How Can We Get Local Climate Knowledge from Our Community?
Community-based adaptation to climate change combines local climate knowledge and scientific climate knowledge in a way that will empower community members to take charge in an effective bottom-up campaign of adapting to climate change. Their project will be sustainable—as this bottom-up approach gives them project ownership.

Community Defined Need and Sustainability

This next step is to facilitate a workshop which will help in exchanging knowledge about the community’s vulnerabilities and capacities. You will learn from them about their coping strategies within their livelihoods in the face of a changing climate. In the next step this local knowledge will give us an opening for sharing with them science based strategies that can be supportive of their local strategies. This is important; without the ability to compare scientific knowledge with similar local knowledge, it may be more difficult for community members to trust, accept, understand and adopt new ideas.

Schedule a workshop with the community for six hours. You can also do this workshop in two, three hour sessions.

Activity 1. Seasonal Calendar.
Time required: 1 1/2 hours.
This first activity in the workshop will be drawing a seasonal calendar in the form of a matrix. Draw a matrix on a sheet of newsprint—or several sheets taped together. On this calendar you’re trying to establish relationships between times of the year, seasonal events, and special events that happen in the community.
-the rainy season
-the dry season
-periods of drought
-extreme weather events
-important livelihood activities
-disease
-periods of hunger
-planting and harvesting
-school
-annual festivals or ceremonies

Along the top row of the matrix write the initials for the 12 months of the year. It’s helpful to create the matrix the day before the workshop. So that all workshop participants can engage in the activity you can make it very visual by drawing seasonal symbols—such as harvesting corn—so that non-readers will not be excluded.

Along the vertical column on the left you can begin writing down events as community members come up with them. Then, adjacent to the event you can make a mark in the appropriate months that the event occurs. One helpful technique is to have a preliminary piece of paper that you can quickly write down participants’ ideas. This will give participants the freedom to speak openly and quickly. After a good number of ideas have been voiced, take a moment to organize the key events since many will be related to each other or simply phrased in a different manner. When you’re satisfied with the organization of the events you can transfer them to the blank calendar.

Once the calendar has been filled in with events and dates, introduce the following questions:
-Are the hazards concentrated in one time period or season?
-Are there time periods in the year which are the most difficult for community members and their assets?

Note:
-What are the community members’ current coping strategies for dealing with these difficult periods?
-Capacity building: Which of the difficult periods are they having trouble coping with due to a lack of strategies?

Activity 2. Hazard mapping.
Time required: 1 1/2 hours.
The second 1 ½ hour activity in the workshop will be drawing a participatory hazard map of the community. This exercise will be drawing a participatory hazard map of the community. Participatory mapping is an inclusive tool because all workshop participants can engage in the activity and it’s very visual—non-readers will not be excluded.

Consider returning to the village the day before the workshop to tour the farm fields, forests, and water sources with one of the villagers. Take a few minutes to talk to people you meet in order to gain a greater understanding of the scale of the community and to get a better sense of some of the challenges they are facing.

Focus the exercise on drawing a community map on a sheet of newsprint—or several sheets taped together—in order to understand the spatial relationships between the different parts of the community. On this map you’re trying to establish relationships between major community components. How the village relates to the farm fields, hills, roads and where sources of water are.

When everybody at the workshop is satisfied that the basic map represents the community, farming areas and surrounding environmental resources, you can begin marking things on the map such as where individual’s homes are and where their farm fields are. It’s a good idea to locate buildings and farmer’s plots using piece of colored paper that can be attached to the map with removable tape so they can be moved or adjusted. The paper cutouts are also useful because they can be completely removed if you want to get back to the basic map for a future workshop on a different issue.

When everyone is satisfied that the more detailed map is accurate, introduce the idea of hazards that the community suffers. These hazards could include extreme weather events, floods, heavy rainfall, drought and landslides.

Once the hazards have been indicated on the map introduce the following questions:
-Are the hazards concentrated in one area of the community?
-What negative impacts will the hazards have on community members and their assets and resources?
-Who in the community is the most at risk from the hazards?
-Are there safe places in the neighborhood where community members can shelter from the hazards?

Note:
-What are the community members’ current coping strategies for dealing with these difficult periods?
-Capacity building: Which of the difficult events are they having trouble coping with due to a lack of strategies?

