Climate Change From Concepts To Action

A guide for
development
practitioners
CLIMATE CHANGE
FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION
Jacqueline Ashby and Douglas Pachico
Acknowledgements
Amy Hilleboe and Gaye Burpee gave this project its initial impetus, and their constant
attention, support and commitment. Rupert Best, Geoff Heinrich, Jefferson Shriver and
Dominique Morel made extensive and valuable contributions at all stages in the guides
development, while Susan Cashore made extensive comments on an advanced draft. Robert
Delve, Cassie Dummett, Shaun Ferris, and Tom Remington provided important input to the
shaping of the guides design.
Cover Arid fields in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia. In the tropics and subtopics, droughts have become
longer, more intense and affected wider areas. Photo: Andrew McConnell
Catholic Relief Services

is the official international relief and
development agency of the United
States Catholic community. Through
development projects in fields such
as education, peace and justice,
agriculture, microfinance, health, HIV
and AIDS, CRS works to uphold human
dignity and promote better standards
of living. CRS works in 99 countries
around the world and, since 1943, has
provided emergency relief in the wake
of natural and human-made disasters.
228 West Lexington Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-3413
1.888.277.7575
www.crs.org
Authors
Jacqueline Ashby
Douglas Pachico
Project Managers
Amy Hilleboe
Senior Technical Advisor,
Disaster Risk Reduction
Gaye Burpee
Senior Advisor,
Climate Change & Rural Livelihoods,
Latin America and the Caribbean
Layout and Design
Solveig Bang
Graphics
Wilson Tsang
Production
Bang Magnusson
Climate Change: From Concepts To Action

Copyright Catholic Relief Services 2012
All rights reserved. This guide, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without
permission. Contact pqpublications@crs.org for permission. Any fair use under US copyright
law should contain appropriate citation and attribution to Catholic Relief Services. This
document may be downloaded from crsprogramquality.org or a hard copy requested.
CLIMATE CHANGE
FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION
A guide for
development
practitioners
Jacqueline Ashby
Douglas Pachico
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction: Purpose and Content

part
1: climate change: evidence, causes and trends
1
2
1.1 Evidence of climate change

What history says about climate change

Is climate changing today?
1.2 Causes of climate change

What causes climate change?

Greenhouse gases and climate change

The role of agriculture in causing climate change
1.3 Climate change trends

Warming drives other climate changes

Climate impacts on livelihoods of the poor

Resources: Evidence, causes and trends
5
5
6
7
7
9
10
13
13
15
15
2: strategies to confront climate change
17
part
2.1 Adaptation to climate change

Adaptation and resilience

Adaptation and regrets
2.2 Mitigation of climate change

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by small farmers

Carbon sequestration potential for small farmers

Biofuels and mitigation

Incentives for small farmers to invest in mitigation
2.3 Climate-smart agriculture

Resources: Strategies to confront climate change
part
3: taking action to adapt to climate change
3.1 Assessing exposure to climate change risks

Using weather trends to forecast climate change

Using models to forecast climate change

Using local knowledge of current weather risks

Summary: Assessing exposure to climate change risks

Resources: Assessing exposure to climate change risks
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
26
27
29
32
32
33
34
35
35
3.2 Assessing livelihood vulnerability to climate change

Climate change impacts in the IHD framework
Climate change impacts on natural disasters
Climate change impacts on agriculture
Climate change impacts on human health
3.2.1 Analytical methods for assessing climate change impacts
Geographical information systems
Crop models
Economic models
Analytical approaches in perspective
3.2.2 Community-level methods to assess climate change impacts
Preparing for the community-level self-assessment of risk
Selecting participants for the community-level risk assessment
Carrying out the self-assessment of risk
Resources: Assessing livelihood vulnerability to climate change
37
37
39
40
41
42
43
43
43
44
44
45
46
47
50
3.3 Adaptations to climate change

3.3.1 Crop adaptations
3.3.2 Water-management adaptations
3.3.3 Soil-management adaptations
3.3.4 Crop pest- and disease-management adaptations
3.3.5 Livestock system adaptations
3.3.6 Infrastructure adaptations
3.3.7 Institutional adaptations
3.3.8 Human health adaptations
3.3.9 On-farm energy efficiency
Resources: Adaptations to climate change
51
52
52
53
54
54
55
56
56
57
57
3.4 Mobilizing community action and planning to adapt to

climate change
3.4.1 Principles for community-level climate change planning
and action
3.4.2 Process for community-level planning and action for
climate change response
Step 1: Participatory assessment
Step 2: Drawing up a community-level climate change action plan
Step 3: Implementation of action plans
Step 4: Monitoring, evaluating and learning
Resources: Mobilizing community action and planning
to adapt to climate change
67
Acronyms
69
Note: Sources and resources appear in full at the end of each section.
58
58
62
62
64
66
67
Photo: David Snyder
Action to mitigate global climate

change must be built upon a foundation
of social and economic justice that does
not put the poor at greater risk
RUNNING DRY
Mwongeli Ndiku, a neighbor to CRS beneficiary Joyce Wambua in the
Kathonzweni District of southern Kenya, shows how she collects water
from a distant borehole each day, walking an hour each way carrying the
load of as much as 45 pounds. Because they did not terrace their farm, as
Wambua did with CRS support through the ARC project, Ndiku and her
family lost their entire harvest to the drought then gripping much of Kenya.
Including a climate change perspective and adaptive and mitigation
measures in programs will help make them more proactive.
PREFACE
In facing climate change, what we already know requires a response; it
cannot be easily dismissed. Significant levels of scientific consensuseven in
a situation with less than full certainty, where the consequences of not acting
are seriousjustify, indeed can obligate, our taking action intended to avert
potential dangers. In other words, if enough evidence indicates that the present
course of action could jeopardize humankinds well being, prudence dictates
taking mitigating or preventative action
We especially want to focus on the needs of the poor, the weak, and the
vulnerable in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests. Inaction
and inadequate or misguided responses to climate change will likely place
even greater burdens on already desperately poor peoples. Action to mitigate
global climate change must be built upon a foundation of social and economic
justice that does not put the poor at greater risk or place disproportionate and
unfair burdens on developing nations
Passing along the problem of global climate change to future generations as
a result of our delay, indecision, or self-interest would be easy. But we simply
cannot leave this problem for the children of tomorrow. As stewards of their
heritage, we have an obligation to respect their dignity and to pass on their
natural inheritance, so that their lives are protected and, if possible, made
better than our own
The common good requires solidarity with the poor who are often without the
resources to face many problems, including the potential impacts of climate
change. Our obligations to the one human family stretch across space and time.
They tie us to the poor in our midst and across the globe, as well as to future
generations.
Excerpts from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2001. Global Climate
Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good. Washington, DC,
USA. http://old.usccb.org/sdwp/international/globalclimate.shtml
CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION
introduction
Purpose and content
Why a climate change guide?
This climate change guide has been developed to enable CRS and its partners
to more effectively address the needs of the rural poorwho are threatened by
the impact of climate change and whose livelihoods will be damaged in tropical and developing countriesand to enable them to take advantage of the
new opportunities that the impact of climate change sometimes presents.
Due to the threat of climate change, CRS can only remain loyal to its Do No
Harm ethos if a climate change perspective is included in its programs. Otherwise it risks promoting development paths that may soon lose viability and
even leave the poor worse off.
The poor already face pressures on their livelihoodsranging from natural disasters to resource degradationso some may see climate change as a
distant and theoretical threat that can be ignored in the face of more pressing
issues. Such a view is shortsighted and misleading, as the first part of this guide
will show.
The accumulated evidence of global warming is mounting fast. The threat
is real and immediate. There is evidence that climate change is already having
significant negative impacts. The frequency of climate-associated natural disasters such as floods has been growing. Increasing drought is a clear trend in several parts of the world, and warmer temperatures are affecting crops. Climate
change issues cannot responsibly be left for some distant future.
How should the work of CRS and its partners be transformed?

Climate change considerations can be incorporated into the existing CRS Integral Human Development (IHD) framework. Part 3 of the guide will show
that major elements of current development strategies, many of the types
of interventions being introduced, and many of the fieldwork methods being used, are relevanteven essentialto assisting the poor in adapting to
climate change. Taking climate change seriously may mean only incremental
and subtlebut carefully consideredchanges to CRSs programs.
The aim of this guide is to consider how to modify and use existing CRS
strategies, frameworks, tools and programmatic responses to insure that the
poor are better equipped to adapt to climate change. Such a perspective can
enrich CRSs work by contributing to the sustainability of the innovations it
introduces and helping forge new relationships with stakeholders, partners
and donors.
Who are the users of this guide?

The main users of the guide are expected to be CRS leadership, staff, and
partners at the country level. Development practitioners and policy makers
in general should also find it useful.
What is the content of the guide?

The guide has three main parts:
Evidence, causes, and trends Strategies
Action for adaptation
The first part reviews some fundamental concepts that provide a foundation
for working with a climate change perspective. It reviews the evidence for climate change; discusses potential causes; and describes current understanding of climate change trends.
The second part introduces three broad strategies for dealing with climate
change: adaptation to its impacts; mitigation to slow the process of climate
change; and climate-smart agriculture that combines adaptation, mitigation,
and productivity.
Because adaptation directly addresses the vulnerabilities of the rural poor
and is central to climate-smart agriculture, the third part focuses on concrete action to facilitate adaptation to climate change by the rural poor. The guide aims to
foster skills that enable readers to advance work with communities threatened by
climate change so that they can be more resilient in adapting to its risks. The action steps aim to provide a structured and practical approach to developing better projects that include a climate change perspective. Some elements of these
action steps consist of analysis that can be undertaken by CRS staff and partners
while others involve proactive participation by communities. These approaches
share common principles with other community-based development work, with
the difference that they prioritize responses to climate change. Practical options
for both analytical and participatory approaches are offered.
Many development activities that CRS is now taking part in can contribute
to mitigating, and adapting to, the consequences of climate change, so it is important to see how this ongoing work can be leveraged to provide even greater
benefits to the rural poor.
Photo: Sara A. Fajardo/CRS
CLIMATE CHANGE:
EVIDENCE, CAUSES
AND TRENDS
CROPS ON TOP
Maria Santos Pea of Cantn Sant a Anita, El Salvador, tends to the
outdoor vegetable garden she planted with the help of CRS and
Caritas El Salvador. In a flood prone area, the elevated gardens are
protected from water runoff and also allow the women to control the
amount of irrigation each plant gets. The women say the gardens have
been a huge financial boon. Not only do they no longer need to buy
vegetables but they can sell the extra at a small profit.
uccessful responses to climate change in development projects require the

ability to make informed use of expert information as well as local knowledge about climate change trends. Thus, it is important to have a background
in the basics of climate change science and a feel for the kinds of evidence that
experts use to analyze the current situation and to create future scenarios.
The aim is not for staff to become instant experts but to be familiar enough with
the science to understand how to apply some central concepts and principles
where CRS works and to do what is needed to assist communities to prepare
for this change. The literature on climate change is vast and growing rapidly.
It touches on a broad variety of fields, from astronomy to oceanography, from
economics to political science. Although there is a growing body of evidence
and a clear scientific consensus about some of the main features of climate
change and its impacts, there are some gaps in scientific knowledge as well
as uncertainties about the future, which the guide points out. Despite a broad
scientific consensus, some aspects of climate change remain controversial.
This section lays the foundation for making sound judgments to design development projects in situations that climate change is influencing, could significantly influence, or could even determine the success of. Knowledge of basic
climate change concepts is needed in order to consider its risks and what can
be done about them in the poor rural communities with whom CRS works. The
guide provides a brief summary of evidence of climate change, the role of agriculture in climate change and some major climate change trends.
1.1 evidence of climate change

What history says about climate change
The Earths climate has not been stable in either historical or geological time
scales. The historical record shows abundant examples of climate change. For
example, during the Roman Warm Period (250 BC400 AD), climate was favorable to agriculture in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean, with vineyards
in what is now Britain and olive production in parts of Turkey, where winters are
now too severe for those crops.
Later, in the Medieval Warm Period (9501250 AD), Norse settlers found favorable settlement conditions for farming in Greenland, while extended droughts
undermined Pueblo agriculture in what is now the southwestern USA. This
warm period was followed by the Little Ice Age (12501850), when the Thames
River in London regularly froze, glaciers engulfed Swiss villages, and Norse settlers abandoned Greenland. Cool, rainy summers in northwest Europe led to repeated famine, especially the great famine of 1315 to 1317. Thus, history shows
that climate changes can significantly affect agriculture and food security.
Prehistoric proof confirms climate change

Cave art and other archeological remains suggest that parts of what
are now the uninhabitable areas of the Sahara Desert were populated
and had moist savannas teeming with wildlife during the Green
Sahara Period (60002000 BC). Settlement of the Americas is generally
attributed to the crossing of a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska
that existed when sea levels were much lower than today due to a colder
climate. Farmers in early Bronze Age Britain ( 2000 BC) cultivated areas
that have since been abandoned for agriculture for being too cold.
Longer geological time spans show major changes in the Earths climate. Ice
ages have been a recurring feature in geological time. Some 2.5 million years
ago the glaciation of the Quaternary Period began, with ice sheets of up to
3,000 meters thick covering much of what is now North America and northern
Eurasia. This glaciation reached a peak about 22,000 years ago. The Earth is now
in an interglacial period that began some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. (See Brian
Fagans book, The Little Ice Age, for numerous examples of effects of climate
change on human society).
Is climate changing today?*

There is strong evidence that climate change, in the form of global warming,
is occurring today. Over the last century, temperatures have risen nearly everywhere over land as well as on the ocean surface and in ocean air. These trends
have accelerated since the 1970s. Average global land temperatures have risen
0.74 C over the last century. The Earth is close to being warmer than it has been
for more than 1,000 years and temperatures are not far from the upper bound of
the temperature range of the last 400,000 years.
Most glaciers have been in retreat since the 1960s, while Arctic sea ice coverage is also falling, reaching a record low in the summer of 2012. Ice sheets in
*The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of
Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forms the basis
of the material in this section.
Antarctica and Greenland have also been declining.* Sea level is rising both
because of melting ice and because warmer water expands. Total water vapor
in the atmosphere has increased due to warmer air (IPCC 2007a).
Changes in the behavior of plants and animals are also consistent with a warming
climate. According to the Audubon Society, more than 60 percent of migrating
bird species in North America have extended their winter range northward by
an average of 35 miles in the last 40 years, indicating generally warmer conditions. Season creepearlier springs and later autumnshas also led to the earlier flowering of many wild plants as spring warming
comes earlier in high latitudes. Coral reefs are dying Migrating bird
off as oceans become warmer (Wilkinson 2008).
species in North
America have
Rainfall trends over the last century present a comextended their

plex picture. Precipitation has generally increased
winter range
in northern latitudes, but there has been a downward trend in rainfall since the 1970s in southern Af- northward by an
rica and parts of southern Asia. There is a significant average of 35 miles
downward trend in rainfall in the Sahelthe zone in the last 40 years
between the Sahara Desert in the north and the Sudanian Savanna in the southsince 1920. Moreover, in the tropics and subtopics,
droughts have become longer, more intense and affected wider areas due to the
combined effects of decreased rainfall and a higher demand for water by crops
when temperatures are higher (IPCC 2007a).
1.2 causes of climate change

What causes climate change?
The causes of climate change are complicated and occur over different time
scales. For example, eccentricities in the Earths orbit around the sun and shifts in
its tilt toward the sun affect the amount of heat it receives. Known as Milankovich
Cycles, and confirmed by studies of ice cores and sediments, these movements
have had impacts on climate over tens of thousands of years. In the 1970s, forecasts based on these cycles predicted that the Earth was on the verge of entering
a cooling period, so these cycles are not responsible for ongoing global warming
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
* A report by Paul R. Holland and Ron Kwok in Nature Geoscience 5 (2012) said that while Arctic ice shrank in
September 2012 to its smallest area in 33 years of satellite records, Antarctic sea-ice cover was increasing
slowly due to increased winds. The report did not say by how much.
The amount of heat that the sun emits also affects the Earths climate. There
are regular cycles in the amount of heat radiated by the sun that reaches Earth.
Such sunspot variations are correlated with changes in global temperature and
have continued in their 11-year up-and-down cycles while the Earths temperature has risen steadily instead of following the sunspot cycles (Figure 1). While
scientific understanding of changes in the suns emission of energy is imperfect,
the current scientific consensus is that an increase in heat radiated by the sun
is a much less important factor to global warming than changes in the Earths
atmosphere (IPCC 2007a).
Figure 1. Energy from the sun has not increased
Source: Global Climate Change Indicators. 2011. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National
Climatic Data Center: Washington, DC, USA. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/
The composition of the atmosphere is strongly related to the Earths climate.

