1.  Yadua Village, Fiji: 200 people are suffering climate change induced rising sea levels
	Partners Loraini Sivo (Fiji) and Fatema Rajabali (Kenya/UK) worked this year on a project in a small fishing village in Fiji.
200 people in the village of Yadua, Fiji are suffering from increased shoreline erosion caused by increased wave actions due to the loss of mangrove forest and a reef which acted as buffers—and climate change induced rising sea levels. Their project is an ecosystem based adaptation program restoring mangrove and reef systems to act again as natural buffers.

2.  7 Years of extreme weather in Grenada increases malnutrition & poverty
	Meredith Waters (US) and Gillian Primus (Grenada) have been working for the past six months on a project on the Island of Grenada that has been hit by a series of tropical hurricanes and tropical storms exhibiting increased ferocity over the past seven years.
The CBA program they designed relates to the challenges of climate variability: extreme weather, and unpredictable rainy season that have reduced crop harvests—and includes a Farmer Soil Conservation—and a Water Conservation and Management Program.

3.  Climate change related drought plagues island farmers on Timor Leste
	1,000 children and adults from 200 families in two villages in the Island country of Timor Leste suffer from an annual food shortage caused by inadequate water for irrigation leading to poor rice harvests, and from the challenges of adapting to a changing climatic pattern restricting when staple crops such as corn and cassava can be planted.
Michaelyn Bachhuber (US), Raul de la Rosa (Philippines/Timor Leste), and Yinwu Huang (China) worked during September and October to develop a CBA project in participation with these community members.

4.   British Virgin Islands: Climate change induced heavy rains degrade coastal water quality & impact local economy
	Climate change has caused an increase heavy rains on Tortola island and the storm water runoff causes flooding and deposits sediments and pollutants into the bay reducing water quality. Tourism is a major source of revenue for Tortola and this reduction in water quality has not only impacted a fragile environment—but has affected the island’s business economy.
Angela Burnett and Atoya George of the British Virgin Islands Department of Conservation and Fisheries, and have been working on a project which includes a Community Flood Resilience Programme, a Drainage Maintenance and Improvement Programme, and a Sedimentation Reduction Programme

5. Mindanao Island: reduced fish catch due to climate variability
	Jelly Mae Moring comes from a small village on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines: “I have been starting a project in my parents’ village in the the OL 341 CBA course, a perfect opportunity to learn how to develop a project with the people living in the community.”
Climate variability (unpredictable start of rainy season and unusual dry periods), and extreme weather events have reduced the community’s harvests in both land and sea—reducing family incomes. Jelly May’s project includes a Coastal Resource Management Program.

6.  Wet and Dry in Mauritius: film by Matt Gray—Fulbright Scholar & CSDi student
	Matt produced this excellent short documentary addressing the impacts of climate change on water resources in Mauritius, an island in the Western Indian Ocean, and how people are beginning to respond.
Too much rain in May and drought conditions in November negatively affect farmers with both extremes. Rainfall is down 10 % but the intensity has increased. 50% of water stored in reservoirs is lost to leaks. The film shows us how having supplies of water resources and managing them are 2 different things.

7. A Water Management Program: Will It Help Mauritian Farmers Adapt to Climate Change Hazards?
	Prem Goolaup, of the island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, has been developing a community based adaptation project for the past eight months. At times the farmers suffer from drought—at other times flooding.The adaptation components of his project include a Water Management Program.
He’s using a participatory mapping technique to not only learn more about the specific challenges the farmers face, but by including farmers in the research and drawing of the map, they are better understanding their current challenges and also developing a sense of ownership for the project.  What is a prioritization of the community’s greatest hazards they face?     Unpredictable rainfall during the rainy season makes it difficult for farmers to plan cropping     Drought has caused livestock deaths and crop failures or low crop yields     Intense sunshine coupled with decreased rainfall causes crops to wilt or ripen early (coconut, banana, and cashew nut)     Unusually heavy rainfall causes pit latrines to overflow and contaminate drinking water increasing diarrhea     Shortage of household water   Farmer adaptation strategies include:     Getting more organic matter into their soil to better hold water     Using mulches to reduce evaporative loss     Water conservation techniques     Water management techniques during periods of heavy rain and flooding      Drought resistant and early maturing crops varieties     Techniques for protecting young plants during torrential rains and flooding

