply, and are prized for consump-
tion during festivals, for medicinal reasons,
and for their taste and aroma. A simple
cost-benefit analysis shows that despite the
need for greater labour input (to make
compost and neem oil), it is cost effective,
because labour comes from family and
neighbours. Women can also participate
more fully in the farming calendar where
organic products are used.

A key contribution was in raising

awareness of local solutions to climate
change threats. Forgotten varieties of
indigenous rice were shown to offer a solu-
tion to the increasing soil salinity. There are
around 2,000 traditional Sri Lankan rice

‘Pokkali’ a traditional rice variety grown in extremely saline conditions in Bundala.

Photo:

aruna

Rathnabhar

athie

Berger, Weregoda, and Rathnabharathie

varieties, many with high nutritional value
and medicinal properties, or resistant to
particular diseases and pests. Cultivating
them has helped a group of marginalised
farmers to increase their harvests, whilst
the project’s collaborative approach has
had a positive impact on the attitude of
local agricultural institutions. The partici-
patory approach to variety selection over-
came the limitations of the conventional
research system in meeting the needs of

marginalised farmers and integrating local
knowledge into the selection process.

Replicability

Other farmers who cultivated saline-
affected lands nearby were invited to visit
the trials and discuss progress with the
farmers involved, and this led to wider
adoption. Following the trials, at a meeting
in Hambantota, officials from the agricul-
tural department and government

A woman farmer shows her flourishing trial plot of traditional rice varieties.

Photo:

aruna

Rathnabhar

athie

Participatory rice variety selection in Sri Lanka

researchers shared findings and discussed
these in the context of the impact of climate
change on farming in the region. Video
documentaries have also been shown to
agricultural extension officials at workshops
where ministry officials and Practical
Action staff presented their different
approaches. They have been shown to
farmer associations in each district, who
have also taken part in visits to successful
project sites.

Practical Action has since expanded the

approach to many other communities
around Sri Lanka (see Map 1). Significantly,
other communities have adopted it
autonomously, through word of mouth and
observation. Traditional varieties are grown
by one farmer in a corner of a large field,
cultivated by many small-scale farmers. The
next year, many other farmers are observed
growing the crops. Farmer societies contact
Practical Action to find out more, and are
referred to villages adopting the practice,
and organise their own visits. Staff have
been surprised by contact from people in
distant places who have heard about the
trials. This autonomous replication of a
successful practice is very encouraging,
though of course difficult to assess without
independent evaluation.

Uptake is feasible, though farmers are

probably not undertaking rigorous trials
before adoption. The methodology is
however replicable, provided farmers’groups
are adequately supported in understanding
the need for a rigorous approach. Support
could be provided by the national Rice
Research Institute, but the mediation of a
non-governmental organisation experienced
in participatory methods would increase the
likelihood of success.

A more farmer-focused agricultural

research agenda is crucial for farmers
successfully to adapt their food production
to climate change. At present, research
priorities are defined by national govern-
ment or even multi-national corporations.
The likelihood for change on a large scale is
remote at present.

Adaptation to climate change is highly

context specific. At present, salinity may not
affect the majority of the area under rice
cultivation. Nationally, there is no estimate
of fields affected by salinity and salt water
intrusion and the likely causes. At a local
level however, the number of communities
that have raised concerns with Practical
Action project staff suggests this issue may
be seriously underestimated. Communities
throughout a wide geographical area are
keen to experiment with saline-resistant
traditional varieties of rice. This attests to
the relevance of this approach and technol-
ogy – particularly to communities in
marginal locations facing many social and
economic challenges, in addition to the
added challenges of soil salinity and future
climate change.

Conclusion

The participatory research approach
adopted during this project demonstrates
the importance of experimentation for
adaptation. Participatory research provided
the farmers with a supportive environment
with access to the resources necessary for
experimentation. It demonstrates the effi-
ciency of locally informed and farmer-led
research. Farmers were able to assess
threats to their livelihoods and define their
own response. Their capacity to experiment
in finding solutions to their own problems
was strengthened. The network of relation-
ships built up between the farmers, formal
research institutions, government extension
services, and a national seed conservation
body will hopefully ensure continuity of
support for further research by the farmers.

