Updated: February 2009

The Role of Local Innovation in Supporting Climate-Change Adaptation

Background

During the International Partners Workshop in Cambodia in 2006, Prolinnova partners expressed their interest in looking into the link between climate-change adaptation and participatory innovation development (PID). After all, if farmers are constantly having to adapt to changes in local conditions, whatever the cause of these changes may be, some of their innovation efforts will most probably also be aimed at coping with the effects of climate change.

In an initial review of literature, we realised that few people have actually tried (and managed) to implement interventions focused on local-level efforts to adapt to climate change. There are few accounts of experiences in the field. There is much rhetoric, but not much evidence of action. Even fewer people mention farmers’ own creativity as a starting point for intervention. There is, in short, a need to bring relevant experiences into the debate.

Prolinnova partners mobilised a small amount of funding to do just that: to bring into the overall debate some interesting field-based cases of local innovation in the face of perceived climate change.

Exploratory study

Because funds are limited, only a few country programmes could become involved in this initiative, although many are interested. The initial exploratory study started in early 2008 and continues into the first quarter of 2009.

The overall objective of the study is to explore the relevance of local adaptation/innovation and the PID approach to climate-change adaptation at the local level. More specifically, it tries to:

• systematically document local experimentation processes that come about as a response to a locally felt need to adapt to climate change
• understand local communities’ perceptions of "climate change"
• stimulate documentation of local innovation (processes) at local level
• draw lessons on the potential impact/influence of local innovation processes on climate-change adaptation policies and programmes.

Most of the activities are being carried out by partners in Ethiopia, Nepal and Niger. In addition, some partners in the Andes are bringing in their experience and studies on local people’s strategies for dealing with climatic risk, based on locally developed adaptation mechanisms.

For further information about this Prolinnova exploratory study, see the concept note: Strengthening local adaptive capacities: the role of local innovation in supporting climate-change adaptation (Word Document ; size: 126 kb)

Intermediate reports from the studies are posted on this website as they appear.

For a brief account of an approach developed by some Prolinnova-Andes partners, see the document: Katalysis: Enabling Andean Farmers to Weather Climate Change (PDF File; size : 130 KB)

Contact details

Ethiopia: Mebratu Kifle, Pastoral Forum Ethiopia (mebratu AT pfe-ethiopia.org), Yohannes GebreMichael, Addis Ababa University (yohannesgmichael AT yahoo.com)

Nepal: Mr Pratap Shrestha (pshrestha AT libird.org), Ms Rajju Malla Dhakal (rmdhakal AT libird.org), LIBIRD

Niger: Saidou Magagi, CRESA (saidmag AT refer.ne)

Bolivia: Anne Piepenstock, Agrecol-Andes (annpi AT agrecolandes.org)

Ecuador: Stephen Sherwood, World Neighbors Andes (ssherwood AT ekorural.org)

International Support Team: Mariana Wongtschowski (m.wongts AT etcnl.nl), Ann Waters-Bayer (ann.waters-bayer AT etcnl.nl)


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