Martha Njoroge has been one of CSDi’s best students over the past year. I learned yesterday that her one-year-old baby Brian is seriously ill.

He just spent two weeks in the hospital with pneumonia—and although at first he appeared to be responding well to medications he has recently developed complications: very high fever, chest congestion, is coughing terribly and vomiting and experiencing diarrhea. Martha is being referred to a specialist tomorrow—but is having trouble covering medical expenses.

Let me tell you a little bit about Martha. Martha lives in Kangema, Kenya, a small rural town of 4,000 about 70 miles north of Nairobi. Over the past 9 or 10 months Martha has partnered with Kathy Tate-Bradish (Illinois in the US—but with a working relationship in Kenya) and Genevieve Lamond (University of Bangor UK but also with a working relationship in Kenya).

Can you please help? Because of her baby’s increasing health challenges, Martha needs ready cash now to pay for doctor bills and for medications. Any amount that you can donate will help. Even $10 will help. Martha will receive 100% of your donation–CSDi is simply acting as a conduit for funds. Please help—and help quickly.

Community-based adaptation to climate change offers sustainable solutions to our future’s green entrepreneurs: hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers. Community based adaptation (CBA) is a cross-cutting initiative that integrates adaptation, environmental restoration, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction—and includes these participatory approaches to sustainable development and poverty reduction:

1. Participatory assessment of cropping systems, soil health, and land and water use
2. Assessment of community vulnerabilities to climate change and to unsustainable agricultural and environmental practices
3. Community based restoration and management of depleted farmlands and ecosystems
4. Reducing shock from disasters through reforesting watersheds, riparian shores and mangrove forests
5. Combining local and scientific knowledge for improved agricultural practices that include water harvesting and improving soil health
6. Climate smart agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture and the use of drought resistant and early maturing crops
7. Engaging women and marginalized community members in agriculture and in other sustainable livelihoods
8. Building resilience by linking farmer associations to markets that routinely need agricultural products
9. Strengthening communities with family gardens: growing nutritious fruits and vegetables for food diversity and food security
10. Forming community management committees to steward these sustainable improvements for the long-term

What adaptation to climate change activities are available for use today? There is confusion over what adaptation activities are. Many people are expecting a palette of brand-new technologies to begin arriving any day now: adaptation silver bullets.

Fortunately, organizations like the FAO, CGIAR, IFPRI, ILEIA, ODI, IDS and 3ie have been researching, developing, and disseminating accessible, low-cost/no-cost technologies for use by smallholder farmers and the world’s poor—it’s simply a matter of organizations selecting the ones appropriate for their community partners.

How does one choose appropriate CBA activities?

• Step one is to engage community members in vulnerability, capacity and in environmental health assessments.
• Step two is to uncover local coping strategies and local knowledge—and to investigate sound, scientifically-based information that can enhance local knowledge.
• Step three is to partner with the community in project design and co-management.

The Center for Sustainable Development has compiled a number of resources for use by students developing field projects through its online field courses:

• 50 Programs for Use in Community Based Adaptation Projects
• 175 Student Projects Activities
• Community-Based Adaptation: 300 Hands-On Field Activities

Community based adaptation to climate change will kick-start a green economy by promoting sustainable use of ecosystem services through environmental restoration, by connecting smallholder farmers and small businesses to markets, and by building community resilience through disaster risk reduction, improvements in health and food security, and in the development of income generating, sustainable livelihoods. This new green economy will help the world’s poor lead the productive, meaningful, prosperous lives they need to leave the cycle of poverty and to continue to contribute to the sustainable development of their communities.

Tim Magee

Tim Magee is the author of the upcoming Earthscan book from Routledge: Field Guide To Community Based Adaptation.

Upcoming Online Field Courses. Learn about the courses where students develop projects in the field.

Because of universal challenges faced by communities in adapting to climate change, the majority of these programs have a strong connection to water use management, forest restoration, livelihoods, agriculture, and building community resilience.

The programs and activities are organized in the following categories:

• Water
• Forestry
• Livelihoods
• Agriculture
• Disaster Risk Reduction and Preparedness
• SIDS and Coastal Challenges
• Health, Hygiene and Nutrition

Use: After assessing community vulnerabilities, CBA field staff can search the program list for appropriate activities for their projects. Many of the programs have a number of alternative activities to give options to field staff for customizing their own programs to fit a specific context. I hope that you enjoy this new resource. I also look forward to your feedback, along with ideas for any additional programs and activities that you may want to submit to the list.

Would you like to learn how to develop Community Based Adaptation Projects?