Over the last 400,000 years the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and temperature (Figure 2) have been closely correlated. Four peaks
in temperature over this period have coincided with four peaks of CO2 in the
atmosphere. Similarly, when there is less CO2 in the atmosphere, temperatures

have been cooler. Thus, CO2 is said to have a greenhouse effect on the Earths
temperature. Since most climate scientists believe that recent rapid changes
in the atmosphere are responsible for recently observed global warming, the
guide will now consider the effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) on climate.
Greenhouse gases and climate change

Climate scientists see the accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere as the fundamental cause of current global warming. Greenhouse gases capture and hold solar heat that warms the air. The more greenhouse gases there are in the atmosphere, the more heat is trapped and the
higher the Earths temperature becomes.
Figure 2. C
O2 Concentrations and temperature have
tracked closely over the last 300,000 years
As ice core records from Vostok, Antarctica show, the temperature near the South Pole has varied by more
than 20 F during the past 350,000 years in a regular pattern that constitutes the ice age/interglacial cycles.
Changes in CO2 concentrations (blue) track closely with changes in temperature (red) during these cycles, but
CO2 levels are now higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years. Source: Southwest Climate Change
Network. 2009. Tucson, Arizona, USA. http://www.southwestclimatechange.org/figures/icecore_records.
Source: Image modified and courtesy of the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of
Sciences. http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/
In 2010, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 389 parts per million (ppm), higher than any indicated in ice cores which contain samples of the
Earths atmosphere over the last 650,000 years. During that period, CO2 levels
varied from a low of 180 ppm to a high of 270 ppm. For the last 20 million years,
CO2 concentrations have been less than 300 ppm but are now climbing rapidly,
from 313 ppm in 1960 to 389 ppm in 2010. Furthermore, the rate of accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is accelerating (IPCC 2007a).
Although volcanic activity was the original source The major effect
of much of the CO2 in the atmosphere, today the of volcanoes today
major cause of the increase in CO2 emissions is hu- is to cool the
man activity (anthropogenic). Currently, volcanoes
Earth by releasing
contribute less than 1 percent of CO2 emissions. The
massive quantities
major effect of volcanoes today is to cool the Earth
by releasing massive quantities of ash and gaseous of ash and gaseous
particles (aerosols) that reflect the suns heat back particles (aerosols)
into space, causing global temperatures to fall: for that reflect the
example, in 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia suns heat back
erupted causing the year without a summer and, into space.
in 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines led to a global temperature fall of about 0.4C (Self et al 1995).
Global emissions of CO2 reached 34 billion tons in 2011 and this amount continues to rise. Since 2000, an estimated total of 420 billion tonnes of CO2 was
cumulatively emitted due to human activities (including deforestation). Scientific literature suggests that limiting the average global temperature rise to 2C
above pre-industrial levels the target internationally adopted in UN climate
negotiations is possible if cumulative emissions in the 20002050 period do
not exceed 1,000 to 1,500 billion tonnes of CO2. If the current global increase
in CO2 emissions continues, cumulative emissions will surpass this total within
the next two decades (Jos et al 2012). Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions also include methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and others such as
hydrofluorocarbons that are released by various industrial processes. These are
recognized as less important than CO2 to the greenhouse effect because they
are generated in much lower quantities (IPCC 2007a).
The role of agriculture in causing climate change

The major sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gases are shown in Figure3.
Energy (26%) and industry (19%) are the most important. Land-use change
(17%), consisting mainly of the harvesting of forestry products and the clearance of natural vegetation for agriculture, is also an important source. Direct
agriculture activities (14%) are about as important as transport (13%). Developing countries account for 74 percent of agriculturally related greenhouse gases.
(IPCC 2007b).
10
Figure 3. Greenhouse gas emissions by sector
Source: The World Bank 2010, Figure 7
There are several ways that agriculture directly contributes to greenhouse

gases (Figure 4). The most important is the release of nitrous oxide (N2O) by
microbial transformation of nitrogen in the soil, emitting N2O as a by-product.
While this is a natural part of the nitrogen cycle, additional N2O is released
beyond natural levels when fertilizer or compost is added to the soil. Nitrous
oxide is a potent greenhouse gas and accounts for 38 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions directly related to agriculture. From 1990 to 2005, N2O emissions
increased 17percent, and with continued rising fertilizer use it is expected to
rise another 35 to 60 percent by 2030 (Smith et al 2007).
The second most important source of greenhouse gas coming directly from
agriculture is methane (CH4). Methane is produced by the digestive process in
ruminant livestock (enteric fermentation). It contributes 32 percent of agricultures direct emission of greenhouse gases and has also grown 17 percent in the
19902005 period. Livestock also generate N2O which is released from manure,
causing 7 percent of agricultures emission of greenhouse gases. Combining
methane and nitrous oxide, livestock produce a total of 39 percent of agricultural
greenhouse gases. As the demand for meat grows, and therefore the number
11
of livestock increases, it is anticipated that methane and nitrous oxide emissions

from livestock will rise 60 percent by 2030 (IPCC 2007b).
The burning of crop residue emits CO2 into the atmosphere, and produces 12
percent of agricultures direct emissions of greenhouse gases. Most of the worlds
biomass burning occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, which together account for 74 percent of the total. There is also movement of carbon between
agricultural soils and the atmosphere, but the current net of this exchange is
generally considered to have only a minimal effect on the global carbon cycle.
Rice production in flooded conditions produces methane when organic matter
is decomposed in anaerobic conditions, accounting for 11 percent of agricultures direct greenhouse gas emissions. Most of rices CH4 emissions come from
South and East Asia, which together contribute 82 percent of global emissions
from this source. These emissions can be expected to grow in proportion to the
expansion of the area under irrigated rice that is expected to be in the range of
4 to 16 percent by 2030 (Smith et al 2007).
Figure 4. Sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions
Source: Smith et al 2007, p. 503.
These direct emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture do not include

CO2 emissions from the conversion of natural vegetation, mostly forests, to
agriculture. When trees are burned to clear land, CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Land-use changes, such as clearing forests for pastures or agriculture, account for 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. As much as
12
80 percent of these CO2 emissions are estimated to come from conversion of

land to agriculture, making this indirect source of agricultural greenhouse
gases about as important as the direct effects discussed above. South America and Asia are each responsible for about 40 percent of land conversion, with
Africa accounting for most of the rest (Smith et al 2007).
In addition, agriculture makes several other indirect contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. For example, CO2 is emitted in the manufacture of fertilizer, pesticides, and machinery, while fuel is burned in transport of farm
products, farm inputs and in the use of farm machinery, also emitting CO2.
Taking into account direct activities of agriculture and the clearing of natural
vegetation for agricultural land use, all world agriculture in total accounts for
about one-third of world greenhouse gas emissions.
1.3 climate change trends

Scientists have developed global climate models to project likely future paths
of climate change. These models accurately replicate observed recent climate
change, but their projections of future climate lead to a wide range of results due,
in large part, to the complexity of the factors affecting climate. Scenarios of future
climate are also heavily dependent on greenhouse gas emissions that in turn depend on human decisions, making climate projections uncertain.
Warming drives other climate changes

Despite their limitations, global climate models consistently project a future of
global warming (IPCC 2007a). The consensus of scientists is that global warming is not reversible in the next decades. Due to the lifespan of CO2 in the atmosphere and heat stored in the oceans, temperatures will only slowly decrease
even after CO2 emissions stabilize or begin to fall.
Higher temperatures drive other changes such as increasing the rate of evaporation and moisture-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere, leading to
higher total global precipitation. Rainfall variability and intensity is expected
to increase but, due to complex changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation systems, changes in rainfall will not be the same everywhere in all seasons.
While some regions will be wetter, others, especially the tropics, will experience more prolonged and frequent droughts that are more severe at higher
temperatures.
13
Since hurricanes and tropical cyclones are formed in warm-ocean conditions, it is

expected that global warming will increase the severity and frequency of these
catastrophic storms. Climate change will also have major effects on the hydrological cycle. When rainfall events are intense, a greater share of the rainfall may
just run off because a lower share of it can infiltrate the soil.
Coastal zones may be particularly at risk due to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected in 2007 that sea levels would rise
by between 18 and 59 cm during the 21st century, as higher temperatures melt
ice and warm water occupies more space. The risk of flooding in coastal zones
will be greater in those cases when run-off from more intense precipitation carries a heavier sediment load that accumulates in river deltas, flood plains and
estuaries. This in turn will alter tidal ranges and could lead to saltwater intrusion
into freshwater resources and more severe damage from storm surges. Some
coastal areas will be inundated as unusually high surge tides become more frequent (IPCC 2007a).
Figure 5. Large areas of tropical agriculture are highly exposed to climate change
HIGH EXPOSURE
High sensitivity
Low Sensitivity
LOW EXPOSURE
High sensitivity
Low Sensitivity
Low capacity
Low capacity
Low capacity
Low capacity
High capacity
High capacity
High capacity
High capacity
Source: Ericksen, P., P. Thornton, A. Notenbaert, L. Cramer, P. Jones, M. Herrero. 2011. Mapping Hotspots
of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics. CCAFS Report No. 5. CGIAR Research Program on
Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS): Copenhagen, Denmark.
http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/3826
This is a domain indicating vulnerability of food insecure people to climate change, based on a three
factors: The first is exposure, calculated here based upon coefficient of variability of rainfall. The median
of 21 percent for cropped areas in the tropics was taken as the cutoff point for High or Low. The second is
sensitivity, calculated based on the percent of area cropped, with the difference between High and Low
sensitivity taken as 16 percent of area cropped, which is the mode for the tropics. The third factor is coping
capacity, calculated based on the percent of population with chronic food insecurity, using the proxy of
stunting. A cutoff of 40 percent stunting* was the threshold between High and Low capacity.
*Stunting (UNICEF): Moderate and severe = below minus two standard deviations from median height for
age of reference population.
14
Climate impacts on livelihoods of the poor

Climate change will have major impacts on human welfare, especially affecting
livelihood outcomes of the poorand particularly the rural poor as agriculture
is one of the livelihoods most sensitive to climate changewho are the focus
of the CRS justice lens through which its programming is viewed. In terms of
the Integral Human Development framework of CRS, climate change may be
considered through an assessment of the shocks, cycles and trends that affect
the assets and livelihoods of the poor, as well as the adaptive capacities to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Integral Human Development (IHD)

This concept affirms that human development cannot be reduced or
separated into component parts. Rather, personal wellbeing can only be
achieved in the context of just and peaceful relationships and a thriving
environment. It is the sustained growth that everyone has the right to
enjoy. IHD promotes the good of every person and the whole person; it
is cultural, economic, political, social and spiritual.
Source: Technical Resources: Program-related materials on CRS relief and development work.
http://www.crsprogramquality.org/ihd/
Resources: Evidence, causes and trends

Audubon Society. 2009. Birds and Climate Change:
Ecological Disruption in Motion. A Briefing for
Policymakers and Concerned Citizens on Audubons
Analyses of North American Bird Movements in the Face
of Global Warming. New York, New York. USA.
http://birdsandclimate.audubon.org/
Enviropedia
http://www.enviropedia.org.uk/Climate_Change/
Continental_Drift.php Science-based review of
climate change related topics in non-technical
language.
Ericksen P., P. Thornton, A. Notenbaert, L.Cramer,
P. Jones and M. Herrero. 2011. Mapping Hotspots
of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global
Tropics. CCAFS Report No. 5. CGIAR Research Program
on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
(CCAFS): Copenhagen, Denmark.
A study coordinated by CCAFS to identify areas that
are food insecure and vulnerable to the hotspot
locations where climate change impacts are
projected to become more severe by 2050 and food

insecurity is a concern.
Fagan, Brian M. 2000. The Little Ice Age: How Climate
Made History 1300-1850. Basic Books: New York.
Readable and interesting account of the affects of
climate on human society. One of a series by the
same author.
Greenhouse Gas Working Group. 2010.
Agricultures Role in Greenhouse Gas Emissions &
Capture. American Society of Agronomy, Crop
Science Society of America and Soil Science Society
of America: Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
http://www.crops.org/files/science-policy/ghgreport-august-2010.pdf Helpful general introduction
to agriculture and global warming from a US
perspective.
IPCC. 2007. Summary for Policymakers. In Climate
Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of
Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
15
[S. Solomon, D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis,