This project underlines the importance

of biodiversity for adaptation. The farmers
of Hambantota could assess and select
seeds able to survive in the degraded envi-
ronment only through the preservation and
free availability of many seed varieties. As
climate change pressures mount, it will be
crucial to ensure that agricultural biodiver-
sity is not sacrificed for short-term increases
in yield.

Berger, Weregoda, and Rathnabharathie

CONTACT DETAILS
Rachel Berger
Climate Change Policy Adviser
Practical Action
Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development
Bourton Hall
Rugby
CV23 9QZ
UK
Tel: + 44 1926 634400
Email: rachel.berger@practicalaction.org.uk
Skype: rachelberger1
Website: www.practicalaction.org.uk

Rohana Weregoda
3/44, Brewery Lane
Armidale
NSW 2350
Australia
Email: rohanlw@yahoo.com

Varuna Rathnabharathie
Project Manager, Organic Agriculture
Practical Action
5 Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha
Kirulapone
Colombo-5
Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 11 2829412 ext: 19 or 67
Email: varuna.rathnabharathie@practicalaction.org.lk
www.practicalaction.org
www.janathakshan.org

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article is based on material prepared by Rohana Weregoda,
formerly Project Manager with Practical Action’s south Asia office in
Sri Lanka and Varuna Rathnabharathie, who is currently managing
projects including traditional rice cultivation for Practical Action.

Introduction

Climate change brings about erratic
climatic variability. Scientists warn that this
will lead to increasing episodes of flood and
drought (IPCC, 2008). These changes will
hit developing countries disproportionately
since poor people rely heavily on natural
resources and agriculture for survival
(Paavola and Adger, 2002). Research also
suggests that slight changes in the timing
of the arrival, duration, and intensity of
monsoon rains will affect the livelihoods of
millions of people (UNDP, 2007).

Poor countries and communities need

to strengthen their local capacities to adapt
to climate change. Climate change affects
everyone. It is everyone’s intrinsic right to
participate in decision-making and in
taking action to adapt to climate change.
Participatory learning and action (PLA)
approaches can help outsiders work with,

and learn from, local people, and enable
communities to plan and implement adap-
tation activities.

The complexity of climate change,

however, means that it is not enough to
focus on the community level. Some adap-
tation policies can have spill-over effects,
for example, one community’s decision to
build a dam to cope with drought will affect
communities lower down the river. So
coordination between communities is
crucial to the success of some adaptation
strategies.

This article draws on research I carried

out Ghana and Burkina Faso to explore the
impact of a transboundary water gover-
nance project on poor people’s livelihoods.

It examines how communities can identity
climate change-related problems and solu-
tions in concert with others, including
other communities. Unlike other trans-

Funded by the British Academy, I visited the Upper North Region of Ghana in April

and August 2008, where I worked with the Water Resources Commission and a local
NGO. I interviewed 19 men and seven women, including project coordinators, regional
ministers, civil servants of the Ministries of Agriculture and Forestry, community
representatives, and ordinary villagers. Because of time constraints, my research focused
on two communities in Ghana, Mognori, and Sapaliga.

by SAM WONG

Lessons from a
participatory
transboundary water
governance project in
West Africa

Wong

100

boundary water governance arrangements,
for example, in the Mekong or Nile river
basins, this project demonstrates an
attempt to include community members in
the decision-making process. It also
insisted that both genders were repre-
sented on the transboundar y water
committee. The article discusses the
successes and limitations of the participa-
tory approach used to involve communities
in transboundary water governance and
climate change adaptation activities.

