Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change

Emily Sondra Norquist, MPH Candidate 2023

Introduction: Community Empowerment through Collective Action

Climate Change

As humans living together on one planet, our actions have a collective impact, and due to human activities, our Earth is changing. Climate change is recognized by the World Health Organization as the “single greatest threat to humanity,” (WHO, 2021) and due to historical and present-day inequities, some populations of people are at a greater disadvantage than others.

Climate change is exacerbating preexisting vulnerabilities; it adversely affects health in both direct ways, such as death and illness from extreme weather events, and in indirect ways, by undermining the ability of people to thrive in their environments due to phenomena such food shortages, destruction of housing and infrastructure, and other detrimental impacts to livelihood (WHO, 2021).

Adequate housing is recognized as a human right by the UN, and it is estimated that around 3 billion people will need housing by 2030 (UN Division of Statistics, 2021).

Community-Based Adaptation

The people who are most at risk for hardships due to climate change have contributed the least to the problem. What are their needs? What are they doing to meet them, and how can they be supported in this?

Community-Based Adaptation is one framework that is being put into action across the world to empower populations of people who have been disempowered. It is a “bottom-up” framework that is proactive, community-centered, includes education about climate change and how it may impact the community, and involves multiple stakeholders.

The most effective and sustainable models are asset-based, building on strengths that the community already has, such as the skills of community members and the features and resources of the land they inhabit, like buildings and materials (Ebi & Semanza, 2008).

Framework and Core Principles of CBA

(Kristie, 2008) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.08.018

It is community-centered: the community is seen as the experts and they decide how to proceed. This bottom up, ethical framework lends itself to more sustainability.
It is participatory, actively engaging local populations.
It “relates local and global topics, especially by combining community knowledge and experiences with scientific information and approaches” (Kelmen, et al., 2009).
It builds on and links social capital, or networks of relationships, with actors at different levels of power (Ebi & Semanza, 2008).
“Adaptation activities must involve the full range of stakeholders, including businesses, community leaders, organizations, the public, and governments” (Ebi & Semanza, 2008).
It is equitable and culturally humble, honoring cultural differences, resisting bias, and cognizant of power imbalances.
It is holistic and multifaceted: “To be successful, interventions often need to address the societal, cultural, environmental, political, and economic contexts that increase vulnerability” (Ebi & Semanza, 2008).

Ray of Light: Global examples of Community-Based Adaptation

Coral Triangle Knowledge Network. (2014, October 23). Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Empowers Coastal Communities in Timor-Leste [Video, 4.55m]. YouTube

This video describes the process of using a CBA model to empower communities in Timor-Leste to adapt their farming and fishing methods in response to climate change.

Timor-Leste

Background: After a hard-fought and violent struggle, Timor-Leste, situated between Australia and Indonesia, is a newly independent country as of 2002. The nation was colonized for hundreds of years by Portugal and then brutally annexed by Indonesia (Rourke, 2019). Timor-Leste still struggles with the aftereffects of occupation, including widespread poverty. As an island nation, they are especially vulnerable to climate change impacts.

El Salvador

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Cameroon

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Image courtesy of FUNDASAL

From report by Jacqueline Ivón Martínez and Alma Daysi Rivera, a community organizer at FUNDASAL

Background:

A significant number of people in El Salvador live in inadequate housing, built in informal settlements from poor quality, perishable, or recycled materials that don’t provide protection from heavy rain or intense heat (Martinez & Rivera, 2020). “These settlements are mostly located in areas subject to physical hazards such as landslips or flooding - risks that are increasing in both magnitude and scope. A lack of, or inadequate, infrastructure for rainfall and wastewater evacuation, together with little access to clean drinking water, pose a major threat not only to the safety of families but also to their health, particularly in the face of diseases such as COVID-19” (Martínez & Rivera, 2020).
Additionally, El Salvador has a potable water crisis and tropical storms have created even more housing and food insecurity.

Community-Based Adaptations:

With the support of a local Community-Based Organization called FUNDASAL, local families are advocating for their rights and collaborating on projects that improve their communities.
Groups worked to get local, environmentally friendly, low-cost materials, such as compressed earth blocks, to be included in El Salvador’s official regulations for building materials. They are using these materials to build homes and community centers.
The National Commission for Informal Settlement Dwellers is “lobbying local government and other public institutions to legalise their communities, for the right to water and for a housing law for disadvantaged sectors.”
The Housing Cooperative for Mutual Aid is helping families “obtain legal security over their homes and access to basic services. These solutions are reducing the social and physical risks, helping to reduce the impacts of climate change, and also strengthening the social fabric.”
One project is called “Cradle of Peace.” It is a low-emission and cooperative housing project, built with local materials to be culturally traditional and earthquake-resistant. It includes:
- A community centre made from adobe with rainwater harvesting system, which is used to water a communal organic vegetable garden.
- Trails and viewpoints to draw ecotourism to provide income for the community and plans for handicrafts workshop.

Image from OpenSpending

From report by Jules Dumas Nguebou, a community organizer at ASSOAL

Background:

In Cameroon, 90% of urban areas are made up of informal settlements and 40% of citizens are living in poverty (Nguebou, 2020).
People living in poverty are forced to settle on less-than-ideal land on hills, flood zones, swamps.
The government, which is plagued by corruption, is complicating the hardship for its citizens through forced-evictions, restrictions on land use, and neglecting to provide adequate housing. Shockingly, they also criminalize non-payment of rent and may punish it with imprisonment (Nguebou, 2020).
Impoverished citizens, as well as unregulated construction industries, are using forests for building materials, which is accelerating deforestation in the region.