Activity 3. Historical Timeline
Time required: 1 1/2 hours.
The Historical Timeline is one that is a very simple matrix with years in the left column and important events in the right column. You will be looking for insights into past hazards and events, and how they may have changed or intensified over time.

These could include hurricanes, droughts, epidemics, famines or floods. Hopefully, there will be village elders in the workshop that will allow us to get a long-term perspective from 20 or 25 years ago so that you and the villagers can see if these events are occurring more frequently. Other examples could include storms, erratic rainfall, a change in the timing of the growing seasons and water availability.

Next, when the group has completed the timeline, introduce the subject of climate change. Have they seen a change over time with climate change challenges? When did they start noticing the changes? Some examples:
-beginning 20 years ago rainfall began decreasing; by how much?
-beginning 20 years ago, the growing season changed; its shorter now—or it starts later.
-beginning 20 years ago, storms have increased; there is flooding now when there didn’t used to be flooding.
-beginning 20 years ago, we’ve had to walk progressively further to get water.

Please note the changes which they’ve seen. Briefly describe how they’ve changed and over what time frame. Does the community realize this is linked to climate change and realize that this may be ongoing?

Note:
-What are the community members’ current coping strategies for dealing with these difficult periods?
-Capacity building: Which of the difficult events are they having trouble coping with due to a lack of strategies?

Activity 4. Climate Hazard Impacts on Livelihoods
Time required: 1 1/2 hours.
This matrix is another very simple matrix with important livelihood resources and assets in the left column and important hazards in the top row. It’s a good idea to prepare the blank matrix on newsprint in advance. Also, take a few minutes alone to list both the hazards and the livelihood assets and resources from the first three exercises. These can be used to start a discussion in order to begin filling in the matrix. Doing a quick preliminary matrix on a blank sheet of newsprint during this discussion is also a good idea—you can then just transfer the assets and hazards onto a clean, blank matrix.

Important resources may include: -income generation from agriculture -crop land -livestock -irrigation canal system -health -food reserves/food security -environmental resources such as forests and water	Typical hazards may include: -extreme weather events such as hurricanes or cyclones -drought/heat waves -unpredictable beginning and end to the rainy season -erratic rainfall or more or less rainfall -lack of water -shortage of food at specific times of the year -flooding -change in the timing of the growing season -health issues/disease

Once the matrix has been filled in with what the community feels are the greatest hazards along the top row and the most important livelihood assets and resources along the left column, ask them to rank in terms of importance which hazards are having the greatest impact on which resources. There are two ways that you can do this. Much like with the Chapter 1 vote, you could give each participant 15 counting stones, lay the matrix on the floor and let them vote. Or, you can simply hold a discussion and let them rank the importance of hazard impact on resources and mark it on the matrix.
3 = greatest impact on the resource
2 = median impact on the resource
1 = low impact of the resource
0 = impact of the resource

Please note what hazards they are facing and prioritize them by which are the most challenging for them.
Please note which areas they feel the most vulnerable in and prioritize them.

At the end of this exercise you will have a matrix that prioritizes which hazards are causing the greatest risk and are making which livelihood assets and resources the most vulnerable. Discuss this prioritization with the participants for verification—and make sure no one has been left out who has a question.

The development activities that we want to work with are grassroots solutions for addressing community identified needs. In this first community-based workshop you are going to use a Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) ranking tool. Workshop participants voice different problems, challenges and needs they experience in the community—and then vote on them with voting tokens (small stones or beans) to prioritize them. You will use drawings to illustrate needs so that marginalized and illiterate members can participate in this process equally as well as their better educated neighbors.

Getting Started
	Working with your community contacts, set up a 4 hour meeting with 8 or 10 community members one week or more in advance. Communities are diverse and you need to be sure that you are working with community members that represent the ultimate beneficiaries (mothers, fathers, families, farmers, weavers—whoever best describes the community you are working with).

Avoid basing your assessment on a meeting with people in higher positions: mayors or city council members for example. It is important that women and marginalized members have a voice in the process.

Each subgroup will have their own set of needs; some members may even be self-serving. Ensure that everyone in the workshop is given an equal chance to voice the challenges that they see in the community. If there are cultural norms which may prevent some participants from speaking out, you may elect to form two groups out of one community—for example one of women separate from one of men—so that women can feel comfortable participating in the discussion.