Transboundary water governance
project in Ghana and Burkina Faso

The IPCC report (2008) predicts that a 2°C
increase in global temperature will make
South Ghana wetter and North Ghana and
South Burkina Faso drier. This has a far-
reaching impact on the use of water and
land resources in the region. Ghana and
Burkina Faso share 85% of the Volta River
Basin. How they manage water is crucial to
the development of the region.

The World Conservation Union (WCU)

and the Swedish International Develop-
ment Agency (SIDA) carried out a partici-
patory appraisal exercise (PAE) with
communities in North Ghana and South
Burkina Faso in 2003. During the exercise,
Ghanaians raised concerns over the ‘widen-
ing and shallowing’ of the rivers, blaming
Burkina Faso for building dams in the
upper course. People in Burkina Faso, in
contrast, expressed their worries over
higher occurrences of drought in summer
seasons (PAGEV Annual Report, 2007).
After the participatory exercise, the two
donors initiated the Improving Water
Governance in the Volta Basin Project
(PAGEV) in 2004. This three-year project
aimed to develop dialogue between Ghana
and Burkina Faso over the transboundary
use of water. It also intended to build
resilience and strengthen the capacity of
local communities to cope with climate
change.

The PAE was consultative in nature.

Local people were not involved in deciding
how the PAGEV was designed and imple-
mented. The project governance structures
and the climate change adaptation policies
were subject to negotiation by the donors,
project coordinator, and the NGOs. Local
people were expected to engage with the
project by sending community representa-
tives to the meetings and following the
agreed policies.

The donors appointed a Ghanaian

project coordinator based in the capital of
Burkina Faso. They also selected two local
NGOs (from north-east Ghana and the
south of Burkina Faso) to manage the
ground work. The NGOs selected eight
communities (four from each side), using
the following criteria:
• adjacent to the White Volta River;
• close relationships with the NGOs;
• scale of the problems; and
• diversity of the region, in terms of
language and faith.

If the project was successful, the aim

was to encourage more communities along
the White Volta River to get involved. The
NGOs acted as a bridge between the trans-
boundary water committee and the local
communities. They negotiated with local
leaders about the activities implemented in
their communities, monitored the project’s
progress, organised training workshops for
local representatives, and called local meet-
ings.

Diagram 1 shows the participatory

governance structure of the project. A
Regional Transboundary Water Commit-
tee was established. This 14-member
committee, with equal representation from
each country, comprised regional minis-
ters, district chief executives, civil servants
from forestry, agriculture and water
ministries, NGOs, and two community
representatives. It provided a mechanism
for better coordination of water sharing
between the two countries. It also had the

Source: interview with Water Resource Commission officer, 20th August 2009.

101

Lessons from a participatory transboundary water governance project in West Africa

ultimate power to decide what adaptation
activities would be implemented on the
ground.

A country committee was also set up

with 30 members from Ghana and 31 from
Burkina Faso. It included eight regional
coordinators, six district coordinators, 15
technical service staff (in charge of food
and agriculture, forestry, and water), eight
NGO representatives, and 24 members
chosen from the eight participating
communities (eight women and 16 men).
This committee advised the Regional
Transboundary Water Committee, but
possessed no decision-making powers.

The NGOs asked each community to

nominate three people to represent their
communities. The NGOs set a number of
criteria: the nominees should be ‘well-
respected’ in the community, ‘educated’,
‘committed’, ‘willing to learn’ and, to
promote gender equality, at least one of the
three local representatives must be female.
These local representatives were expected
to reflect their communities’ concerns
during meetings and to monitor how the
agreed policies were implemented at the
local level.

After discussions in both committees, a

series of climate change adaptation activi-
ties were carried out. A 10 metre-wide
buffer zone was formed and trees planted
to stabilise the river bank, in order to
reduce soil erosion and strengthen flood
protection. Farmers were asked to stop
farming within the buffer zone (Photo 1).
Most land in these communities was
owned by chieftains and Tindana (reli-
gious leaders), so farmers had no choice but
to give up the lands. Free mango seedlings
were offered to compensate for their loss.
Organic farming was also introduced to
improve soil fertility. To dissuade poor
people cutting down trees within the buffer
zone, fuelwood crops were cultivated at its
edge. The project also tried to cater for
specific community needs. For example,
engineers helped the Sakom community
repair a leaking reservoir while pumping
facilities were provided to Sapeliga and
Mognori in the dry seasons (PAGEV
Annual Report, 2007).