K.B. Avery, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom and
New York, New York, USA. http://www.ipcc.ch/
publications_and_data/publications_and_data_
reports.shtml - .UHWpUxzSHfw Authoritative semitechnical review of causes of climate change.
International Coral Reef Initiative.
http://www.icriforum.org/climatepapers
Extensive collection of scientific papers on climate
change and coral reefs.
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation
of Climate Change. Contribution of Working
Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
[B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave,
L.A. Meyer (eds)]. Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, New
York, USA. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_
data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml#.
UHWpUxzSHfw Thorough introduction to issues of
agriculture and its effects on global climate change.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/
GISSTemperature/giss_temperature.php
Discussion of Milankovich cycles and expectations
of global cooling.
Olivier, Jos G.J., Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Jeroen
A.H.W. Peters. 2012. Trends in Global CO2 Emissions,
2012 Report, Background Studies. PBL Netherlands
Environmental Assessment Agency and European
Commission Joint Research Centre: The Hague/
Bilthoven, Netherlands. Discusses the results of
a trend assessment that focusses on the changes
in annual CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2011, and
includes fossil fuel combustion on which the BP
reports are based, and incorporates all other
relevant CO2 emissions sources including flaring
of waste gas during oil production, cement clinker
production and other limestone uses, feedstock and
other non-energy uses of fuels, and several other
small sources.
16
Open Source Systems, Science and Solutions

http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/
global-warming Science-based review of a wide
range of climate issues in non-technical language.
Self, Stephen, Jing-Xia Zhao, Rick E. Holasek, Ronnie
C. Torres and Alan J. King. 1995. The Atmospheric
Impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption.
Nature Vol 373. 2 February 1995: 399-404. Journal
article on the atmospheric effects of the Mount
Pinatubo eruption.
Smith, P., D. Martino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H. Janzen,
P. Kumar, B. McCarl, S. Ogle, F. OMara, C. Rice, B.
Scholes, O. Sirotenko. 2007. Agriculture. In Climate
Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer
(eds)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
United Kingdom and New York, New York, USA.
This chapter (8) describes the development of GHG
emissions from the agricultural sector (Section 8.2),
and details agricultural practices that may mitigate
GHGs (Section 8.4.1), with many practices affecting
more than one GHG by more than one mechanism.
Wilkinson, C. 2008. Status of Coral Reefs of the
World: 2008. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
& Reef and Rainforest Research Centre: Townsville,
Queensland, Australia. http://www.icriforum.org/
climatepapers Summarizes what has happened to
the worlds coral reefs since 2004 and uses the expert
opinion of coral reef scientists and managers from
96 countries and states to make predictions on what
could happen to coral reefs in the future.
The World Bank. 2010. Development and Climate
Change: World Development Report 2010.
Washington, DC, USA. http://web.worldbank.org/
WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EX
TWDRS/0,,contentMDK:23062354~pagePK:47
8093~piPK:477627~theSitePK:477624,00.html
Comprehensive review of climate change and
development issues.
Photo: CRS STAFF
strategies
to confront
climate change
TREES OF LIFE
A farmer from Madagascar (right) visits a fellow farmer in Zambia to learn about
the Conservation Agriculture with Trees program. The tree is Faidherbia albida, the
fertilizer tree that produces its leaf canopy during the dry season and loses it in
the rainy season so that crops receive full sun and rich natural leaf fertilizer.
ince shocks and trends related to climate change impact the assets, livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes of the poor, small-scale farmers*
and poor rural communities must increase their capacity to mitigate and adapt.
CRS staff and partners must understand strategic approaches that can guide
small farmers to deal with climate change. Three broad strategic approaches
include:
Adaptation adjusting farming practices to climate change
Mitigation reducing greenhouse gases to prevent climate change
Climate-smart agriculture combining adaptation, mitigation and productivity
2.1 adaptation to climate change

Adaptation to climate change consists of adjustment in natural or human
systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects,
which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC 2007).
Effective adaptation should increase resilience or
the capacity to recover from negative effects of cli- Adaptation aims to
mate change. Adaptation aims to confront climate confront climate
change that is occurring, while mitigation aims to change that is
reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in
occurring, while
order to minimize the effects of climate change.
Adaptation is a strategy that is explicitly designed
to overcome vulnerabilities caused, or worsened,
by climate change. It involves acting to tolerate
the effects of global warming.
mitigation aims
to reduce the
concentration
of greenhouse
gases in order
to minimize
the effects of
climate change
There are several types of adaptation: it may prevent, moderate, withstand, or take advantage of,
the effects of climate change. For example, levees
can prevent flooding; conservation agriculture
can moderate soil erosion; resistant varieties may withstand high temperatures; new crops may take advantage of new growing conditions. Adaptation can be in response to climate change that has already occurred, or in
anticipation of expected climate change.
* Small-scale farmers, small holder farmers and small farmers are defined as those who typically cultivate up to
20 hectares of land. For this guide, small farmers is widely used.
18
Adapting to climate change:

CRS experiences in India and Ethiopia
INDIA In Chhattisgarh state, increased frequency of flooding has been
brought on by deforestation and possibly exacerbated by climate
change. The flooding increased silt levels in traditional rainwater
catchment systems thereby limiting irrigation and lowering crop
yields. CRS worked with local organizations to adapt to these shocks
by rejuvenating ponds to increase rainwater capture. Crop yields have
increased, dry-season cropping has become possible, and household
incomes have risen.
ETHIOPIA Higher temperatures and ever more variable rainfall is
reducing both crop yields and livestock productivity. CRS worked with
local communities to build terraces that retain soil moisture and reduce
soil erosion. Trees and grass were planted on the terraces to improve soils
while providing firewood and livestock feed.
Although there is a broad array of potential adaptation measures that can partly reduce negative impacts of climate change, it will not always be possible to
completely resolve these. There are a number of limits to adaptation: biophysical, technical, economic, institutional and social. Adaptation is necessary, but it
is not a cure-all.
Adaptation and resilience

Livelihoods of the rural poor often have a poor adaptive capacity*, a product
of low resilience, that is, a limited ability to recover from external shocks. Poor
adaptive capacity or low resilience can be related to climate change or it may
have other fundamental causes that are worsened when the poor are unable to
adapt to the effects of climate change. Having a low adaptive capacity is part
of what it means to be poorfor example, poor people seldom have reserve
stocks of grain when there are production shortfalls and they often then consume their seed stocks, making it much harder to adapt to poor harvests.
The rural poor are often ill prepared to adapt effectively to prevailing weather
risks let alone future climate change. Many development interventions can reduce this adaptation deficit by improving livelihood resilience. Indirect measures such as land tenancy and improved market access can enhance overall
livelihood resilience and thus indirectly contribute to adaptation to climate
change. Dealing with non-climatic issues (e.g. improved local research capac-
19
ity) can be more effective in dealing with climate change than interventions
that are narrowly planned around climate change impacts (e.g. higher nighttime temperatures affecting crop development).
Options to adapt to climate change are presented in Section 3.3.
Adaptation and regrets
Photo: Jennifer Hardy
Adaptation options are usefully classified as low regret and high regret. A
lowregret adaptation refers to interventions that include few risks and are
worth making even if climate change were non-existent, for example, increased
crop diversification, improved crop/livestock integration or soil-conservation
measures. Uncertainty about future climate change enhances the attractiveness of these options. Low-regret options address problems of current climate
variability while reducing the adaptation deficit for future climate change.
A-MAZ-ING MAIZE
Nicolau da Silva Soares, 47, and his wife Martina da Costa Soares, 37, display the results of
CRS Timor-Lestes pilot project to improve nutrition and food security. They are pictured here
with their children, Dominico Silva Lay and Mani Silva Lay. In the village of Ossu Rua outside
Baucau, Timor-Leste, CRS and partners Foods Resource Bank and Seeds of Life are helping
farmers try new varieties of maize seeds and food and seed storage solutions. Previously,
farmers lost up to 50% of their harvest to mold, rats and weevils. The traditional maize seeds
also yielded small, sparse cobs that only thrived in a specific type of soil. Farmers now report
maize that is larger and healthier.
20
Low-regret adaptations are win-win strategies. They generate important benefits in the face of future climate change, and they produce benefits immediately in terms of dealing with current weather variability. Much of what CRS is
already doing to improve the livelihoods and disaster-preparedness of the poor
also improves their capacity to adapt to current weather variability and so is,
simultaneously, a low-regret adaptation to climate change. Thus, a good way
to initiate action in anticipation of climate change can be to re-enforce ongoing activities that increase livelihood resilience to existing weather variability.
Then, planning can include any modifications needed to these activities to better take into account future climate risks.
In contrast, high-regret adaptations increase costs, risks and complexities such
that these investments would not be worth making if climate change did not
occur. Large-scale physical infrastructurefor example, sea walls to protect a
coastline against rising sea levelsis a significant investment that would have
few, if any, benefits if global warming were not to impact the area of intervention. If climate change projections were to prove overestimated, then there
would be a high regret for having made such large investments, where money
may have been better spent on other initiatives.
2.2 mitigation of climate change

Actions to decrease or prevent forces driving climate changeprincipally by
reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphereconstitute climate change mitigation. According to The World Bank,
While adaptation manages the unavoidable, mitiga- Mitigation
tion seeks to avoid the unmanageable (The World strategies have
Bank 2012a).
to be tailored
to specific
Since some 74 percent of global emissions from agriecosystems,

culture originate in low- or medium-income countries
production
(Wollenberg et al 2012), there are major opportunities
for mitigation initiatives in developing countries. The systems and the
worlds 1.8 billion small farmers manage 22 million hect- socio-economic
ares, so could play a significant role in climate change context
mitigation. The effectiveness of alternative measures
to mitigate climate change varies from region to region and depends on local
circumstances. Mitigation strategies have to be tailored to specific ecosystems,
production systems and the socio-economic context.
21
While the forces driving future climate change may be weakened by mitigation,
climate change is not completely reversible. The carbon already in the atmosphere will not dissipate for as long as another century, and other greenhouse
gases may persist even longer. Even if greenhouse emissions were to completely cease, a certain amount of future global warming is already inevitable. Consequently, some adaptation is necessary.
There are three ways in which farmers can contribute to mitigating climate
change through agricultural practices:

Reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from agricultural activities

Help remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
Avoid emissions by substituting biofuels for fossil fuels
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by small farmers

Agriculture, including land-use change, accounts for nearly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. Potentially the most critical role of smallholders in reducing these would be reducing or halting the clearance of new land for agriculture. This includes the Enabling small
converting of forest, wetland or grassland into crop farmers to
or pasture land. For example, many small farmers at earn higher
the forest margins clear trees to grow the food they
incomes from
need for their subsistence. Enabling these smallexisting forest
holders to get greater productivity out of the farmland they already cultivate could relax pressures on resourcesfor
land clearance, thereby making a significant contri- example, through
community forest
bution to lessening CO2.
management
Furthermore, enabling small farmers to earn can make

higher incomes from existing forest resources deforestation less
for example, through community forest manageattractive
mentcan make deforestation less attractive.
Yet small farmers are not always the major culprits in deforestation. In Latin
America, most land clearance is undertaken for commercial farming even
though it is often done through transient sharecroppers. The commercial
sector is becoming increasingly prominent in land clearance in many parts
of the tropics.
Burning of crop residue or vegetation growing during a fallow period are
common practices in some small farm systems, for example, in shifting culti-
22
vating systems on the forest margins. Reducing the burning of crop residue
or weeds in small farm systems could make a contribution to climate change
mitigation.
Small farmers apply only a small proportion of global fertilizer and own only
a modest share of the worlds cattle thus their reduction of greenhouse emissions can contribute only a modest share of what is needed to mitigate climate
change.
Carbon sequestration potential for small farmers

Carbon sequestrationthe capturing of carbon from the air and storing it in
the soil or in the above-ground biomassis the most promising avenue for
small farmers to contribute to mitigating climate change. It is estimated that
89percent of the total technical potential for climate change mitigation related
to agriculture comes from carbon sequestration in the soil, compared to 9percent technically possible from limiting methane emissions from livestock and
rice, and 2percent from lowering nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer (Smith
et al 2007). Despite the clear potential of carbon sequestration, there are finite
limits to the quantity of carbon that can be stored in the soil. Saturation could
be reached within 50 to 100 years of proactive carbon sequestration efforts.
Agronomic practices that increase yields and productivity may produce higher
levels of carbon residue that can lead to greater carbon storage in soils. These
include:

Increasing soil fertility

Including perennial crops in rotation
Reducing tillage
Increasing organic matter in the soilfor example, from incorporation
of crop residue
Planting cover crops such as legumes between rows of a grain crop
Converting arable land to pasture
Grazing pastures optimally. These sometimes enjoy greater carbon
build-up than that in over-grazed or degraded pastures.
Restoring degraded lands
Agroforestry raises the amount of carbon in above-ground biomass as well

as in the soil. For example, coffee systems in poly-culture with shade trees
can sequester significant amounts of carbon in the above-ground biomass
(See Box 4).
23
Above-ground carbon sequestration

in poly-culture coffee systems
Carbon can be stored either in the soil or in above-ground vegetation.
By keeping this stored carbon out of the atmosphere, atmospheric
greenhouse gases are reduced and climate change is mitigated.
Farm practices can greatly affect the amount of carbon that is
sequestered. For example, a study showed that where coffee is grown
with shade trees and other plants like plantains, 71 tons of carbon is
stored per hectare. In coffee monoculture under shade, this falls to
37tons per hectare, while coffee monoculture without shade sequesters
only 17tons of carbon per hectare. This illustrates the high potential of
storing carbon in above-ground biomass in agroforestry systems.
Source: Van Rikxoort 2011
Biofuels and mitigation

Crops and crop residue can be used as feedstock to produce biofuels such as
ethanol or diesel. Although biofuels release CO2 when they are burned, this is
CO2 that has only recently been obtained from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and its emission does not add to atmospheric CO2 in the same way
that burning fossil fuel does. The net change in CO2 from substituting biofuels
for fossil fuels depends, however, on the energy input that goes into producing
and processing biofuel feedstock.
The use of biofuels as part of a climate change mitigation strategy has become controversial. Diverting land and other agricultural resources to the
production of biofuels could adversely affect food supplies, raise food prices,
and increase world hunger, and could have large-scale negative environmental impacts. Nevertheless, some countriessuch as Brazil , a world leader in
biofuel developmenthave been making major investments to develop biofuels as an energy source. While some schemes for on-farm bioenergy use
have been promising on a small scale, to date commercial biofuel production
has been concentrated among large-scale commercial farmers.
Incentives for small farmers to invest in mitigation

Although many mitigation practices have advantages for farmers, the direct
returns do not often justify their investment. In many cases, farmers need additional incentives. Fortunately, the benefits of climate change mitigation extend
24
beyond farmers to the global community so that from a global perspective it

can make sense to compensate farmers for adopting practices that mitigate
climate change.
Mechanisms that provide incentives to farmers to undertake mitigating practices include carbon-offset markets, whereby entities that are emitting greenhouse gases (e.g. coal-fired electric utilities) pay others to sequester carbon
to offset their emissions. Carbon trading occurs within the framework of the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which provides payments to farmers
for tree planting, biofuels using animal waste (biogas), and irrigation in rice.
However, the CDM has reached relatively few small farmers. Transaction costs
are typically high; returns to small farmers are generally low; and there is usually a long waiting period between when farmers have to invest and when
payments begin (Wollenberg et al 2012).
Other mechanisms to provide incentives for mitigation activities include payment for environmental services and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program that provides grant funding to
projects, or a carbon insetting approach (See Box5). Such options for climate
change mitigation by small farmers can often lead to greater longer-term resilience and adaptation capacity while also being profitable in the short run.
These attractive opportunities that combine mitigation, adaptation and improved profitability and productivity constitute what has become known as
climate-smart agriculture.
Carbon insetting in Central America

