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Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Human adaptation to climate change is a heterogeneous process influenced by more than economic and technological development. It is increasingly acknowledged in the adaptation to climate change literature that factors such as class, gender and culture play a large role when adaptation strategies are either chosen or rejected at the local scale. This paper explores adaptation strategies by focusing on livelihood diversification in the face of the most recent of recurrent droughts in the...

Concern about climate and its impact on human populations in the Sahel since the 1970s was an immediate response to the most recent of recurrent drought periods. Understanding the relative impact of this drought on rural life in the Sahel is, however, not straightforward. This is due to the fact that climate is only one of many factors influencing local adaptation strategies to environmental changes. Another explanation could be that climate in many rural communities in the Sahel is simply...

The literature on barriers to climate change adaptation has largely focused on non-climatic barriers and has provided less insight into climate-induced barriers. Responding to this lacuna, this paper examines the connections between climate change and agricultural adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers in northern Ghana. Results from the qualitative fieldwork show that climatic changes have been accompanied by increases in climate change extremes (CCEs) over the last three decades. In...

This chapter explores the nascent operationalization of Tanzania's National Climate Change Strategy (CCS). It traces discourses of adaptation across, within and between different departments and tiers of the Tanzanian government and pays special attention to the framing of tasks and responsibilities in delivering adaptation. Combining interview data of civil servants' discourses on climate impact issues, the chapter aims to find out whether and which particular discourses can be linked to...

Increasing attention is being paid to the role of social networks in climate change research and new studies show that they form an essential source of resilience. However, the role of social networks remains underexplored as there is only limited empirical evidence of their benefits, particularly for research on adaptation to climate change in developing countries. This paper provides a contribution to this field of research by examining how social networks foster livelihood diversification...

The major droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s and the continued climate variability experienced in the Sahel have attracted immense international interest. A plethora of aid organizations and projects have entered the region, particularly the northern areas. In Biidi 2, a small Sahelian village in northern Burkina Faso, development projects began to arrive in the 1970s and 1980s and increased in number in the early 1990s. To understand the impact of development projects in the village, we...

Centralized state governance systems have been criticized for being ineffective and inefficient in tackling complex climate change challenges. Consequently, governance models that integrate collaboration among diverse stakeholders are seen as crucial in increasing adaptation efforts around the world. However, at present, there is little insight into the mechanics of collaborative adaptation governance (CAG) at the local, regional, national or global levels. Drawing on collaborative...

Largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, the West African populations could be severely impacted by climate change and variability. In this paper, we performed a literature review relating to perceptions of climate change and variability in West Africa, followed by an in-depth comparison between perceptions by rural dwellers of Burkina Faso and trends in meteorological data to discuss the importance of perceptions vis-à-vis climate trends in migration decision. Results showed that...

Rapid urban population growth in Sub-Saharan Western Africa has important environmental, infrastructural and social impacts. Due to the low availability of reliable urbanization data, remote sensing techniques become increasingly popular for monitoring land use change processes in that region. This study aims to quantify land cover for the Ouagadougou metropolitan area between 2002 and 2013 using a Landsat-TM/ETM+/OLI time series. We use a support vector regression approach and synthetically...

Abstract Droughts are often suspected to increase the risk of violent conflict through agricultural production shocks, and existing studies often explore these links through meteorological proxies. In Syria, an alleged agricultural collapse caused by drought is assumed to have contributed to increased migration and the conflict outbreak in 2011. Here we use satellite derived cropland and climate data to study land use dynamics in relation to drought and conflict in Syria. We show that claims...

The Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa has experienced recurrent droughts since the mid-1970s and today there is considerable concern for how this region will be able to adapt to future climate change.To develop well targeted adaptation strategies, the relative importance of climate factors as drivers of land use and livelihood change need to be better understood.Based on the perceptions of 1249 households in five countries across an annual rainfall gradient of 400-900 mm, we provide an...

Abstract Rural development in the Sudano‐Sahelian region during the past 20 years and future scenarios of change were studied using meta‐analysis of case studies, household interviews and scenario assessment. Households have generally increased their wealth, especially when they diversify out of agriculture. Rain‐fed crop cultivation is more sensitive to climate factors than livestock, but generally climate factors play a limited direct role for local land use and livelihood strategies. The...