To improve communication between

communities in Ghana and Burkina Faso,
workshops, training, and site visits were
organised. Community representatives met

Diagram 1: Transboundary Water Governance Structure in Ghana and Burkina Faso

Source: author’s own diagram, from interviews.

Regional Transboundary Water Governance Committee

Country Committee

Eight local communities

Give advice and reflect
ministers’ and communities’
concerns

Offer vision over better
coordination of water use
between countries

24 local representatives sit in
country committee to express the
needs of their communities

Implement climate change
adaptation policies in the local
communities

103

Lessons from a participatory transboundary water governance project in West Africa

Project successes

Although the participation of local people
in the project was limited, and determined
by the project designers, the participatory
governance structure set up by the project
did have a number of successes. My focus
here is on three aspects: promoting under-
standing of the interdependence of

communities, embracing diversity, and
gender inclusion.

Interdependence of communities

The project was effective in making
villagers aware that water-related problems
in their own communities were not unique.
Through intercommunity meetings and
sharing, community representatives and
participants had a deeper understanding of
the interdependence of communities. The
idea of sharing a ‘common fate’ was
mentioned in interviews with local people.
One Mognori representative said he had
seen the river getting wider and shallower,
but that he felt powerless to change the
situation. To his surprise, during the
country committee meetings, representa-
tives from Sapaliga raised similar concerns.
He then realised they shared similar prob-
lems. The sense of ‘togetherness’ was also
generated by a constant comparison
between communities over the project’s
progress. During country meetings, the
chairperson would report how many new
trees had been planted in each community
buffer zone. In order not be seen as ‘lazy’ or
‘not progressive enough’, one representative
said she would ensure her community did
not lag behind other communities. This
gave a strong sense of self-motivation for
rule enforcement.

The project also offered a new channel

for local people to express their concerns.
Instead of waiting for chieftains or
Tindana to resolve problems or to provide
services, community members could now
talk to their village representatives and
hoped they would reflect their needs in the
country meetings. Signs of success in
resolving conflict between Ghana and
Burkina Faso over water use have also
boosted local people’s confidence in the
institutional set-up. After a series of nego-
tiations in 2007 and 2008, Burkina Faso
finally agreed to make an early warning
announcement to the Upper North Region
of Ghana before opening the dam gates to
release flood water.

Wong

104

Embracing diversity

Social differences of language and faith
can be seen as an obstacle to public partic-
ipation. According to Putnam (2000),
trust and cooperative norms are built more
easily within homogeneous – rather than
heterogeneous – groups. This project,
however, demonstrated that, with the right
institutional designs and adequate
support, embracing diversity can make
public participation in transboundary
water governance more effective. For
example in Ghana, three religions were
represented in the four selected commu-
nities: Muslim, Christian, and Pagan.
While the ‘official’ languages in both
committees were English and French,
languages such as Bisia, Kussasi, and
Kussal were spoken in their communities.
To facilitate communication, interpreta-
tion was provided during meetings. This
made the meetings lengthy, but village
representatives welcomed this initiative
since they felt they could engage in the
discussion. Christian and Muslim partici-
pants were given equal opportunities to
open the meetings with prayers. These
socially- and religiously-inclusive policies
helped build trust and good working rela-
tionships in the committees.

Gender inclusion

To ensure fair gender representation, each
community was asked to select at least one
woman as their representative. The male
project coordinator highlighted the role of
women in water management: women are
responsible for fetching water and collect-
ing firewood in most communities.
Successful adaptation policies needed to
recognise the contribution of women to,
and involvement in, water management. In
addition, the intrinsic rights of women to
make decisions affecting their lives were
clearly underlined in the joint proposal by
WCU and SIDA (PAGEV proposal, 2003).
One female representative said she felt
empowered because she could raise ques-
tions during the meetings and challenge

decisions that she thought were
unfavourable to her community.