CRS is working with partners in a pilot project that embeds carbon
sequestration within the supply chain rather than through an external
market mechanism like the CDM. The buyers of a product pay a
premium for crops that sequester carbon. These are most often the
harvests from perennials or tree crops. Carbon insetting involves
processors and marketing companies in co-investment with farmers
to reduce the carbon footprint of the supply chain, enhance farmer
income, and provide an assured supply of the raw product to the
supply chain. Cocoa and coffee are ideal crops for this initiative
because they sequester carbon, protect the environment and produce
profitable yields year after year.
25
2.3 climate-smart agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture is a strategy that seeks to simultaneously increase
crop productivity, enable agriculture to better adapt to climate change, and
contribute to mitigation of climate change. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) defines climate-smart agriculture as agriculture that sustainably
increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), and reduces/removes greenhouse gases (mitigation).
Climate-smart agriculture achieves a triple win. In Climate-smart
the first, higher yields and improved productivity agriculture:
translate into better food security and income for Agriculture that
farmers. In the second, agriculture becomes more
sustainably
resilient to weather variability and unfavorable cliincreases
mate change. And in the third, agriculture can help
reduce climate change by sequestering greater productivity,
amounts of carbon in the soil and woody biomass. resilience
For example, by increasing the soils organic matter (adaptation), and
through conservation tillage, crop yields improve, reduces/removes
soil erosion decreases, and additional carbon is ab- greenhouse gases
sorbed in the soil. Improved fertilizer-application (mitigation)
practices such as timing, amount and placement,
can raise yields while reducing costs and increasing soil carbon. With higher
and less variable crop yields, farmers have greater and more stable income that
improves their resilience and their capacity to invest in adaptation.
The key to climate-smart agriculture is to find adaptations that enhance productivity and resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Objectives
of poverty alleviation, adaptation and mitigation can be pursued together.
Pursuing a strategy of improved adaptive capacity is an effective entry point to
achieving climate-smart agriculture. Farmers and rural communities will have
direct incentives to adapt to climate change with the understanding that, if
they fail to adapt, their livelihoods may be seriously affected. In contrast, farmers have fewer direct incentives to invest in mitigation. While there are some
promising pilot projects using carbon-offset incentives or payments for environmental services, the reach of these approaches remains severely restricted
because the regulations to get certified for payments for planting, keeping a
tree alive, and proof required to show that a planted tree is there year after
26
year, are burdensome and out of the reach of most small rural villagers. There
is some successful use of geographic information tools, but there is still a lot
of overhead required for monitoring, recording and being accountable to the
those paying for the carbon offsetting.
For most farmers, the driver for adopting climate-smart agricultural practices
will be short-term productivity and adaptability rather than the incentives of
mitigation. How the rural poor can better adapt to climate change is the main
focus of this guide.
Resources: Strategies to confront climate change

Adger, W. Neil, Nick Brooks, Graham Bentham,
Maureen Agnew and Siri Eriksen. 2004. New indicators
of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Technical
Report7. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change
Research: University of East Anglia, Norwich,
Norfolk, UK.
Branca G., N. McCarthy, L. Lipper, M.C. Jolejole. 2011.
Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Synthesis of Empirical
Evidence of Food Security and Mitigation Benefits from
Improved Cropland Management. FAO: Rome, Italy.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2574e/i2574e00.
pdf Thorough literature review of research on
sustainable land management and climate-smart
agriculture.
CDM Policy Dialogue. 2011. Climate Change,
Carbon Markets and the CDM: A Call to Action. Report
of the High-Level Panel on the CDM Policy Dialogue.
Durban, South Africa. http://cdm.unfccc.int/about/
policy/index.html Authoritative examination of
problems facing global carbon markets.
Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
CGIAR. http://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/putting-scienceaction-climate-smart-agriculture Includes links
to blogs covering various examples of aspects of
climate-smart agriculture.
Easterling, W.E., P.K. Aggarwal, P. Batima, K.M.
Brander, L. Erda, S.M. Howden, A. Kirilenko, J. Morton,
J.-F. Soussana, J. Schmidhuber and F.N. Tubiello.
2007. Food, fibre and forest products. In Climate
Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change [M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P.
Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson (eds)].
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK and New
York, New York, USA. 273-313. http://www.ipcc.
ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_
fourth_assessment_report_wg2_report_impacts_
adaptation_and_vulnerability.htm Presents an
authoritative overview of impacts and vulnerability
issues in semi-technical language.
Food and Agriculture Organization.
Climate-smart Agriculture for Development.
http://www.fao.org/climatechange/climatesmart/
en/ Description of climate-smart agriculture with
links to several examples of climate-smart projects.
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate
Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch,
R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)]. Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York,
New York, USA http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_
and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml#.
UHWpUxzSHfw Thorough introduction to issues
related to agriculture and mitigation.
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation
and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II
to the Fourth Assessment Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change Report. [M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani,
J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson
(eds)] Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK
and New York, New York, USA. http://www.ipcc.ch/
publications_and_data/publications_and_data_
reports.shtml#.UHWpUxzSHfw
Smith, P., D. Martino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H. Janzen,
P. Kumar, B. McCarl, S. Ogle, F. OMara, C. Rice, B.
Scholes, O. Sirotenko. 2007. Agriculture. In Climate
Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz,
O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)].
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United
Kingdom and New York, New York, USA.
27
Van Rikxoort, Henk, Peter Laderach and Jos van Hal.

2011. The Potential of Mesoamerican Coffee Production
Systems to Mitigate Climate Change. Wageningen
University and Research Center: Wageningen, The
Netherlands. Commissioned by the International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) part of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR). http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/
climate-change-mitigation-in-mesoamericancoffee-production/
Wollenberg, Eva, Sophie Higman, Christina SeebergElverfeldt, Constance Neely, Marja-Liisa Tapio-Bistrom,
and Henry Neufeldt. 2012. Helping Small Farmers
Mitigate Climate Change. CGIAR Research Program
on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security,
Policy Brief No 5. CCAFS: Copenhagen, Denmark.
28
Informative and non-technical overview of the

potential and the difficulties of integrating small
farmers into carbon markets to mitigate climate
change.
The World Bank. 2012. Climate Change & The World
Bank. Washington, DC, USA.
http://climatechange.worldbank.org/overview
The World Bank. 2012. Mainstreaming Adaptation
to Climate Change in Agriculture and Natural
Resources Management Projects. Washington,
DC, USA. http://climatechange.worldbank.
org/climatechange/content/mainstreamingadaptation-climate-change-agriculture-andnatural-resources-management-project
Online review of adaptation with a helpful
glossary.
Photo: Ben Depp
taking action
to ADAPT to
climate change
ROCK SOLID
Community members build soil conservation walls in the mountains
above their homes in Chardonnieres, Haiti, with support from CRS, which
is working in this community on a multi-year program of soil conservation,
health training, and the introduction of improved agricultural techniques.
mproving the capacity of the poor to adapt to climate change is central to any
CRS strategy, because the poor are especially vulnerable, have limited capacity to adapt, and few incentives to invest in climate change mitigation unless
such investment also enhances adaptation or current productivity.
The biggest challenge for adaptation is the vulnerability of livelihoods to any
risk. A useful way to approach this challenge is to understand the three components that drive vulnerability:
According to the IPCC, vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude
and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed; its sensitivity; and
adaptive capacity (IPCC 2007).
Livelihood vulnerability = Exposure + Sensitivity Adaptive capacity
Vulnerability is therefore calculated as:
Vulnerability = 1/3(Exposure + Sensitivity + (1-Adaptive Capacity))
(Heltberg et al 2010)
Impact of climate variability and climate change on vulnerability

Changes in mean climate,
variability, extreme events
and sea-level rise
Effects on
livelihoods
Increased temperature and Direct impacts of climatic

changes in precipitation
shocks and stresses such
reduces agricultural and
as livelihood assets, health,
natural resources.
food and water security.
Changes in precipitation
Increased pressure on
run-off and variability leads coping strategies and
to greater water stress.
social protection measures.
Increased incidence or
Reduced ability recover
intensity of climate-related
due to increased frequency
extremes such as water
of climatic shocks or
stress.
increased intensity of
Temperature, water and
climatic stresses
vegetation changes
resulting in increasing
prevalence of disease.
Impact on vulnerability
Increased vulnerability
due to:
Lower capacity to prepare
Lower capacity to cope
Lower capacity to recover
from climatic and
non-climatic shocks
and stresses
Source: DFID 2004.
30
Thus, vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change depends on:

The nature of the climate change to which a livelihood is exposed

The impacts of climate change on livelihoods (sensitivity)
The adaptive capacity of the livelihood system
Climate Change
Sensitivity, Adaptability, and Vulnerability
Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected, either adversely
or beneficially, by climate-related stimuli. Climate-related stimuli
encompass all the elements of climate change, including mean climate
characteristics, climate variability, and the frequency and magnitude
of extremes. The effect may be direct (e.g. a change in crop yield in
response to a change in the mean, range or variability of temperature) or
indirect (e.g. damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal
flooding due to sea-level rise).
Adaptive capacity is the ability of a system to adjust to climate change,
including climate variability and extremes, to moderate potential
damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the
consequences.
Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or
unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate
variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character,
magnitude and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is
exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity.
Source: IPCC 2007
CRS can reduce the vulnerability of the poor to climate change by increasing
their adaptive capacity. To be effective, it is essential to understand both exposure to climate change and the sensitivity of livelihoods to this exposure.
A key principle for dealing with climate change on any scale is being aware that
there will always be competing intereststhat often require negotiationbetween social groups who stand to lose or gain from a proposed adaptation or
mitigation intervention. This is why climate change interventions always have
a greater probability of success if the intended stakeholders understand why
changed practices are needed; how they can be involved in planning, imple-
31
menting and monitoring activities; and who shares the responsibility for success and further action.
The first challenge for CRS is to establish what can be done about the effects
of climate change in a given target region or project area. To view CRS project
design and implementation through a climate change lens, staff need to:
1. Assess exposure to climate change
2. Examine climate change impacts on livelihoods
3. Brainstorm alternative adaptation strategies
4. Work with communities to implement adaptation to climate risks
3.1 assessing exposure to climate change risks

Understanding the likely future climate patterns and weather risks in a country
or region is the essential first step to developing an adaptation strategy with the
poor communities there. Three approaches to assess exposure can be useful:

Local knowledge of current weather risks

Weather trend data
Climate model forecasts
Each of these approaches has strengths and weaknesses, discussed below. In

all cases CRS is more likely to achieve success by working with partners with
relevant expertise, either climate scientists or local communities.
Using weather trends to forecast climate change

Data on temperature and rainfall are often available from weather stations for
periods up to a century or longer. This data can show changes that occur over
time and constitute trendsfor example, rising temperatures or increased rainfall variabilityand can be used to project potential future climate change and
trends that are particularly relevant to locations where there are weather stations or in places that have similar climates.
There are important limitations to the use of weather trend data to forecast
future climate. Apparent trends can change; what has happened in the recent
past may not always continue in the future. Trends are generally more reliably
identified from longer series of observations, and consistent observations from
multiple sites, but these are not always available.
32
Although there are disadvantages, using weather trends to project future changes remains a useful approach. Projections of climate change based on trend analysis are fairly widely available and several websites that contain such analysis in
an understandable way are cited in the references at the end of this section.
Using models to forecast climate change

Developing mathematical models of future climate change has clear advantages
in systematically using scientific methods that are based on causal relations, not
merely empirical observations like trends analysis. A modeling approach can
involve a series of interrelated or nested models. For example, a global climate
model can generate a broad future climate scenario. From a global climate scenario, a more location-specific regional climate model can be developed. The results can in turn drive even more detailed models, for example, of crop growth,
soil erosion, or the risk of flooding. Such a cascade of linked modelsfrom global
climate to maize yield in a particular villagecan be tailored to address a specific
time frame and exploit scientific knowledge to gain valuable insights.
Modeling climate change in Central

American maize and bean systems
Vulnerability of maize and bean production to climate change in Central
America was assessed in a CRS partnership with the International Center
for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT). A future climate scenario was derived from
global climate models that forecast higher temperatures and increased
drought for most of the region. Crop models were then used to examine
likely productivity under the future climate conditions. The study found that
maize yields would drop throughout the region except in the highlands of
Guatemala where warmer conditions would favor maize. Generally, maize
yields would decline by about 20 percent while the fall in bean yields is
expected to be up to 25 percent of total production volume by 2059, with 15
and 8 percent yield reductions in Honduras and El Salvador within 16 years.
The reduced maize and bean yields are expected to result in losses worth at
least $122 million a year in Central America.
Source: Schmidt 2012
A modeling approach has several advantages over a more simple trends analysis. It can provide a richer set of forecasts that cover a wider range of variables
not just to weather, but to highly significant outcomes like crop yields or land
use. Modeling can be better tailored to specific situations, issues or locations
thus making it possible to envisage the local consequences of a future global
33
climate scenario. Models can also incorporate uncertainties and provide probabilities of a range of outcomes through multiple simulations.
Despite a rigorous base in theory and empirical data, climate models deal with
such complex phenomena that they provide only important insights, rather
than certainty. Climate models are also extremely demanding in terms of expertise, data and time. Undertaking a modeling effort is usually only justified
when dealing with highly strategic issues over a fairly wide geographical reach.
Even then, it is generally only feasible when working with partners who have
relevant experience.
Many results of climate modeling are widely available at the country or regional
level in fairly simple non-technical formats (See resources at the end of this
section). This information can help construct future scenarios about important
variables such as temperature, rainfall, or frequency of extreme climate events.
The results are often an adequate basis for considering the types of situations
to which the rural poorwith whom CRS and its partners workwill have to
adapt.
Using local knowledge of current weather risks

Local knowledge of current weather risks is integral to all livelihoods of the
poor who depend on natural resources, whether, for example, this involves use
of land, forests, water, plants and animals, or coastal resources. The rural poor
are already acutely aware of existing weather risks that affect their livelihoods.
For example, small farmers know that fields on steep slopes are subject to slides
under heavy rainfall; that valleys are subject to flooding; and that their crops are
susceptible to drought or high temperatures. Key informant interviews, rapid
rural appraisals, participatory exercises, and expert opinions can all contribute
to identifying these risks.
And it is these risks that are most likely to be intensified by climate change, so
the existing awareness of rural people about changes in local weather patterns
may first alert CRS and its partners to the risks. Mapping risks can also motivate
rural communities to take steps to adapt before there is any intervention from
outsiders. Learning about recent adaptations in local practice can provide useful insights into how risk is perceived by the community. Often the first step in
adapting to future climate change is to enhance adaptation and resilience in
the face of the risks of the current climate. Not only are people likely to see the
virtue of adaptation, but they may also already have coping strategies that can
form the basis of adaptation. Principles and the process for working with local
34
communities to tap their insights about weather risks and trends are presented
in Sections 3.2.2 and 3.4.
Recent weather data on temperature, rainfall and severe storms can also be
useful for quantifying and confirming the nature and frequency of known risks.
Thus, local knowledge of existing weather risks may be combined with trends
analysis of changing weather patterns and climate modeling to get a manysided perspective of the likely paths of climate change and the impact it is likely
to have on the livelihoods of the rural poor.
Summary: Assessing exposure to climate change risks

Simple analysis of climate trends data coupled with probing local knowledge
is often sufficient for understanding climate change risk at the project level. In
many cases, this can be complemented with online sources that present, in a
non-technical format, expected risks based on modeling and statistical analysis
of trends. Major strategic issues that affect a wide area (e.g. the future of maize
in East Africa), will require an in-depth study that combines climate, crop and
economic models. Such analysis needs to be conducted with specialized research partners.
Resources: Assessing exposure to climate change risks

