Progress on community-based adaptation

Adaptation to climate change has risen up the policy agenda in recent years. One growing proposal for doing adaptation is Community-based Adaptation to Climate change (CBA), which aims to build the capacity of local people to develop under, and adapt to, a changing climate. CBA generates adaptive strategies through participatory processes, building on existing cultural norms, and also addressing local development issues that make people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in the first place. While still a relatively new approach to climate change adaptation, the CBA agenda has grown in size and significance over the past few years. There have been three international conferences on CBA since 2005, and projects are now in operation in vulnerable communities in both developing and also some developed countries. Yet, questions remain over: What is community-based adaptation to climate change (versus more general climatic variability?) How do we do it? Who or what adapts? How does CBA fit with larger scale adaptation policies and programs? This article looks at the progress that has been made on CBA over the past few years, and considers the challenges that remain for those engaged in CBA