Community-Based Adaptations:

Like the example from El Salvador, local community-based organization ASSOAL is working on a cooperative housing project which includes using low-cost, low-impact materials such as compressed earth blocks for building. They are also planting to create green spaces.
“Many successes have been achieved, including in relation to participatory and climate sensitive social housing policies” (Nguebou, 2020).
Collective action is being used to influence government policy including participatory budgeting, which “helps to align national and local resources to local priorities including housing and basic social services for informal settlements” (Nguebou, 2020).
Community organization ASSOAL and civil society groups are seeing some success in their fight for social housing, health, education, potable water access, and eviction prevention.

COAST Foundation. (2013, October 28). Bangladesh climate change adaptation [Video; 4:56m]. YouTube.

This video by COAST describes a program that is a collaboration between the government and coastal communities to support livelihoods in the face of climate change.

Bangladesh

Background: Bangladesh is considered extremely vulnerable to climate change due to its high population density and elevated rates of poverty. Bangladesh contains the delta of three large rivers with the Himalayas to the north and the Bay of Bengal to the south. These geographical features, combined with the country's low elevation, make the land susceptible to flooding: “annual floods inundate between 20 and 70% of the country’s landmass each year” and salination of the soil is growing problem (Sovacool & Rawlani, 2011). Bangladesh also experiences cyclones with increasing frequency and high climate variability ranging from monsoons to droughts. These events are already intensifying, leading to difficulties with food and agriculture, housing insecurity, and water shortages (Agrawala, et al, 2003; Sovacool & Rawlani, 2011).

COAST Foundation is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Bangladesh. Their mission is to organize "strategically important activities related to development which, in turn, will facilitate the sustainable and equitable improvement of life, especially of women, children and disadvantaged population of the coastal areas in Bangladesh through their increased participation in the socio-economic, cultural and civic life of the country" (COAST Trust, 2020).

Directions Forward: What is Needed to Support Communities?

Stop the Pollution

A cohesive response to climate change requires not only adaptation at the local level, but also global prevention, as much as possible, of the worst outcomes by limiting emissions (MISEROR; The Global Initiative, 2020)
Wealthier nations have a moral responsibility to support lower and middle-income countries in developing clean energy infrastructure to reduce dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels

Funding

Invest in communities to build resilience (MISEROR; The Global Initiative, 2020).

Hold higher income countries, like the U.S., financially accountable for their overwhelming contributions to warming greenhouse gas emissions and the effects that climate change has on communities who have contributed little

Policy

"Make public policies more inclusive, participatory and climate-sensitive" (MISEROR; The Global Initiative, 2020).

Coherent policy is also needed at an international level to facilitate coordination and communication between powerful actors, such as the UN, local governments, and local communities

Remediation

Recognition of and remediation for the global repercussions of decisions that impact communities and human health, especially the ways that colonialism has created structured social vulnerabilities and has disadvantaged populations

Image by Neal.

References

Ayers, J., & Forsyth, T. (2009). Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change. Environment : Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 51(4), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.3200/ENV.51.4.22-31
COAST Foundation. (2013, October 28). Bangladesh climate change adaptation [Video, 4.56m]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDYR_7doisU
COAST Foundation. (2020). Values, Mission, Objectives, and Strategy. Retrieved 12 December 2021 from http://coastbd.net/vision-mission-objectives-and-strategy/
Coral Triangle Knowledge Network. (2014, October 23). Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Empowers Coastal Communities in Timor-Leste [Video, 4.55m]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2h9mlIttw
Ebi, Kristie L., PhD, & Semenza, Jan C., PhD. (2008). Community-Based Adaptation to the Health Impacts of Climate Change. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35(5), 501–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.08.018
Kelman, I., Mercer, J., & West, J. (2009). Combining different knowledges: community-based climate change adaptation in small island developing states. Participatory Learning and Action 60: Community-based adaptation to climate change. Retrieved from https://pubs.iied.org/g02812
MISEROR; The Global Initiative. (23 September, 2020). Local struggles for housing rights in the context of climate change, urbanization, and environmental degradation. MISEROR; The Global Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.gi-escr.org/publications/local-struggles-for-housing-rights-in-the-context-of-climate-change-urbanization-and-environmental-degradation
Martínez, J.I., & Rivera, A.D. (2020). El Salvador. Local struggles for housing rights, in the context of climate change, urbanization, and environmental degradation. MISEREOR; The Global Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.gi-escr.org/publications/local-struggles-for-housing-rights-in-thecontext-of-climate-changeurbanization-and-environmental-degradation
Nguebou, J. (2020). Cameroon. Local struggles for housing rights, in the context of climate change, urbanization, and environmental degradation. MISEREOR; The Global Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.giescr.org/publications/local-struggles-for-housing-rights-in-the-context-ofclimate-change-urbanization-andenvironmental-degradation
Rourke, A. (2019, August 29). East Timor: Indonesia's invasion and the long road to independence. The Guardian. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/30/east-timorindonesias-invasion-and-thelong-road-to-independence.
Rawlani, A. K., & Sovacool, B. K. (2011). Building responsiveness to climate change through community based adaptation in Bangladesh. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 16(8), 845–863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9298-6
United Nations. (2021). 11-- Sustainable Cities and Communities. - Sustainable Development Goal Indicators. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal11/.
World Health Organization. (2021, October 30). Climate change and health. Climate Change and Health. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/climate-change-and-health.

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