Adaptation Learning Mechanism
http://www.adaptationlearning.net/
Brief qualitative climate scenarios for many
countries.
Baca, M., P. Laderach, J. Hagger, O. Ovalle, S. Ocon
and L. Gomez. 2012. Vulnerabilidad u estrategia
de adaptacion al cambio climatico en los medios
de vida de las familias de Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Guatemala Y Mexico. Centro Internacional de
Agricultura Tropical: Cali, Colombia. http://dapa.
ciat.cgiar.org/identification-of-the-vulnerabilityof-coffee-farmers-livelihoods-and-developmentof-adaptation-strategies-to-climate-changein-mesoamerican/ A framework for assessing
vulnerability, although the specific methods used
are sometimes too demanding to be practical at the
project level. In Spanish.
CIAT. 2011. Climate Analogues.
http://gismap.ciat.cgiar.org/analogues/
Web-based tool that finds places in the world with
climate today that corresponds to a future climate
scenario.
Climate Information Portal.
Stockholm Environmental Institute & the University
of Cape Town. http://cip.csag.uct.ac.za/webclient/

map Historic and projected climate data for Africa in
an easy-to-use format.
DFID. 2004. The impact of climate change on the
vulnerability of the poor. http://www.mycleansky.
com/data/3vulnerability.pdf
www.dfid.gov.uk/
The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction
& Research. 2003. Generating High Resolution
Climate Change Scenarios Using PRECIS. National
Communications Support Unit Handbook. With UNDP
Global Environment Facility. New York, New York,
USA. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/precis/intro
Discussion of modeling approaches; somewhat
complicated for daily use.
Heltberg, Rasmus, and Misha Bonch-Osmolovskiy.
2010. Mapping Vulnerability to Climate Change.
The World Bank: Washington, DC, USA.
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation
and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to
the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change [M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani,
J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson
35
(eds)]. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK

and New York, New York, USA. http://www.ipcc.ch/
ipccreports/tar/wg2/index.php?idp=0
National Adaptation Programmes of Action
http://unfccc.int/cooperation_support/least_
developed_countries_portal/submitted_napas/
items/4585.php Some 39 countries have plans
posted on the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change. These typically include an overview of
projected climate change in non-technical language.
Schmidt, Axel, Anton Etzinger, Kai Sonder, Gustavo
Sain. 2012. Tortillas on the Roaster: Central American
Maize Bean Systems and the Changing Climate.
CIAT, CIMMYT and CRS. http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/

tortillas-on-the-roaster-new-study-to-supportmaizebean-farmers-in-central-america-to-adaptto-climate-change/ Case study on assessing
exposure to climate change risk.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Climate Change Country Profiles. http://www.geog.
ox.ac.uk/research/climate/projects/undp-cp/
Discussions of climate trends for 61 countries.
The World Bank. Climate Risk and Adaptation
Profiles. http://sdwebx.worldbank.org/
climateportalb/home.cfm?page=country_profile
User-friendly climate projections for 49 countries.
Photo: silverlight
INCOME SAUCE
Women make hot
sauce from ingredients
largely cultivated in
their fields in Toquian
Chico Community,
Guatemala. The
diocesan Caritas office
in San Marcos and
CRS brought technical
assistance to these
women to create
this micro-business,
enabling them to
diversify their income
sources. The product is
sold in a restaurant
in San Marcos
bringing money
and empowerment
to them.
36
3.2 a ssessing livelihood vulnerability

to climate change
It is crucial to understandin a given target or project areahow livelihoods are exposed to climate change, how sensitive livelihoods are to the
likely climate change impacts, and what the current adaptive capacity is. The
CRS Integral Human Development (IHD) framework (See Box 2, page 15) can
be used to assess the vulnerability of livelihoods of the rural poor to climate
change.
Climate change impacts in the IHD framework

In the CRS IHD framework, exposures to climate change should be considered in shocks, cycles and trends and how these events may degrade assets
and undermine livelihoods. For example, climate change can increase the frequency of intensity of natural disasters such as extreme storms or floods that
destroy physical capital such as buildings, roads or irrigation infrastructure;
degrade natural assets, for example, through increased soil erosion, more
frequent forest fires, or the drying up of water sources; and cause losses of
financial assets, for example, crop failure due to higher temperatures. Thus
the IHD framework includes the relationship between expected exposure to
climate change, the sensitivity to climate change that determines how seriously exposure will affect assets of the poor, and the livelihoods that depend
on these assets.
Climate change vulnerabilities have to be assessed
in the context of other vulnerabilities identified
in the IHD framework. Changes in population,
natural resources, and markets can be even more
important than climate changes, and all drivers
of vulnerability and their interactions need to be
considered along with climate change. For example, an increasing population can lead to settlement on flood plains that are more vulnerable as
climate change raises flood risk.
Climate change
vulnerabilities
have to be
assessed in the
context of other
vulnerabilities
identified in the
IHD framework
Climate change impact is not always negative. For example, increased rainfall in a particular place could lead to a longer growing season, less drought
stress, and increased surface water available for irrigation. But it could also
lead to more soil erosion, more intense attacks of fungal plant pathogens,
and floods. Climate risk assessment has to be comprehensive, considering
37
all the possible consequencesboth positive and negativeof climate

change.
Overall, the impact of climate change can be analyzed in two ways: an analytical or modeling approach (3.2.1) and from the perspective of people who
are affected by it (3.2.2). The latter approach starts at the local or community level and works in a participatory fashion to understand current vulnerabilities and risks and how they are affected by weather, and it examines the
strategies and capacities that farmers use or could use to adapt to current
weather variability or future climate change.
Figure 6: The CRS Integral Human Development conceptual framework
Often the feasibility of climate change adaptation will depend in part on the
capacity to overcome other vulnerabilities and risks affecting a community or
region. For example, increases in heavy rains caused by climate change could
worsen soil erosion, but the absence of secure land tenure could constrain
investment in soil conservation practices. Thus, the direct problem caused by
climate change (increased soil erosion) cannot be addressed until the other
problem (insecure tenancy rights) is resolved.
38
In some cases, enhancing overall livelihood resilience will be the most effective adaptation to climate change. For example, greater participation in markets through the growing of more cash crops could increase household income, thereby permitting the accumulation of savings that could be used to
invest in adaptation, for example, installing physical barriers in fields against
increased soil erosion risk. Similarly, greater engagement in off-farm incomegenerating activities could make households less
vulnerable to weather risks to agriculture. Thus, In some cases,
sometimes adaptation can be improved more by enhancing
indirect action than specific intervention against overall livelihood
climate change.
resilience will be
the most effective
Livelihood strategies of the poor will often have to

adaptation to
change to increase their adaptive capacity to plan
for trends and shocks caused by climate change. climate change
Often these modifications are knowledge intensive and require clear strategies to improve human capital. CRS can play an important role in enabling the poor to do this by investing in assets and promoting structural and systemic change, for example by focusing on strengthening
national agricultural extension systems for small-scale farmers. Depending on
the circumstances, CRS may work with local communities in a variety of ways
as suggested by the IHD framework to reduce risks and vulnerability to:

Empower people to better advocate for their interests

in the face of climate change
Increase resilience through diversification of assets
and livelihoods strategy
Cope with disasters
Recover assets post-disaster with increased resilience
to future disaster events
Climate change impacts on natural disasters

Climate change can intensify the risks of hydro-meteorological disasters. The
frequency of floods has been rising globally (See Figure 7) and increased
precipitation coupled with greater frequency of exceptionally heavy rainfall
will lead to more frequent and more severe floods. Floods may impact rivers
that border fertile land where population density and agricultural production is often higher. Flood damage can be particularly problematic in river
deltas where run-off from rainfall meets rising sea levels also caused by climate change.
39
Figure 7. Increasing frequency of floods, 1950-2000
Source: Reid et al. 2005. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report. Pre-publication Final Draft Approved
by MA Board on March 23, 2005. A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment.
Climate change impacts on agriculture

Temperature increase, the clearest result of climate change, has direct and
multiple effects on crop performance. Daytime high temperatures can affect plant maturation, reduce grain fill, retard
physical development of crops and sterilize pol- Daytime high
len, thereby preventing grain formation. Night- temperatures
time high temperatures increase plant respira- can affect plant
tion and reduce productivity. Overall, warmer maturation,
temperatures increase the rate of evapotrans- reduce grain fill,
piration so that plants require more water to
retard physical
thrive. Higher temperatures also affect seasondevelopment of
ality, with longer summers and shorter cool
seasons. Changes in seasonality can hinder the crops and sterilize
work of pollinating insects essential to crop yield pollen, thereby
and lengthen the reproductive period of insect preventing grain
pests, thereby building up pest populations and formation
increasing damage.
40
Figure 8. The migration of coffee
1,200m
(2010)
1,400m
(2020)
1,600m
(2050)
Optimal altitudes for coffee production and quality

Photo: Michael Sheridan
The effects of rainfall patterns are complex and location-specific. In some

places, rainfall will increase, favoring agriculture where water has been a limiting factor, but it can also bring problems. Wetter conditions can exacerbate
fungal disease problems, cause waterlogging of crops, and increase nutrient leaching from the soil. In places where rainfall decreases with climate
change, increased drought can lower crop productivity and deplete irrigation resources.
Global warming is expected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme precipitation events, regardless of whether total rainfall rises or falls.
More intense rainfall events can cause flooding, increase soil erosion, damage irrigation or water control structures, and lead to storm surges that
cause saltwater damage or contamination of fresh water sources in coastal
areas.
Climate change impacts on human health

Climate change can harm human health. Among the most direct effects is
increased cardiovascular mortality during heat waves. Climate change can
also have a direct affect on vector-transmitted diseases, such as malaria and
dengue fever from mosquitoes, or encephalitis and Lyme disease from ticks.
41
At higher temperatures, the development time of pathogens is accelerated,

increasing the transmission potential to humans. Climate change can also
affect the abundance of vectors and therefore the
Climate change
risks of disease spread. Each disease vector flourishes in particular climate regimes, and climate
can also have a
change can impact these conditions in ways
direct affect on
vector-transmitted that may lessen or increase vector populations.
Climate change will affect the prevalence of aldiseases, such
lergens either negatively or positively depending
as malaria and
on the situation. Earlier onset and increases in the
dengue fever from seasonal production of allergenic pollen have ocmosquitoes, or
curred in mid- and high latitudes in the Northern
encephalitis and
Hemisphere (Parry et al 2007).
Lyme disease
from ticks
Water scarcity can lead to poorer water quality

and higher rates of water-borne disease while
high rainfall and flooding can contaminate drinking water supplies leading
to diarrheal disease. More indirectly, climate change can affect agriculture
and therefore food security and nutrition levels. Malnutrition then results in
higher vulnerability to disease.
Assessing climate change risks to health can be complex. At its most basic,
the process can begin with the examination of the current distribution and
burden of climate-sensitive disease. A scenario of future climate change can
be used to project what the impacts on climate-sensitive disease might be.
Projections of the likely influence of other drivers of healthpopulation, income, or changes in food supplyshould also be made to permit an estimate of the net impact on health attributable to climate change. Based on
this information, potential adaptations to reduce the expected future disease burden of climate change could be identified. In some cases, the effect
of climate change may be less than the impact of other factors on disease, for
example, population or land-use change.
3.2.1 Analytical methods for assessing climate change impacts
There are a variety of analytical approaches to assessing the impact of climate change. Geographic information systems (GIS), crop models and economic models can all contribute to a deeper understanding of livelihood
vulnerabilities. Based on an assessment of likely future climate change
(See Section 3.1), the impact on livelihoods can be appraised based on the
projected impact on crop yield, soil erosion or farm income.
42
Geographic information systems Agro-climatic data and GIS can be

used to envisage which areas are likely to be suitable or unsuitable for particular
crops in the future. The CRS-CIAT studies of coffee in Central America are good
examples of such an approach. With relatively straightforward climate parameters from climate scenarios as well as basic parameters determining crop performance, crop suitability maps can be developed. Such an analysis can be effective
in communicating with policy makers or local communities the future impacts of
climate change. This data is especially useful for comparing the prospects of different crops across regions. This approach has the advantage of relatively modest
data requirements, and a number of tools are widely available to facilitate such
analysis and can be found in the resource lists of this guide. Nonetheless, CRS can
most effectively take advantage of such approaches by partnering with specialists in this technical area.
Crop models A process-based crop model is a more demanding and sophisticated approach that can yield rich results that take the uncertainty out of planning interventions for adaptation and mitigation. Such models can calculate the
growth and yield responses of different crops to a combination of factors, including precipitation, temperature, crop management practices and soil quality.
While standard crop models are widely available, using these effectively requires
significant expertise and detailed weather, soil and crop-management data.
Development-oriented agencies such as CRS needs to partner with or consult
agricultural scientists, either in-house or external, to take advantage of these approaches.
Economic models can be linked with crop-process models to provide additional insights into socio-economic outcomes such as land use, crop prices, and
household income. Economic models can complement crop-process models,
for example, by considering the affordability of a
changed fertilizer practice or the seasonal availabil- Economic models
ity of labor if a crops planting time is changed. More- require substantial
over, economic models can incorporate resource socio-economic
use and financial decision-making considerations data in addition to
into scenarios based on climate change, as well as
climate and crop
calculate socio-economic outcomes as diverse as
information
crop profitability, labor use, farm income or even
food consumption and nutrition. However, these
models require substantial socio-economic data in addition to climate and crop
information. Like the crop-process models, they are typically suitable for use by
experienced specialists rather than general development practitioners.
43
Analytical approaches in perspective

While there is an extensive array of modeling techniques available to analyze
climate risks, they must be used judiciously. The crop-process and economic
models discussed above generally require high levels of expertise; often need
expensive data collection; and usually involve a considerable investment in
time. In general, CRS will seek partners to undertake such analyses, rather than
develop and run the models itself.
It is neither feasible nor necessary to do extensive modeling of climate
change impact at the level of each individual development project. Instead,
modeling approaches may generally be more appropriate at strategic and
regional levels. There are common issues that are important across a region,
for example, the influence of increasing temperature on coffee production
across the countries of Central America, or the effects of reduced rainfall on
maize in East Africa. A thorough analytical assessment of such regionally
significant issues can provide sufficient guidance to individual countries or
projects within the region without the need for an exhaustive analysis at the
project level.
3.2.2 Community-level methods to assess climate change impacts
Community-level assessment of climate risks is the first step of four to develop a community-level assessment and action plan. The purpose of the
community-level climate assessment is to strengthen local understanding
of climate change and capacity for effective response. Local understanding
and ownership of solutions are indispensable for the success of responses to
climate change.
Community-level risk assessments tap into local knowledge about climate
change, information that is seldom recorded systematically, but that can provide important insights. Local knowledge provides a snapshot of how people
perceive risks and how acceptable different interventions are to them.
Community-level assessment has the following objectives:

44
To assess how communities see climate change. What events and

trends do people who depend on the local landscape and its natural
resources and processes perceive? How have trends changed over the
past years?
To understand how local people interpret the risks and impacts on
their livelihoods, food security, health and safety, and wellbeing
To identify how local people have responded to perceived changes