Limitations

Despite these successes, the project paid
inadequate attention to the issues of
poverty and power in developing and
implementing adaptation policies.

Poverty insensitivity

The project proposal suggested that the
committees and NGOs should use partici-
patory approaches to understand the needs
of each community and develop appropri-
ate adaptation activities. However, in prac-
tice the process was largely top-down and
insensitive to the needs of poorer farmers.
The creation of buffer zones on the river
banks, for example, hit poor farmers
disproportionately because river banks are
usually fertile, and the river water makes
free irrigation possible. Although the
project organisers provided pumping facil-
ities to make long-distance irrigation possi-
ble, poorer farmers were often excluded
from the pumping groups because the
organisers thought they could not afford
the fuel costs.

Free mango seedlings were also distrib-

uted to provide an alternative farming
practice. Cash crops such as mangoes have
a high market value, potentially boosting
farmers’ incomes. The farmers, however,
complained in interviews that it would take
three years to get the first harvest. They
also worried that when everyone switched
to growing mangoes, the price would drop
and impact on profits. Although they had
expressed their concerns to their commu-
nity representatives, they had been ignored.
As a result, some farmers stopped partici-
pating in local meetings, believing them to
be of no benefit.

Reinforcing power inequalities

The NGOs played a dominant role in
organising the nomination of community
representatives. Whilst they did ensure
gender representation in choosing local

105

Lessons from a participatory transboundary water governance project in West Africa

representatives, the NGOs failed to ensure
the inclusion of poorer farmers. This was
because the NGOs worked closely with
local chieftains and Tindana. They argued
that the support and approval of these
traditional authority figures was important
to the success of the project. Also, since
most land was owned by the chiefs or
Tindana, their support would ensure a
smooth confiscation of land from farmers
to create the buffer zone.

However, Laube’s research in Ghana

(2007) argues that the chieftains and
Tindana are blamed for causing poverty.
He suggests, for example, that the chief-
tains prefer to lease land to less-poor
farmers because they own cattle and can
provide a free ploughing service. To safe-
guard their own interests in the trans-
boundary water project, the chiefs and
Tindana influenced the process of select-
ing community representatives, ensuring
that members of their family were chosen.
In this way, the project has helped consol-
idate their authority, and the voices and
interests of poorer farmers have been
marginalised in the decision-making
process (Wong, 2008).

This case study offers a good example of

the ‘paradoxes of participation’ identified
by Cleaver (2004). The project attempted
to set up new institutions for participation,
but these new participatory spaces were
easily captured by local elites.

Conclusions and policy implications

Climate change affects people both locally
and regionally, and participator y
approaches need to take a regional as well
as local perspective, and provide for better
coordination between communities.
Expanding the focus beyond an individual
community can create a common vision
between communities and help local
people be more aware of the cross-border
impact of climate change.

The project described had some success

in setting up transboundary water gover-
nance structures and embracing social

heterogeneity with regard to gender, reli-
gion, and language. However, the partici-
pator y space was so restricted that
community members were largely ignored
in developing strategies for climate change
adaptation and water management.
Although local people indicated their
awareness of the changing climate and
river flow, little effort was made to incor-
porate local knowledge into adaptation
strategies. Local people were expected to
adopt the policies they were told to.

Local people also had no say in the

institutional arrangements and the compo-
sition of the regional transboundary water
and country committees. Heavy reliance on
the support of local chieftains, for the sake
of efficiency, risked reinforcing power and
gender inequalities in communities, and
marginalising poorer parts of the commu-
nity in decision-making processes.

