Coping and Adapting to Increased Climate Variability in the Andes

This paper was prepared for presentation at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, on July 27-30, 2003.The negative impact of climate change may be reduced with mitigation strategies in developing countries. Some studies project that developing countries in the Tropics will be worse off than developed countries under different scenarios of global climate change, due to warmer climates, increased droughts and floods. Their populations are poorer, and therefore more vulnerable to climate stresses and shocks. Bolivia is an example: A country that experienced climate variability, political change and structural adjustment throughout the nineties. These forces have an effect on rural livelihood strategies. Canonical correlations identify the elements of strategies that impact on both income and diversity of the household portfolio. The ability of rural people to access resources, accumulate assets, and engage in certain activities allow some to adapt to variability in the short run, providing insights into characteristics or traits of technologies, markets, and policies that may contribute to long term adaptation