To share scientific climate change information and facilitate its
integration with local knowledge and learning about climate change
To make a local self-assessment of the risks of climate change
To support the community to develop an action plan for climate
change response
Preparing for the community-level climate risk assessment

or vulnerability and capacity assessment
Facilitating a community climate risk assessment requires familiarity with
scientific informationincluding the use of modeling and other methods
reviewed in Section 3.2.1about the areas climate change trends and processes (if available). It is also important to understand the culture and history
of the communities where the self-assessment will be carried out by talking
to local informants who know the community and its history well. There are
several guides referred to at the end of this section that can be consulted for
more complete information.
Local knowledge about, and interpretations of, There are many
climate change related risk should be obtained. techniques for
There are many techniques for eliciting and shar- eliciting and
ing local knowledge, including the use of oral
sharing local
history, developing timelines and seasonal calknowledge,
endars, participatory photography, video, storytelling, and the building of papier-mch land- including the use
scape models. Sources for finding these tools are of oral history,
provided at the end of this section. Understand- developing
ing local knowledge and facilitating its sharing timelines
among different groups in a community not only and seasonal
helps program staff to work more effectively in calendars,
the local context and provide a baseline in terms participatory
of changes and trends perceived by local people,
photography,
it also helps the members of the community
video, storytelling,
build a shared picture of climate change that may
be new to them, as different social groups and in- and the building
dividuals do not automatically share knowledge. of papier-mch
Knowledge-sharing among different groups and landscape models
stakeholders helps to prepare the ground for collective action and negotiation for the local climate change action plan.
45
Preparation for community climate assessments includes sharing scientific climate change related information with local people. This should be as locally
relevant as possible and tailored to suit different groups in the community. This
part of the assessment should not be done until the facilitators have a good
grasp of local knowledge elicited as described above. The external information
needs to be carefully targeted to enable local people to reach their own conclusions about climate change. The goal should be to build local capacity to locate,
interpret and analyze the most locally relevant climate change information, not
to overwhelm people with a mass of facts.
Understanding local knowledge provides a basis for deciding how to frame and
communicate scientific information about climate change with communities.
Care should be taken to present information to people in ways they will best
understand, considering literacy levels and typical ways of sharing information,
such as the need to separate groups by gender, through storytelling, drawings
or graphics, etc.
Selecting participants for the community-level risk assessment
Always take into account social inequality within a community
An important principle when preparing and conducting community-level
risk assessment is that risk is not distributed equally. The poor are often the
most at risk but even among the poor there will be different degrees of risk
for example, for the young, the aged, women, or for those living in high-risk
areas such as on fragile slopes or on flood plains.
This means that terms like community or household or family do not
describe single, unified entities. Communities contain different groups with
different and often conflicting interests that have to be teased out and understood in order to assess risk. Various analyses and systems to rank the
vulnerability of community members should be employed in a community
assessment to discern social differences that may have an important effect
on perceptions of climate change risks and impacts.
Conduct a stakeholder analysis
It is important, as part of the preparation for a community-level risk assessment, to carry out a stakeholder analysis, preferably a participatory stakeholder analysis with key informants who represent different social positions
and groups in the community. This can be done rapidly by convening different groups in a single meeting or by moving around the community to
46
conduct interviews, which is more time consuming. Whatever method is

used, it is essential to make sure the analysis is not flawed by only inviting
to a meeting or interviewing those people who, for example, have time to
spare or who are easily accessible by road or whose husbands give them
permission.
The risk assessment is only as inclusive as the stakeholder analysis on which it
is based, and that analysis is only reliable if biases like the ones above are eliminated. A stakeholder analysis and a wealth ranking of the community then
provide a social map that describes groups with different interests in the
way local assets such as land, forest and water are managed as well as in the
way external services such as credit, agricultural extension, marketing, infrastructure, health and education are provided.
Participants in self-assessment of risk at the community level should be carefully selected from these different groups and be provided with the opportunity to identify, understand, prioritize and assess risks without being intimidated, overwhelmed or silenced by others who may not agree with them. To
ensure this, the assessment may be done with focus groups that represent the
different kinds of stakeholdersfor example, women, nomadic graziers, people dependent on non-timber forest products in collectively managed forests,
agricultural laborers, commercial farmers, landlords, tenants and so on.
Once the risk assessment data is disaggregated for different focus groups, the
results can be compared. Then, if everyone is in agreement, the group assessments can be pooled. If they dont agree, this is a signal that different strategies
are needed for managing climate change response with different groups of
beneficiaries or actors.
Carrying out the self-assessment of risk
This should be carried out with different groups of people in the community
or project area organized according to the important types of social differentiation identified previously as described above. Groups should be composed of roughly similar people because mixing different perspectives and
interests together in a single group may result in conflicting ideas. The first
component of the assessment is to facilitate a participatory identification
and prioritization of threats related to climate change using six questions for
evaluating threats (See Box 8). The second component uses this information
to make a risk evaluation matrix (See Box 9).
47
Participatory assessment of sensitivity to

climate change impacts: prioritizing impacts
Make a list of all the important climate change impacts or future threats
the group of participants can identify, for example, early season drought,
flooding of low-lying fields and houses, malaria. Then evaluate each
impact using the six assessment questions below. These questions should
be answered using scientific information as well as local knowledge. Each
question involves assessing risk along a continuum according to the best
of this combined knowledge and information.
Six assessment questions
1. Will this climate change impact occur frequently or infrequently?
2. Is the number of households in the community likely to be affected
large or small?
3. From when it first appears, does this impact develop very quickly
(no time to prepare) or quite slowly (enough time to prepare)?
4. Does this impact and its after effects last a long time (define this
locally) or a short time?
5. Is the damage it causes very costly or not very costly?
6. Is it very likely to happen or not very likely to happen?
A common technique for performing this assessment is to ask the group to

choose a symbol for each climate change threat, for example, a pot of sand for
drought and a pot of water for flooding. After analyzing the six assessment questions, individuals can award stones, coins or seeds to weight the importance of
each climate change or threatened change. Thus the group can rank each impact
in order of importance (for example, the symbol that gets the most stones) and
then focus the risk assessment (See Box 9) on the top two or three climate change
impacts identified, to assess what exposure to climate change implies for them.
For example, if the group has prioritized flooding as the most important likely
impact, the risk assessment matrix provides a tool for analyzing the implications in terms of criteria it decides are importantin the example below, how
long the effects will last and how many people will be affected. If the conclusion is that many people will be affected for a long time, the analysis has
detected a high degree of sensitivity or susceptibility to flooding. But if only a
few people will be affected for a short time, the level of sensitivity to flooding
is relatively lower.
48
Risk-assessment matrix
Start with the climate change impact that the group has identified as most
important, for example flooding. Then select two of the six assessment
questions listed in Box 8 they consider most important for evaluating the
impactfor example, for flooding this might be the two questions shown
below. The two questions should be used to make a matrix as illustrated
below. The group can set two levels for each question (or criterion): for
example high and low. This gives a matrix with four boxes. Then the
group discusses the significance of each box for the climate change
impact being assessed. In the example below, the group would assess
flooding with respect to how many families will be affected and how
long the effects will last. The group can experiment with using different
combinations of the questions to assess flooding. The point is to tease out
what aspects of flooding are most threatening. The facilitator should then
assist the group to make a summary and use the risks identified to make a
community action plan for flood risks.
EXAMPLE: The risk-assessment matrix for flooding
Question
Will the effect of flooding last a long time

or a short time?
Is the number of
families likely to be
affected by flooding
large or small?
Long time
Short time
Many families affected
Many affected for

a long time
Many affected for

a short time
Few families affected
Few affected for

a long time
Few affected for

a short time
9
One of the most important benefits of using the risk assessment matrix frequently with different groups of stakeholders and then having the groups share their
conclusions is that it is an important first step in building their capacity to adapt
to climate change. Once a group or a community learns that making this analysis
should be a frequent activity, and that they dont need to depend on an outside
agency or facilitator to do this exercise, they have taken an important first step on
the path toward more self-reliant capacity to adapt to climate change impacts.
49
Resources: Assessing livelihood vulnerability to climate change

Dorward, P., D. Shepherd and M. Galpin. 2007.
Participatory farm management methods for analysis,
decision making and communication. Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO): Rome, Italy.
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ags/
publications/participatory_FM.pdf Participatory
farming management methods and their uses.
FAO. 2012. Participatory Rural/Relaxed Appraisal Tool
Box (PRA). http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x5996e/
x5996e06.htm Comprehensive tool box including
tips for facilitators and examples of specific ways to
engage the community, plus reference materials.
Heinrich, Geoff, David Leege and Carrie Miller. 2008.
A Users Guide to Integral Human Development (IHD).
Catholic Relief Services: Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
With USAID. http://www.crsprogramquality.org/
publications/2009/2/23/a-users-guide-to-integralhuman-development.html Guide to using the CRS
Integral Human Development framework. Includes
inventory of tools.
IPCC. 2007. Summary for policymakers. In Climate
Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. [M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof,
P.J. van der Linden, C.E. Hanson (eds)]. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, UK and New York, New
York, USA. 722.
IUCN and UNDP. 2009. Training Manual on Gender
and Climate Change. In partnership with the Gender
and Water Alliance, Energia International Network
on Gender and Sustainable Energy, UNESCO, FAO,
and WEDO as part of the Global Gender and Climate
Alliance. https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/
eng_version_web_final_1.pdf
Lyman, T., W. de Jong, D. Sheil, T. Kusumanto,
K.Evans. 2007. A Review of Tools for Incorporating
Community Knowledge, Preferences, and Values into
Decision Making in Natural Resources Management.
Ecology and Society, 12(1): 5. http://www.
ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss1/art5/
Participatory natural resource management tools.
50
Macci, M. 2011. Framework for Community-Based

Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment in Mountain
Areas. ICIMOD: Kathmandu, Nepal.
http://www.icimod.org/publications/index.php/
search/publication/741
Parry, M.L., O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof and co-authors.
2007. Technical Summary. Climate Change 2007:
Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of
Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [M.L.Parry,
O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and
C.E. Hanson, (eds)]. Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, UK and New York, New York, USA. 23-78.
Reid, Walter V., Jos Sarukhn, Anne Whyte,
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Program) et
al. 2005. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis
Report. Pre-publication Final Draft Approved by MA
Board on March 23, 2005. A Report of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment. UN-commissioned Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment.
Schoonmaker Freudenberger, Karen. (n.d). Rapid
Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA): A Manual for CRS Field Workers and Partners. CRS:
Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
UNDP [Seemin Qayum, Stephen Gold and Yannick
Glemarec]. 2012. Prepare stakeholder analysis matrix.
In Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making: A Guidebook
for Establishing a Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making
Process to Support Green, Low-Emission and ClimateResilient Development Strategies. New York, New
York, USA. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/
en/home/librarypage/environment-energy/
low_emission_climateresilientdevelopment/
MultiStakeholder/
UNFCCC. 2010. Fact sheet: The need for adaptation.
Bonn, Germany. http://unfccc.int/press/fact_sheets/
items/4985.php Seven-page description of climate
change adaptation in sustainable development,
funding mechanisms and current UNFCCC climate
change adaptation efforts.
3.3 adaptations to climate change

Knowing what kind of climate change to expect and how it can affect livelihoods is essential to identifying successful adaptations. Thus identifying potential adaptations should be preceded by reviewing the expected climate change
in the target region (See Section 3.1) and assessing the vulnerabilities of the
livelihoods of the poor to climate change (See Section 3.2).
Adaptations need to be tailored to particular circumstances. The nature of climate change, how it affects livelihoods and what assets people have to adapt
are all highly variable and location-specific. A wide variety of alternative adaptations should be considered and these need to be discussed with local communities so that they can decide which will work best in their circumstances.
Farmers and communities are important decision Adaptations need
makers in adaptation and consistently face weath- to be tailored
er variability for which they may have developed to particular
a variety of adaptations (e.g. short-season variet- circumstances
ies, multiple cropping, supplementary irrigation).
These are autonomous adaptations, that is, they are natural or spontaneous responses to weather variability and are implemented only when there are clear
direct benefits. Strategies that farmers are already using to deal with existing
weather variability can provide important clues for what may be feasible in
adapting to climate change.
In contrast, planned adaptations are those undertaken by public or civil society
institutions to provide options or incentives for farmers and other private actors
to enable them to better adapt to climate change. For example, the breeding of a
heat-tolerant plant variety or the implementation of a new set of policies to regulate water rights, are planned adaptations designed to induce certain individual
behaviors (e.g. choice of variety to plant, irrigation decisions). Conscious public
sector decisions and investment in planned adaptations can encourage and support individuals to autonomously take action that adapts to climate change.
Farmers are well acquainted with confronting changing or highly variable conditions besides weather, for example, resource availability, technology, and market
conditions. Farmers and rural communities have often adapted autonomously to
such risks and uncertainties. However, in many tropical, developing counties it is
quite likely that the rate and magnitude of climate change is exceeding and will
exceed that of normal change in agriculture. In order to ensure that the poor and
51
vulnerable are able to adapt to climate change, planned adaptations are almost
certainly needed. The public sector and civil society have an important role in facilitating this adaptation. This can include a variety of measures such as capacity
building, institutional innovation, technology development and investment. To
be effective in this role, staff must be able to proactively understand the threats
of climate change in particular circumstances and work with local communities
to identify and implement appropriate adaptations.
3.3.1 Crop adaptations
Agriculture is the sector that is most vulnerable to climate change because of
its heavy dependence on rainfall and temperature. Precipitation, temperature,
soil moisture and erosion, pests and diseases will all be affected and, in turn,
these will influence crop productivity, often adversely in the tropics.
Whether or not climate change offers new challenges or new opportunities to
crop production, small farmers will still require significant adaptations. Some
potential crop adaptations are noted here, while other agriculturally related adaptations in water, soil or pest management follow separately.

Diversify crop systems to build in more resilience

Introduce agro-forestry systems*
Switch to crops that demand less water
Adjust planting dates to fit new rainfall patterns
Adopt new crop rotations
Sow varieties suitable for new temperature, water, and pest regimes
Grow short-season varieties to escape drought/heavy rains
Improve grain storage to enhance food security/resilience
Adjust fertilizer applications to new soil moisture regime
Establish or enhance early warning systems for crop disease, pest
infestation and drought
3.3.2 Water-management adaptations

In rain-fed farming systems, conserving excess water is an important adaptation
as is the expansion of irrigation. Irrigation systems may have to be adapted due
to decreased water availability, while the use of marginal water sources such as
* These are production systems that combine crops or livestock with trees or shrubs. For example, alley
cropping alternates several rows of trees with a row of maize. If the trees are leguminous they add nitrogen to
the soil when their leaves drop and fertilize the maize, which needs a lot of nitrogen. Another system is coffee
grown under tall shade trees that produce lumber, feed for livestock, and fruit or nuts for a double source of
income and products. The trees provide multiple environmental benefits and crop benefits, shade on hot days,
habitat for predator insects that consume crop pests, and can serve as windbreaks.
52
brackish water or waste water will sometimes be a useful adaptation practice.

Improved water management will often be an attractive investment even in
the absence of climate change since it can increase crop yields and cropping
intensity; reduce yield variability; and provide opportunities to diversify into
higher-value crops. There are a number of water-management adaptations to
climate that can be considered for use on farms or at the community level.

