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?

Women participating in a workshop on developing a Village Agricultural Committee
	Martin is an Agricultural Specialist in Land Husbandry; right now he’s working on a Zambian government climate change project as the Head of the Resilient Agriculture Platform and Participatory Adaptation Advisor. Ursula, works for the GIZ as a Program Advisor for the GIZ Environment and Rural Development Program in the Philippines.

Even though they are many thousands of miles apart their course partnership is a strong one. Interestingly, they were able to meet in December in Durban, South Africa at COP 17. So, unlike many of our course partners who never get a chance to meet each other—they did!

Their project is an interesting one and has been in design and development for six months now. With Martin’s recent grant award they will be able to launch the first phase of the project. The project has four agricultural components:

• An Agricultural Income Generation Program
• An Animal Husbandry Program
• A Land-Use Management Plan
• A Climate Smart Agricultural Practices Program

Men in the Village Agricultural Committee workshop
	Follow this link to see the results of a participatory capacity and vulnerability assessment which Martin did with his community in February and  see an outline of the project which they have developed in 341, 342, and 343.

As their last assignment for course 343—which they just completed—they facilitated the development of a village agricultural committee to co-manage the four project components. Over the next few months, the committee will be working on structuring the committee, goal setting, and identifying training needs. Their first output will be to prioritize a list of income generation activities for the Agricultural Income Generation project component that just received the funding.

Martin begin engaging with this community starting in Assignment 1 of OL 341. This consistent engagement during project design and development creates community ownership of the project. During project implementation, members of the Village Agricultural Committee will learn how to manage and maintain the different project components. When Martin’s project commitment comes to an end, the community will not only have a sense of project ownership, they will know how to run the project long into the future.

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