The effects of community based adaptation on enhancing adaptive capacity: lessons from the Koro

© 2015 Dr. Patrina DumaruThis thesis assesses the effectiveness of a community based adaptation (CBA) project in enhancing the institutional adaptive capacity of three koro communities (indigenous villages) to climate change in Fiji. The research helps to understand how adaptation projects can be better designed and implemented to respond to local needs and values while strengthening the adaptive capacity of local institutions. An in-depth understanding of the institutional dynamics in each study koro, and how these influence the outcomes of the Fiji CCA Project, was facilitated via an embedded ethnographic study. The study demonstrates that what differentiates CBA from other adaptation approaches is that it purposefully seeks to produce the kind of institutional outcomes that enable local actors to continuously mobilize collective action, inclusive decision-making and iterative learning towards immediate and long-term climate change adaptation goals