Capture rain water run-off using terraces and trenches

Divert rainwater into farm ponds and small reservoirs for future use
Use affordable drip-irrigation systems
Improve the soils water-holding capacity through minimum tillage or
by retaining crop residue to raise soil organic matter (such an increase
in soil carbon also contributes to mitigation)
Alter timing and amount of irrigation to improve water-use efficiency
Install soil drainage where increased rainfall causes waterlogging
Use ridging to help reduce effects of excess moisture
Improve water infiltration through barriers on sloping lands
Plant water-efficient crops and varieties
Use salt-tolerant crops to take advantage of saline water resources
Sustainably use ground water resources
Conserve natural riverine ecosystems, especially wetlands
3.3.3 Soil-management adaptations

Soil management is an important part of adaptation to climate change in agriculture, affecting plant productivity not only through nutrient availability but
also through its effect on water availability. For example, global warming is expected to reduce soil carbon, which in turn lowers both soil moisture-holding
capacity as well as fertility. Where rainfall increases, there are risks of waterlogging. Greater rainfall intensity due to climate change increases losses to soil erosion. Consequently, there are a number of adaptations that can be important.

Use live barriers (hedges, trees) or other physical barriers (stones,

cement) to reduce soil erosion where rainfall intensity increases
Use minimum tillage to reduce losses to erosion
Use crop rotation and cover crops to protect soil and maintain moisture
Incorporate crop residue into soil for increased organic matter and
improved soil health
Apply mulch or organic fertilizer to improve the soils water-holding
capacity
Use contour cropping to conserve soil moisture and organic matter
53
Terrace to conserve soil nutrients and moisture

Change land use, for example, from crops to livestock or to
agro-forestry
Adjust fertilization practices to new crops and climate
Improve soil resilience through green manure legumes and
nitrogen-fixing trees
Plow deeply to break up hard pans and improve water filtration
Level land to increase water filtration
3.3.4 Crop pest- and disease-management adaptations

Pest and disease problems can both change and intensify with climate change.
For example, where rainfall increases, pressures of fungal disease can rise. Similarly, drier conditions can lead to the invasion of new insect pests that may face fewer natural enemies. With warmer conditions, some
insects will be able to pass through more life cycles With warmer
in a season, thereby elevating their populations and conditions, some
the damage they cause. There is a high degree of insects will be able
uncertainty about which specific future disease and to pass through
pest problems may become more acute. While crop
more life cycles in
modeling and experience may provide reasonably
a season, thereby
reliable projections of the effects of a climate change
scenario on crops, insect and disease, behavior is less elevating their
well understood and extremely complex. Insects, for populations and
example, are subject to natural enemies and disease. the damage
These, like migration and population growth, are not they cause
always well understood and difficult to model. Despite the relatively high degree of uncertainty about pest and disease pressures
under climate change, they are likely to result in significant shifts in the pest and
disease complex, for which a variety of adaptations may be useful.

Develop pest surveillance systems for early detection of invasive pests

Use integrated pest management to control newly emerging pest
problems
Sow pest-resistant crop varieties
Employ multiple cropping/rotation to help reduce pest problems
Tailor pesticide applications to new insect and disease pressures
3.3.5 Livestock system adaptations

Livestock systems can be strongly affected by climate change, and direct effects
on livestock include diminished animal growth at higher temperatures, reduced
54
water availability due to drought, and lower production of livestock feed. Climateinduced land-use change can increase pastures at the expense of cropland. In
general, more intensive livestock systems are likely to have less difficulty in adapting, while traditional low-input livestock systems may have less capacity to adapt.
There are a number of adaptations that are possible with livestock systems.

Integrate crop/livestock systems to enhance resilience through

diverse production and income streams and the synergies that come
from manure for soil fertility and crop residue for animal feed
Employ silvopastoral systemswhich combine grazing and forestry
for shade, feed and carbon sequestration
Promote small-animal rearing where water and fodder are scarce
Use crop residue as animal feed rather than burning it
Use new sources of livestock feed: fodder banks, drought-resistant
trees and shrubs, seasonal grasses
Alter grazing practices (animal density, timing, duration)
Develop water points
Change to more appropriate breeds or species
Convert from extensive grazing to more intensive systems
3.3.6 Infrastructure adaptations

Large-scale infrastructure adaptations tend not to be the most attractive climate change interventions. Any uncertainty about the future impact of climate
change or about the effectiveness of infrastructure as a response pushes such
adaptations into the high-regret category. The massive investment and longer
project time horizons involved in such interventions
further increases the risk of relying on this type of CRS is unlikely
adaptation. In general, CRS is unlikely to take a lead- to take a leading
ing role in large-scale infrastructure adaptations to
role in large-scale
climate change. Nonetheless, there could be situainfrastructure
tions where national policy makers are considering
such measures, so it is useful to note a few illustra- adaptations to
tive infrastructure adaptations. Flooding, for ex- climate change
ample, is likely to become a more severe problem as
total global precipitation increases through greater rainfall intensity and more
frequent extreme events. Flood risks are intensified by the increased sediment
load that could clog watercourses due to elevated rates of soil erosion. Flood
risks typically cannot be managed solely at the farm or community level, requiring action at a watershed scale and higher level government coordination.
Some activities that might be promoted at higher levels include:
55
Large-scale irrigation systems

Levees for flood control
Flood bypass zones
Improvement of roads to facilitate market integration to increase
income and resilience
National or regional strategies for grain storage to provide resilience
in the face of crop failure
3.3.7 Institutional adaptations

Important adaptations to climate change can be made at an institutional level.
Strengthening institutions and capacities can supplement adaptation that is done
directly with crops, water, soil, livestock, pests or infrastructure. Without institutional
adaptation, other adaptations are often not feasible. For example, without viable
agricultural research institutions to breed new crop varieties with heat tolerance,
drought resistance, or resistance to new pests and diseases, farmers will not be able
use improved crops in their adaptation strategies. Some examples include:

Strengthen seed systems to deliver new water-efficient varieties

Enhance capacity to diffuse information on adaptation through
strengthened extension systems
Promote supportive policy and access to markets to diversify and
increase income thereby improving livelihood resilience
Implement water pricing and enhanced water allocation systems
Build capacity and organizational structure for irrigation system
management
Introduce crop insurance schemes to reduce household vulnerability
when crops fail
Establish weather forecasting and advisory systems
Promote off-farm income opportunities to reduce livelihood
dependence on agriculture and therefore the weather
Strengthen micro-credit to enhance financial resilience
Encourage land tenure/titling to provide incentives for soil and water
conservation
3.3.8 Human health adaptations

Although the focus of this guide is on natural resources, adaptations to climate changes impact on human health will be important in some communities, especially where climate change appears likely to aggravate an already
heavy disease burden. Many adaptations to these burdens will involve actions
that fall outside the health sector, for example, water supplies and sanitation.
56
A few examples of adaptations are:

Vector control, for example, eliminating mosquito breeding sites

Vector surveillance
Improved public health infrastructure
Preventative measures (e.g. treated bed nets, etc.)
Communications and awareness about disease
Development and diffusion of disease control measures (e.g. vaccines
or medicines)
3.3.9 On-farm energy efficiency

Enhanced efficiency of on-farm energy use can be important both for adaptation in the face of rising energy costs and to mitigate climate change through
reduced reliance on fossil fuels. Some interventions include:

Bio-digesters to capture and burn methane for fuel

Efficient cooking stoves to economize on firewood
Energy efficiency in crop production
Solar energy
Alternatives to boiling for water purification
Energy-efficient post-harvest technologies, for example, water-efficient
wet milling for coffee processing, drying patios for grain.
Resources: Adaptations to climate change

IPCC. 2012. Managing the Risks of Extreme Events
and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation.
A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [Field,
C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi,
M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M.
Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds)]. Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge, UK, and New York, New York,
USA. Detailed survey of issues related to disasters,
adaptation and climate change.
Oxfam. 2009. Introduction to Climate Change
Adaptation: A Learning Companion. Oxfam Disaster Risk
Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Resources.
Oxford, UK. http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/
publications/introduction-to-climate-changeadaptation-a-learning-companion-202465
Introductory overview.
UNDP. 2010. Designing Climate Change Adaptation
Initiatives: A UNDP Toolkit for Practitioners. UNDP Bureau
for Development Policy: New York, New York, USA.

http://www.adaptationlearning.net/sites/default/
files/Toolkit_for_Designing_Climate_Change_
Adaptation_Initiatives___November_2010.pdf
Useful with excellent list of additional sources.
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change. 2010. Handbook on Vulnerability and
Adaptation Assessment. Consultative Group of Experts
on National Communications from Parties Not Included
in Annex I to the Convention (CGE). http://unfccc.int/
resource/cd_roms/na1/v_and_a/index.htm
Wide-ranging inventory of adaptation responses.
The World Bank. 2012. Mainstreaming Adaptation

to Climate Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource
Management Projects. http://climatechange.
worldbank.org/climatechange/content/
mainstreaming-adaptation-climate-changeagriculture-and-natural-resources-managementproject Review of adaptation with a helpful glossary.
57
3.4 m
obilizing community action and planning
to adapt to climate change

Although there are a wide variety of potential adaptations to climate change,
successful adaptation can only result from action by farmers and their communities in response to their particular situations. But this is not a completely autonomous process. Effective adaptation can be facilitated by proactive support
from development agencies. This section sketches some of the approaches that
can help CRS catalyze successful community-level adaptation. First, some principles for planning and action will be reviewed, followed by a presentation on
the process to move from planning to action.
3.4.1 Principles for community-level climate change planning and action
This section provides an overview of the process of carrying out a communitybased response to, and preparedness for, climate change. Responding to climate
change is not just a question of coping with biophysical risks; it will always involve
some kind of social process to strengthen stakeholders capacity to respond.
However, there is no blueprint for conducting community-level planning and
action. This process will almost always have to be adapted to local circumstances. It is important, therefore, to understand the principles on which the
community-level process is based (Box 10). If in doubt about how to adapt the
process, it is useful to refer to these principles and to make sure the process follows them as faithfully as possible.
Seven principles for planning + implementing

a community-level climate change response

58
Initiate responses to climate change at the local level with

community participation
Understand local knowledge and adaptive strategies
Balance long-term and short-term costs and benefits in a response
strategy
Pay attention to social difference and then be inclusive
Consider which social groups need empowerment in order to
respond effectively to climate change
Design scaling-up strategies early in the local process
Build capacity to respond to future climate change as well as to
implement a specific solution
10
1. Initiate responses to climate change at the local level with community

participation. Assessmentincluding risk assessment with groups and communities, planning, implementation and monitoringshould be decided at
the local level with community participation. It is important to build on existing local groups and organizations and strengthen them and to avoid creating
new, parallel structures. Participation makes it more likely that local people will
buy into a climate change response and take responsibility for implementation
including contributing to its costs.
2. Understand local knowledge and adaptive strategies. Communities,
groups and households within them may have been adapting to progressive
climate change for a long time. Even if the current rate or severity of climate
change means that traditional ways of adapting are less effective, it is still important not to ignore or override local experience and knowledge. Response to
climate change at the community level will be reinforced by building on local
knowledge about the risks and local strategies for responding to these.
3. Balance long-term and short-term costs and benefits in a response
strategy. Effective responses to climate change at the community-level can
require some critical long-term investments, such as forest conservation, that
do not have an obvious short-term pay-off to local people, and especially to the very poor and Balance helps
vulnerable. A community-based climate change to reduce
planning and action process should always seek vulnerability
to balance these kinds of long-term investments without creating
with others that have a more immediate pay-off
dependency
for local people. This can mean introducing a mix
of solutions to balance mitigation with production, for example. Balance is needed to make sure there is adoption of innovation and that there are ways to meet some of the costs to make adaptive
changes sustainable, whenever possible. Balance helps to reduce vulnerability without creating dependency or weakening the development of local capacities for self-help.
4. Pay attention to social differences and then be inclusive. Climate
change is not egalitarian, and risk is not the same for everyone. Age, ethnicity, gender, religion or disabilities may put some people more at risk than
others within a community. That is why climate change responses should not
be planned or implemented as if the community were a unit in which everyone was at the same starting point and everyone would benefit equally.
59
In general, the most vulnerable people lack a safety net of savings or assets
they can fall back on in hard times and have little access to employment,
insurance or credit. They often suffer from poor health or nutrition. Planning
and action at the community level must always distinguish the risks facing
different social groups such as women (See Box 11), children, the aged and
the infirm and ensure proposed strategies include them or are specially tailored to meet their needs.
Social difference and climate change:

potential effects on women
Climate change risk
Potential
effect
Potential effect on women
Increased
ocean temperature
Increased
deterioration
of coral due to
thermal stress
Loss of coral reefs can damage

tourism and small-scale fisheries
industries, sectors in which
women comprise
a large part of the workforce.
Direct increased
land temperature
Increased
drought and
water shortage
Women and girls in developing

countries are often the primary
collectors, users and managers
of water. Decreases in water
availability will increase their
workload.
Decreased crop
production
Rural women are responsible for

half of the worlds food production
and produce between 60 to
80 percent of the food in most
developing countries. In Africa, the
percentage of women producers
disadvantaged by climate-related
crop changes could range from
48 percent in Burkina Faso to
73 percent in the DRC.
11
Source: Adapted from IUCN and UNDP. 2009. Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change. In partnership
with the Gender and Water Alliance, Energia International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy,
UNESCO, FAO, and WEDO as part of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance. In UNDP [Katharine Vincent, Lucy
Wanjiru, Adeline Aubry, Andre Mershon, Charles Nyandiga, Tracy Cull, and Khamarunga Banda]. 2010. Gender,
Climate Change and Community-based Adaptation. A Guidebook for Designing and Implementing Gender-Sensitive
Community-Based Adaptation Programmes and Projects. New York, New York, USA.
60
5. Consider which social groups need empowerment in order to respond

effectively to climate change. Capacity for effective response to climate
change is often as much a question of empowerment of the most vulnerable as it is of providing Sometimes there
them with material benefits. This is because pre- will be conflict
paredness for, and response to, climate change at between people
the local level involves extensive negotiation be- with different
tween different interest groups, some of whom will
perceptions about,
always be more powerful than the most vulnerable.
and interests
Sometimes there will be conflict between people
with different perceptions about, and interests in, in, how climate
how climate risk should be managed. For the most risk should be
vulnerable members of a community and for wom- managed
en, the process often needs to include awareness
building and empowerment so they can really participate. In addition, it is a
good idea to train community leaders in strategies for policy advocacy.
6. Design scaling-up strategies early in the local process. Whatever the
climate change risks are for local communities, the sources of risk are almost
always going to be the result of a combination of factors internal and external
to the local community. This means some elements of effective response will
be beyond the scope of local decision making. Because effective responses
to climate change cannot be carried out exclusively at the local level, it is
essential to design scaling-up strategies early in the local process. Scaling
up here means working in parallel at other institutional levels. This involves
linking community-level planning and action to extra-local decision-making
processes. Scaling up can involve building networks, associations or federations of local organizations and must take advantage of opportunities to
work with other support organizations on communication, planning and
advocacy.
7. Build capacity to respond to future climate change as well as to
implement a specific response. Building capacity to respond to climate
change is a basic objective of community-level planning and action. Climate change is inherently unpredictable and even when the risks are quite
well understood, communities need to be able to learn how to adapt rather than to just implement mechanically changes recommended by outsiders. This is why it is important to make sure that the planning and action
process builds adaptive skills even when pressed to mitigate against a disaster or prepare for an emergency.
61
3.4.2 Process for community-level planning and action for climate change
response
In this section, a four-step process for planning and implementing a climate
change response at the community level is outlined. Even though termed
community-level, this process always requires working on at least two organizational levels: the community level and an external institutional level.
This is emphasized in point 6 above. It is essential to engage stakeholders
from outside the community early on in a local processusually the local
government administration closest to the community as well as public sector and civil society organizations with related mandates that may already
be actors in the community. Stakeholders may also include external groups
or other communities with an interest in forests, grazing areas, water sources, roads, telecommunications, or any type of intervention that affects their
interests.
Although the following explanation of the four-step process is framed at the
community level, it is essential to keep in mind that a similar four-step process
should be undertaken with the extra-community stakeholders so they are informed and buy into the assessment, planning and implementation of community-level activities.
The objectives of the four-step process are to improve community capacity to:

Plan local responses to, and preparedness for, climate change

Understand and assess the risks associated with climate change
Combine local knowledge with scientific knowledge to understand
risks and to develop sustainable responses
Respond to progressive climate change
Recover after a climate change-induced shock or disaster
Mitigate the effects of climate change on its most vulnerable
members
Step 1: Participatory assessment

The most important objective of a participatory assessment is to raise the awareness of the local population of its need to plan responses to climate change by
making an analysis of the current situation and the risks it presents.
The assessment involves combining the community-level self-assessment of
climate change impacts described in Section 3.2 with a self-assessment of
vulnerabilities and capabilities.
62
Community-level self-assessment of vulnerabilities and capabilities

The self-assessment of vulnerability and capability is a complement to the
assessment of climate change impacts. In the example of the risk assessment
matrix applied to flooding in Section 2, different groups in the community
assessed how many families would be affected by flooding and for how long.
The next step is to assess how vulnerable those families are and what capabilities they have to respond to flooding.
When vulnerability is discussed it can be very important to share the results
of the stakeholder analysis with the participating groups. This social map
should be familiar and indeed self-evident to the inhabitants of the community but privileged groups are still liable to discount or dismiss other lessprivileged groups, so the complete stakeholder analysis serves as a useful
reminder about making the self-assessment inclusive.
There are many ways to self-assess vulnerability but one framework that is
comprehensive and simple, the CRS Integral Human Development framework, uses six assets as dimensions, as illustrated in Box 12. The six assets
refer to types of resources or capital that the community has that can be aspects of vulnerability but also represent resources for adaptation to climate
change.
These are:

Natural assets including soil, water, forests on which the local

population depends
Human assets including the labor force, community knowledge
and the state of its health and education
Social assets including social cooperation
Physical assets including infrastructure such as roads,
transportation, sources of energy, communications and housing
Financial assets including savings, income and credit
Political assets include the communitys relationships with
local, regional or national government as well as civil society
organizations that can influence policy on their behalf
The community-level self-assessment of vulnerability and capability should

be prepared for, and conducted with, the same preparation and selection of
participants as the risk assessment discussed earlier, and with reference to
the same climate change impacts prioritized for the risk assessment.
63
Community-level self-assessment of
vulnerability and capability using the
six assets from the CRS IHD framework
Group: Families living close to the river
Assets
Vulnerability
Capacity
Natural assets
The river is liable to flood.
Local wood and stone is

available for containment
and strengthening of house
construction.
Human assets
Elderly people cannot

evacuate quickly.
Local knowledge and skills

for construction. Youth can
assist the elderly.
Social assets
There is conflict between

owners of river margins
wanting to reforest and
squatters building along
the rivers edge.
Existing youth clubs in

river communities can be
harnessed for assistance in
time of flood.
Physical assets
Road and telephone

communications are poor.
All homes have radios that

could be used for early
warning.
Financial assets
There are no local funds

for mitigation.
The community is willing to

co-pay in kind.
Political assets
Local leaders are

inexperienced in dealing
with external legislators.
An urban community
downstream is willing to
tax to subsidize clean-water
interventions.
12
Step 2: Drawing up a community-level climate change action plan
The objective of Step 2 is for the community to discuss and agree on a realistic
plan of action. If the community is divided in its assessment of risks and there
is conflict about how to act, this can require persistent work by facilitators to
reconcile them and overcome the conflict. There is an extensive range of tools
and techniques that can be used for this participatory planning, and links to
these can be found in the resources section of this guide. This step involves the
64
community in taking collective decisions about the most locally appropriate

solutions for responding to climate change. Commitment to action to be taken
onfarm and in the community by individuals and their families, as well as by
groups, depends on their levels of empowerment built during the assessment.
The action plan is based on combining:

Results of the self-assessment of risk which produces one (at most

three) prioritized climate change impacts
The evaluation of risks for each priority climate change impact using
the risk-assessment matrix
The vulnerability and capability assessment for each priority climate
change impact
Information about possible solutions and interventions that draws
on local knowledge and external knowledge of the many options
discussed in Sections 2.1 to 2.4
Key elements needed in a community-level action plan are illustrated in Box 13.
Elements of a community-level action plan

Local organization coordinates activities and monitors progress of

the plan
Local training on how to keep up the assessment of climate change
risk and how to use climate change information and Information
and Communication Technology (ICT)
Selected technical solutions proposed for adaptation
If proposed technical solutions need further testing, a plan for local
mechanisms to validate them should be put into place
Plan for technical assistance and credit plans so proven solutions
can be adopted
Emergency action plans for disaster response
Plans for mitigation, if desired
Leadership training to strengthen collective action and local leaders
Plan for early warning systems
Land-use plan for farms and watersheds
Advocacy plan to gain support of important policies and external
stakeholders
Financial plan
Procedure and responsibilities assigned for monitoring and
evaluation of the plan
13
65
Step 3: Implementation of action plans

The objective of Step 3 is to mobilize the community to put its plan into action and
to obtain the resources needed from the community and from external sources.
Often a community action plan has to confront a considerable level of uncertainty
about what solutions will work locally. Also, since the climate may be changing
progressively, there may be growing, unanticipated variability in season-to-season rainfall and temperature conditions. So one of the crucial success factors for a
community action plan is whether it builds local capacity to adapt and ultimately
the resilience needed to recover after a climate change-induced shock.
Four elements of an action plan are important for building adaptive capacity
and resilience:

Training to keep on assessing risk locally and learning from climate

change information,
Testing and experimenting locally with potential solutions
Monitoring and evaluating the progress of the action plan
Blending local and external knowledge to find adaptive solutions
(See Box 14)
Examples of adaptations combining local

and scientific knowledge
BAIRAS: In southern Bangladesh, floating gardens, or bairas,
have been devised to withstand increasingly frequent flooding and
water-logging. Using water hyacinth (baira), a local invasive weed
that floats in water, floating mats have been developed on which
soil, manure and rotting baira can be spread and a number of crops
cultivated. These mats simply ride out water-logging and flooding.
They are easy to build using local resources and knowledge, are
recyclable and sustainable, and are ideally suited to the particular
problem faced. Local knowledge is central to the success of bairas.
Source: Irfanullah 2005
14
The elements in Steps 1, 2 and 3 are like the gasoline that keeps the motor of
a community-level action plan running. A community action plan that downplays or neglects these three elements may be successful in implementing a
set of solutions for climate change today but will fail to create local capacity to
adapt to future uncertainty.
66
Step 4: Monitoring, evaluating and learning

The objective of this step is to keep track of the implementation of the plan and
understand its results. This step involves:

Tracking and following up on the actions in the plan

Monitoring the climate change impacts and risks identified in the
assessment to see if they have changed
A participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process is highly desirable because this reinforces local adaptive capacity. It will help everyone responsible
for implementing the local climate change action plan activities to obtain and
use information needed to adjust the plan. And it will ensure a higher degree
of self-conscious learning about what works. Resources for implementing M&E
are in the resources section at the end of the guide.
A successful community-level action plan for responding to climate change
should not end when external agencies take their leave. The participatory M&E
system is one way to help local people see that they are ultimately responsible
for keeping the plan in motion, especially if they learn how to draw on external
resources, information, expertise and political capital to make sure they succeed.
Resources: Mobilizing community action and planning to adapt

to climate change
Dummet, Cassie. 2009. Community Based Disaster
Preparedness: A How-To Guide. Catholic Relief
Services: Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
http://www.crsprogramquality.org/
publications/2009/11/20/community-baseddisaster-preparedness-a-how-to-guide.html
Several approaches to community fieldwork.
Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) Project.
2007. Impact Measurement and Accountability in
Emergencies: The Good Enough Guide. Oxfam: Oxford, UK.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/
impact-measurement-and-accountability-inemergencies-the-good-enough-guide-115510
Practical tips for community work with an emphasis
on emergencies.
Gell, Fiona. 2010. Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction,
and Climate Change Adaptation: A Learning
Companion. Oxfam: Oxford, UK. http://policypractice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/genderdisaster-risk-reduction-and-climate-changeadaptation-a-learning-compani-218230
Especially useful approaches to gender issues.

Irfanullah, Haseeb Md. 2005. Baira: The Floating
Gardens for Sustainable Livelihood. Ainun Nishat
and Rashiduzzaman Ahmed (eds). IUCN-The World
Conservation Union: Gland, Switzerland.
Based principally on field data generated from
the consultant among project staff, local baira
practitioners, those interested in baira farming and
those who have adopted the technique under this
project.
IUCN and UNDP. 2009. Training Manual on
Gender and Climate Change. In partnership with
the Gender and Water Alliance, Energia International
Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy,
UNESCO, FAO, and WEDO as part of the
Global Gender and Climate Alliance.
https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/eng_version_
web_final_1.pdf Draws on existing in-house
materials (research data, analyses and extracts from
international frameworks) that have been adapted
or expanded but also includes newly compiled case
67
studies to illustrate the concepts in each module.

It presents key conceptual and methodological
advances in gender relations in the context of
climate change. Topics relate to those covered in the
Bali Action Plan.
Macci, M. 2011. Framework for Community-Based
Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment in Mountain
Areas. ICIMOD: Kathmandu, Nepal.
http://books.icimod.org/uploads/tmp/icimodframework_for_community-based_climate_
vulnerability_and_capacity_assessment_in_
mountain_areas.pdf An analytical framework and
methodology for assessing environmental and
socioeconomic changes affecting the livelihoods of
rural, natural resource dependent communities living
in mountainous environments. Includes guidance
on how to gain a better understanding of the
various forces which shape mountain communities
vulnerabilities, and places a special focus on the
capacities inherent in these communities for
coping with and adapting to environmental and
socioeconomic changes.
Schoonmaker Freudenberger, Karen. 2011. Rapid
Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA): A Manual for CRS Field Workers and Partners.
Catholic Relief Services: Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
68
http://www.crsprogramquality.org/storage/
pubs/me/RRAPRA.pdf Includes a variety of useful
approaches.
Soya, Chase, Abrar Chaudhury, Ariella Helfgott
and Caitlin Corner-Dollof. 2012. Community-Based
Adaptation Costing: An integrated framework for
the participatory costing of community-based
adaptations to climate change in agriculture. Working
Paper No. 16. CGIAR Research Program on Climate
Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS):
Cali, Colombia. cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/
handle/10568/.../ccafs_wp_16.pdf?...1
Combines an economics approach with community
level field work.
UNDP [Katharine Vincent, Lucy Wanjiru, Adeline
Aubry, Andre Mershon, Charles Nyandiga, Tracy
Cull, and Khamarunga Banda]. 2010. Gender, Climate
Change and Community-based Adaptation.
A Guidebook for Designing and Implementing
Gender-Sensitive Community-Based Adaptation
Programmes and Projects. New York, New York, USA.
Seeks to ensure that forthcoming communitybased adaptation (CBA) projects contribute to
the achievement of gender equality and womens
empowerment by integrating a gendered perspective
into programming and project design.
ACRONYMS
CBA
CCAFS

CDM
CGIAR
CH4
CIAT

CIMMYT

CO2
CRS
FAO
GGCA
GHG
GIS
ICIMOD
ICRI
ICT
IHD
IPCC
IUCN
M&E
N2O
ppm
PRA
REDD
RRA
UNDP
UNESCO
UNFCCC
WEDO
Community-based adaptation
[CGIAR Research Program on] Climate Change, Agriculture
and Food Security
Clean Development Mechanism
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
Methane
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical
International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maz y Trigo
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Carbon dioxide
Food and Agricultural Organization [of the United Nations]
Global Gender and Climate Alliance
Greenhouse gas
Geographic information systems
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
International Coral Reef Initiative
Information and Communication Technology
Integral Human Development [framework]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
International Union for Conservation of Nature
Monitoring and evaluation
Nitrous oxide
Parts per million
Participatory rural appraisal
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
Rapid rural appraisal
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Womens Environment and Development Organization

228 West Lexington Street
Baltimore, Maryland
21201-3413
1.888.277.7575
www.crs.org
Climate Change:
From Concepts To Action
A guide for development
practitioners
Copyright CRS 2012
All rights reserved.
This guide, or parts thereof,
may not be reproduced in any
form without permission.
Contact pqpublications@crs.org
for permission. Any fair use
under US copyright law should
contain appropriate citation
and attribution to
Catholic Relief Services.

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A guide for

FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Jacqueline Ashby and Douglas Pachico

Catholic Relief Services

Climate Change: From Concepts To Action

1: climate change: evidence, causes and trends

1.1 Evidence of climate change

2: strategies to confront climate change

2.1 Adaptation to climate change

3: taking action to adapt to climate change

3.1 Assessing exposure to climate change risks

3.2 Assessing livelihood vulnerability to climate change

3.3 Adaptations to climate change

3.4  Mobilizing community action and planning to adapt to

Photo: David Snyder

Action to mitigate global climate

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

How should the work of CRS and its partners be transformed?

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Who are the users of this guide?

What is the content of the guide?

Action for adaptation

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Photo: Sara A. Fajardo/CRS

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

uccessful responses to climate change in development projects require the

1.1 evidence of climate change

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Prehistoric proof confirms climate change

Is climate changing today?*

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Rainfall trends over the last century present a comextended their

1.2 causes of climate change

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

The composition of the atmosphere is strongly related to the Earths climate.

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

atmosphere. Similarly, when there is less CO2 in the atmosphere, temperatures

Greenhouse gases and climate change

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

The role of agriculture in causing climate change

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Figure 3. Greenhouse gas emissions by sector

Source: The World Bank 2010, Figure 7

There are several ways that agriculture directly contributes to greenhouse

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

of livestock increases, it is anticipated that methane and nitrous oxide emissions

Source: Smith et al 2007, p. 503.

These direct emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture do not include

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

80 percent of these CO2 emissions are estimated to come from conversion of

1.3 climate change trends

Warming drives other climate changes

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Since hurricanes and tropical cyclones are formed in warm-ocean conditions, it is

CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM CONCEPTS TO ACTION

Climate impacts on livelihoods of the poor

Integral Human Development (IHD)

Resources: Evidence, causes and trends

projected to become more severe by 2050 and food

3.4 Mobilizing community action and planning to adapt to

Action to mitigate global climate

Increased temperature and Direct impacts of climatic

3.2 a ssessing livelihood vulnerability