A preoccupation with setting up the

‘right’ kinds of institutional arrangements
led to inadequate attention being paid to
analysing power and poverty when devis-
ing and implementing adaptation policies
in communities. The confiscation of river-
side farmlands and displacement of poor
farmers was caused by a lack of genuine
farmer participation from the outset. This
raises concerns about the implicit prefer-
ence for long-term ecological sustainabil-
ity over the short-term livelihood interests
of poor people. No matter how well-
intended the adaptation policies may be, a
focus on long-term ecological sustainability
can pose a real threat to the livelihoods of
poor people, and worsen poverty. Finding
alternative sustainable livelihoods in order
to meet poor people’s current needs and to
protect long-term ecological sustainability
is a matter of urgency.

If adaptation polices build on – and

help reinforce – existing unequal social
structures, poor people will become the
victims, rather than the beneficiaries, of
adaptation efforts. We need to raise aware-
ness of the potential dangers of working
through existing social and political hier-

Wong

106

archies. Learning from the poor and
providing them with sufficient support
should be considered the first steps to
achieving social justice.

CONTACT DETAILS
Sam Wong
Lecturer
Division of Archaeological, Geographical, and Environmental Studies
University of Bradford
UK
Email: s.wong2@brad.ac.uk

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer would like to thank the British Academy for funding the
research on which this article is based, and the Water Resource
Commission and ZOVFA in Ghana for their support.

REFERENCES
Cleaver, F. (2004). ‘The Social Embeddedness of Agency and Decision-

making.’ In S. Hickey and G. Mohan (eds) Participation: from
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109

Introduction

Involving local communities is a prerequi-
site to sustainable disaster risk reduction.
Local communities are both the primary
victims and the first to respond to emer-
gencies when disasters strike. Nobody is
more interested in reducing disaster risk
than the community whose survival and
well-being is at stake. Community-based
disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) fosters
the participation of threatened communi-
ties in both the evaluation of risk (including
hazards, vulnerability, and capacities) and
ways to reduce it. CBDRR should eventu-
ally empower communities with self-devel-
oped and culturally acceptable ways of
coping with crises brought about by the
occurrence of natural hazards (e.g. Ander-
son and Woodrow, 1989). Practitioners
often merge CBDRR with community-
based adaptation to climate change (CBA)
as the ability of people to face climate
changes shares root factors with the capac-
ity to cope with natural hazards.

Currently, most CBDRR initiatives are

confined to community beneficiaries and

NGO facilitators. To further enhance disas-
ter risk reduction, it is acknowledged that
CBDRR should integrate a larger array of
stakeholders, including local government,
scientists, schools pupils, and faith groups.
The participation of scientists and local
government in CBDRR is essential to inte-
grate indigenous and scientific knowledge,
as well as bottom-up and top-down disas-
ter risk reduction measures. Yet scientists
have often overlooked CBDRR, consider-
ing it to be too subjective and removed
from scientific methodologies and rigorous
protocols, and local governments are often
constrained by top-down, command-and-
control national disaster management
frameworks which give them little freedom
for alternative initiatives. Integrating tradi-
tional and scientific knowledge, and
bottom-up and top-down risk reduction
measures, requires methodologies and
tools which provide common ground for
dialogue between stakeholders. Such
dialogue is crucial to build trust between
actors who seldom work together.

This paper focuses on participatory

by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE GAILLARD and EMMANUEL A. MACEDA

Participatory three-
dimensional mapping
for disaster risk
reduction

Gaillard and Maceda

110

three-dimensional mapping (P3DM) as a
way to facilitate the integration of both
scientific and local knowledge and the
participation of a large array of stakehold-
ers in CBDRR. In this article, we first
provide a short introduction to participa-
tory mapping and CDBRR. Next, we
describe the methodological process for
integrating P3DM into CBDRR. Finally,
we explore its strengths and also review
some of the major limitations of P3DM for
CBDRR.