Review the lesson plan with your team and adapt the activities so they are specific to your community context. You may choose to produce an illustrated handout or poster for the workshop—especially if some participants can’t read. Role-play the activities with your colleagues so that you are better prepared when you present the workshop, and so you can discover if there are any cultural or linguistic problems. In the workshop you need to play the role simply of a facilitator and not color the needs assessment with your own preferences.

Make sure that you have all of the materials that you may need such as pieces of paper, large sheets of newsprint and markers for drawings. Since this is a four hour workshop you may also need to plan snacks and drinks. Have two to three colleagues accompany you to help. This will be especially useful if you decide to break the participants down into sub-groups. If you are considering providing snacks put someone in charge so that you aren’t distracted with the details and are free to focus completely on facilitating the workshop.

How it works. After initial rapport building with the group, explain that the purpose of the activities is to understand and learn about their community from their perspective. Ask the group to imagine and discuss the problems and needs that are faced by the community as a whole.

As each need is identified by a community member, begin making simple illustrations that represent the challenges they describe on notebook sized sheets of paper (you can bring a selection of typical drawings to reduce time spent drawing). An example could be that if there is a housing shortage, draw a little house. After the group has come up with a good set of needs/problems, arrange the different illustrations into a rectangle side-by-side on the ground or on a table.

Have everyone leave the workshop area. Give each one of the participants voting tokens—10 or 15 slips of paper, or beans, or grains of corn. For privacy during voting, only one person should go into the workshop area at a time to vote. They should select the needs which they feel as an individual are the most important. It is their decision if they want to put all 10 tokens on one drawing or if they want to distribute them around several different challenges.

When the participants have finished voting, count the total tokens on each drawing and write up a prioritized list ordered by the number of votes each problem received—with the need that received the most votes at the top. This would be a good time for the participants to take a break so that you can take a few minutes alone with the list and to draw a two column matrix on a sheet of newsprint that everyone can see. In the left column write down the individual needs in their prioritized order (or draw little pictures again) and in the right column write the number of votes each one received.

This is a good time for the participants to have an open discussion about the results of the vote. Plus, if there are any unrelated needs competing for the highest position it would be a good idea to let the participants do a second prioritization. For example there might be two health-related challenges near the top and two microenterprise challenges near the top as well. You can ask community which would be the first project they would like to start with if you would like to keep your project simple and not be faced managing two dissimilar programs at once.

It’s very likely that the list will be a disorganized mixture of needs, challenges, underlying causes and grievances. Work with the group to connect needs and challenges to their underlying causes on the matrix so that they can see the relationship. If the matrix doesn’t have any underlying causes this would be a good time to ask the participants what they might feel the causes of the top priority challenges are. This will get them thinking in these terms, but also it’s likely that they might have more background information about a problem than you do—so this can be quite helpful for you.

Conclude the meeting by summarizing the two or three challenges that the community places their highest priority and their relationship with underlying causes. Ask for feedback of your summary in for verification from the participants. Use your best facilitation skills to make sure that no one has any questions.

Copyright © 2012, Tim Magee

 

Worldwide, challenges for subsistence farmers have increased. Harvest production may be down leading to reduced incomes and reduced staples for family consumption. These challenges can be due to depleted soils, lack of funds for purchasing fertilizers, changes in the beginning and end of the rainy season, unpredictable rain during the rainy season, and increased soil erosion and crop damage during extreme weather events.

Adding Organic Material to Your Soil
	There are simple, low-cost/no-cost activities that subsistence farmers can adopt that can increase harvest production by restoring soil, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers, buffering the effects of variable rainfall, and protect valuable topsoil from erosion—increasing family nutrition and agricultural income.

What Is Soil?
Soil is a living, breathing organism of sand, clay, organic matter, earthworms, microbes, beneficial flora and fauna, nutrients, minerals, water and plant roots. It can suffer from being too wet, too dry and too sandy, too clayey, too exposed and too steep.

Soil Moisture.
Moisture in the soil is a chief determinant in crop growth and in agricultural production both by providing water for the soil, improve soil chemical processes in the soil and also acts as a transport mechanism for getting nutrients to the plants. The presence of organic material greatly improves soil’s ability to retain moisture. Moisture stored in the soil provides a buffer during dry periods or during periods of unpredictable rain. Sufficient organic material in the soil and mulch is on the surface of the soil can help rainwater percolate into the soil in order to build up soil moisture.

