A socionature approach to adaptation - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 219

12
a soCionature approaCh
to adaptation
Political transition, intersectionality, and
climate change programmes in Nepal
Andrea J. Nightingale
introduction: adaptation for whom?
This chapter explores the challenges to adaptation posed by political instability,
through a brief qualitative account of climate change programmes in Nepal.
Fragile political contexts are assumed to be at greater risk from climate change
in part because of changes in resources, and in part because of the lack of
robust institutions (Raleigh and Urdal 2007). Responses put forward have
included securitization (militarization and border controls), and the promotion
of development in at-risk areas to reduce the threat of violence (Dalby 2009).
However, this chapter shows how current 'development-as-usual' approaches to
the promotion of adaptation are inadequate in conflict settings. Using a feminist
political ecology lens to illuminate inequality and the 'socioecological' contexts
through which climate change and contentious politics collide, I demonstrate
how adaptation programmes need to attend to the links between society-nature
and power. The main argument is that adaptation for whom is more important
than the present emphasis on how to adapt. Using material from national and
local levels, this chapter shows how adaptation processes cannot be conceived
separately from politics: these processes need to be recognized as developing and
unfolding within already-politicized relationships and networks. Such networks
range from contentious local politics to global aid relations, requiring adaptation
programmes to take a broader look at how, where and with what consequences
they seek to assist people in developing countries to adapt.
The Nepal case study is particularly suited for critically interrogating current
approaches to adaptation. Nepal has long been the recipient of aid funding
for natural resource management programmes, and its participatory forestry
and conservation projects are seen as models of best practice globally (Ojha et
al. 2008). Most have now been re-branded as 'climate change adaptation and