Climate change, ecosystem services and adaptation in East Africa's semi-arid regions early diagnostics of critical knowledge

This work was carried out under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), with financial support from the UK Governmentྏs Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.The policy brief highlights some key regional diagnostic study (RDS) findings and describes their implications on ecosystem services as part of ASSAR’s (Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions) long-term research agenda. Limits to adaptation at the regional level result from the dynamic interaction between biophysical and socio-economic constraints; yet in many socio-ecological contexts these barriers remain poorly understood. In East Africa, adaptation initiatives are still very much directed towards sectors rather than specific types of ecosystems, reflecting the sectoral structure of government departments and or non-governmental actors working on climate change adaptation