8. 300 Hands-On Field Activities for Community Based Adaptation Projects: Water is the Underlying Theme
	I am announcing an updated  compilation of Community Based Adaptation Field Activities—complete with links to source materials and technical information.   This collection of 300 CBA field activities began as a resource for our CBA online students. However, as it grew, we decided that it was important to make it more broadly available to CBA development practitioners.
Here are how the activities are organized: 1. Agriculture and water. 2. Small island developing states. 3. Emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction. 4. Energy. 5. Livelihood. 6. Health & sanitation. 7. CBA project design. 8. CBA participatory inclusion. 9. Long-term investments. 10. General resources.

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

Jelly Mae Moring comes from a small village on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines–but works for the Action Center for City Development in Vietnam. Knowing that she would be returning to the Philippines she decided to start a project in her family’s community to launch when she returned.

Village Women Discussing Community Needs
	“I have been starting a project in my parents’ village in the the OL 341 course, a perfect opportunity to learn how to develop a project with the people living in the community. The village is called Barangay Dita, located along the coast of Pujada Bay in Mati, the capital city of Davao Oriental, known for its copra.
The village has a population of about 300 households living mainly on fishing, farming and copra-making. Some are employed in a number of small tourist resorts along the coast.”

Village Men Discussing Community Needs
	“In February I sought the help of my father who has a good personal relationship with the local people and I was able to conduct a needs assessment with 4 men (fishermen & farmers) and 4 women (resort employees & housewives) – who were able to voice their community’s needs and vote on them with 10 corn seeds.”
“I tried to organize their top priorities into a simple project outline below:” Simple project outline of problems/causes/impacts based upon the needs assessment: Problems: -Lack of income; poverty Causes: -Unemployment or seasonal/irregular employment -Sources of income (fishing, farming and copra) are resource- and weather-dependent New underlying cause related to climate change: -Climate variability (unpredictable start of rainy season and unusual dry periods), and extreme weather events have reduced their harvests in both land and sea hence, reducing their income

An Individual Voting in Order to Prioritize Needs
	Here is an expanded version of the outline above with the addition of solution oriented programs and activities designed to address this community’s challenges.
Project Outline: Problem list combined with potential interventions/activities/solutions:

[Problem and underlying causes] (1) 300 impoverished households in a coastal village of Barangay Dita, in the southern Philippines are frequently experiencing a shortage of income caused by unemployment or irregular employment, and from (2) reduced fish catch due to their resource and weather dependency and their association with climate variability ( unpredictable rainy seasons, unusual dry periods, and extreme weather events). These which contribute to [Negative Impacts] (a) an increase in drug traffic and use among youth and other community members and (b) a decrease in the youth’s motivation to go to school and mature into prosperous adults—and contribute to a reduction in the ability of adults to lead the productive, meaningful, prosperous lives they need to leave the cycle of poverty and contribute to the development of their communities.
   
Project Outline: Problem list combined with potential interventions/activities/solutions
[Problem 1]. Lack of income
Alternate Income Generation Program [Solution to underlying cause: unemployment or irregular employment]:
[Activity 1]. Facilitate the organization of Women’s Development Association
[Activity 2]. Survey local/regional businesses such as local resorts, tour operators and tourism office to determine human resource/workforce and services they need on their daily operations
[Activity 3]. Establish a market link and ask the resorts, tourism office and vocational training institutes for their support in training programs for women  employment in the local tourism industry
[Activity 4]. Launch vocational training workshops to fulfill business needs for products and services.

New program related to climate change
[Problem 2].  Reduced fish catch
Coastal Resource Management Program [Solution to underlying causes: Climate variability, extreme weather, and unpredictable rainy season have reduced fish catch]:
[Activity 1]. Facilitate the organization of Fishermen Association
[Activity 2]. Workshop on participatory mapping of fishing resources/areas
[Activity 3]. Environmental education campaign
[Activity 4]. Workshop on resource management and adaptation planning
[Activity 5]. Implement plan and monitor

 
Follow these two links to see the full example of their project outline and of a report on a participatory workshop with community members:

Project statement and project outline
Leading a Participatory Workshop