Organic Material.
Organic material decomposes in the soil and releases vital nutrients for the plants—reducing the need to purchase expensive fertilizer. Increased organic material in the soil also helps to retain soil moisture for longer periods of time—buffering against unpredictable rain or an early end to the rainy season. Organic material in the soil is a benefit for root penetration, drainage, aeration, nutrients nutrient availability, soil structure—and can neutralize pH imbalances.

Looking at organic material samples collected from around the village.
In the first year, farmers may not have organic material. Let them know that they can begin by spreading whatever chopped-up organic material (OM) they can find on top of their field. This can be leaves, manure, chopped-up corn stalks, vegetable-based kitchen scraps. Explain how many freely available types of OM are available around their village; have participants discuss other materials that they might be able to use.

Incorporating Organic Material into Your Soil during Soil Preparation.
Farmers can spread organic material on top of their field as they prepare their fields prior to telling. The organic material will mix in with their soil at different depths. After planting farmers can lay another layer of finely chopped material on top of the freshly planted field.

Mulching for Increased Organic Material, and Reduced Erosion and Evaporation.
The addition of mulch to the top of the soil can reduce the soil temperature, keep weeds down, improve drainage, attract earthworms, reduce both wind and water erosion, and can be an excellent method of adding organic material to the soil as the mulch decomposes during the course of the growing season. It is excellent for water conservation—it reduces moisture evaporation: it can help protect garden plants by retaining soil moisture when water is scarce.

Adding mulch to your field is very simple. Use the same materials that you used for making compost: leaves, dry grass, rice stalks, straw, and other agricultural residues. Simply place a thin layer on the soil after planting seeds. As the plants begin to grow add another layer until you have 5 to 10 cm.

Mulching will conserve restored soil by reducing moisture loss through evaporation, will contribute organic material and nutrients to the soil, and will prevent the loss of valuable topsoil by protecting the soil from wind and water erosion.

A consciousness raising workshop for the communities demonstrating how mulching can reduce evaporation.
1. Till and lightly moistened a small area of soil exposed to direct sunlight.
2. Mark off four small plots no more than half a meter square each.
3. Cover the first plot with a pane of glass raised about 10 cm above the soil surface.
4. Carefully and completely cover the second plot with chopped vegetation (straw, leaves, grass).
5. Loosely cover the third plot with chopped vegetation.
6. Leave the fourth plot uncovered.

Return to the test plots after one hour. Moisture should have begun to collect on the underside of the glass pane. Have the participants discuss where the moisture came from. This would be a good place to talk about soil evaporation and its effect on soils—and plants. Remove the glass and have the participants feel the soil beneath—it should still be moist.

Then have participants remove the mulch from test plots two and three. The soil should still be moist and plot two but less moist in plot three. Plot four, which was left uncovered should be even less moist and perhaps completely dry.

Making Compost
Compost is the earthy, dark crumbly material that results from the geek opposition of plant residue. It is rich in nutrients and organic matter and can be used as a plant fertilizer. To make compost you need the right mix of organisms, air, water and plant wastes such as grass clippings, food scraps, manures, leaf litter and straw.

Compost can be made in a bin or simply as a pile approximately a meter square and meter high. Find a location for the compost pile that is well-drained and sunny. Unless you’re lucky enough to have the materials that you need to make an instant compost pile, begin adding materials as you collect them to the top of the pile. It’s good to alternate layers of dry things like leaves and straw with layers of green grass clippings and kitchen waste. A compost pile should be turned every week or two to allow more air into the compost pile. Show the participants examples of matured compost so they know what it should look like.

Compost can be added to the field’s surface before preparation for planting—in this way it will mix in with the field’s soil during killing and be accessible to the plant’s roots. It can also be added to the surface of the field after planting and before the application of mulch. Its nutrients can then percolate into the soil with rainwater.

Conclusion.
Even highly depleted soils can over the course of a year or several years be restored to a vital condition. The addition of organic material and compost will increase the soil’s ability to retain moisture, increase nutrients stored in the soil, increase beneficial microbes and soil flora and fauna and will improve the structure of heavily compacted soil.

Copyright © 2012, Tim Magee