Background: participatory mapping and
CBDRR

Maps are extensively used by both scien-
tists and participatory learning and action
facilitators as part of CBDRR activities.
Participatory mapping enables communi-
ties to delineate areas they perceive as
vulnerable and prone to hazards, and to
plot desired and useful risk reduction

measures. Most participatory mapping
projects, however, rely on two-dimensional
sketch maps. These are usually limited in
size, making it difficult to integrate a high
level of detail, especially at the household
level (number of people, vulnerable indi-
viduals, livelihoods, etc.), which are crucial
in disaster risk reduction. Furthermore,
participatory maps are intelligible only to
those who made the maps. It is difficult to
foster their use among non-participant
stakeholders, especially at the authority
level, to integrate top-down risk reduction
measures, and as sketch maps are usually
not scaled, they may introduce distortions
which make it difficult to integrate scien-
tific knowledge.

Participatory three-dimensional model-

ling or mapping (P3DM) can help in
attempting to overcome these shortcom-
ings. It involves building stand-alone
scaled relief maps made of locally available

Figure 1: Building a P3DM map in Divinubo, Eastern Samar, Philippines, August 2007.

Photo:

J-C.

Gaillar

111

Participatory three-dimensional mapping for disaster risk reduction

materials (e.g. cartons, paper), with
thematic layers of geographical informa-
tion (Rambaldi and Callosa-Tarr, 2002).
P3DM enables the plotting of landforms
and topographic landmarks, land cover
and use, and anthropogenic features, which
are depicted in push-pins (points), yarns
(lines), and paint (polygons).

It is worth

mentioning that P3DM most frequently
stands for participatory three-dimensional
modelling. We here choose to replace
‘modelling’ by ‘mapping’ to avoid confusion
with technological devices such as
computer modelling.

Methodological process for integrating
P3DM into CBDRR

P3DM has recently been applied to
CBDRR through three projects conducted
in the Philippines between 2007 and early
2009, in Divinubo (Eastern Samar),
Masantol (Pampanga), and Dagupan
(Pangasinan) (Table 1). In Divinubo,
P3DM was planned after local officials
identified a gap in the existing disaster risk
reduction programme. The project eventu-
ally involved the scientist facilitators, the
local government, and a local people’s
organisation (PO). In Masantol, P3DM
followed a request of the local government
which helped to build a consortium of
stakeholders made up of scientists, the
local government, a local NGO, a PO, and
the local high school community. In
Dagupan, P3DM was conducted in
Mangin as a late part of a large CBDRR
project involving officials from local
government, a Manila-based NGO, scien-
tists, and members of the local community.

P3DM for CBDRR follows a five-step

methodology which blends mapping activ-
ities with other participatory tools for
assessing and reducing disaster risks (e.g.
listing, ranking, calendars, transects, and
problem trees).

Step 1 consists of building the relief

map as detailed in Rambaldi and Callosa-
Tarr (2002) (Figure 1). Most P3DM proj-
ects for natural resource management and
land conflict resolution use scales ranging
from 1:5,000 to 1:10,000. In the three
projects described here, much bigger
scales were used, ranging from 1:400 to
1:2,700, to allow details of people’s vulner-
ability and capacities at the household
level to be shown. In Masantol, however,
the 1:2,700 scale proved to be too small to
plot the details desired by the different
stakeholders.

Step 2 is to plot land use and other geo-

referenced features (Figure 2). Commu-
nity members identify features which they
depend on for their livelihoods, such as
fishing and hunting grounds, agricultural
fields, settlements, and roads. Participants
then differentiate houses and public or
private buildings (e.g. schools, churches,
stores) according to their characteristics
and potential fragility (e.g. multi-storey
cemented houses, one-storey cemented
houses, wooden houses). Houses and
buildings are plotted using pins of differ-
ent kinds which may be further divided by
size and colour to identify building mate-
rials. It is also possible to note on the pins
the number of people living in each house
and their major sources of income/liveli-
hoods. Participants eventually identify and
locate the most vulnerable people in the
community (e.g. young children, elderly,
pregnant women, individuals with disabil-
ities and long-term sickne