Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change

As climate change adaptation rises up the international policy agenda, matched by increasing funds and frameworks for action, there are mounting questions over how effective adaptation can be designed and implemented and of what 'good' adaptation looks like. Community-based adaptation (CBA) is one growing proposal that argues for tailored support at the local level, to enable vulnerable people to identify and implement community-based responses to climate change themselves. Although CBA is a relatively new field, there are a growing number of case studies that show how the skills, knowledge and experience of local people can be supported to facilitate adaptation in the face of the risks posed by climate change. There are fundamental challenges to moving beyond isolated CBA projects and meeting the scale of the adaptation challenge, including how we can draw replicable lessons to move beyond place-based projects towards more programmatic planning for adaptation, how CBA fits with larger scale adaptation policy and programmes and how CBA interventions are situated within the institutions that enable or undermine adaptive capacity. This book presents chapters by prominent adaptation and development theorists and practitioners, which address these challenging questions. Combining research and experience from the fields of climate change and development, this book presents cutting edge knowledge that moves the debate on CBA forward towards effective, appropriate, 'scaled-up' adaptive action.