A socionature approach to adaptation - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 224

a local adaptation plan of action!”' He attributed his belief in the grassroots to
his experience with community forestry in Nepal, a programme that empowers
communities to govern forests. The idea was rapidly embraced, and now has
been instituted elsewhere, including Pakistan and several states within the USA,
although as yet there is no global UNFCCC mandate for LAPAs.
In keeping with a grassroots focus, the LAPA policy was developed based
on the results of several pilot projects (drinking water, irrigation, agriculture).
Yet despite this extensive consultation and grassroots learning, the concept of
LAPA still assumes that adaptation planning must come from 'above' and that
ordinary people lack the knowledge, skills and resources for adaptation. As
another Nepalese employee of an international donor project who was closely
involved in LAPA piloting remarked when we were discussing how the LAPA
piloting engaged local people, 'ultimately, LAPA is also top-down'.
After an 18-month process, Nepal's NAPA was published in 2010 (available
for download on the web in 2011), with the LAPA process beginning immediately
afterwards (ADB 2012; GON/MoE 2010, 2011b, 2011a). The release was delayed
due to internal political concerns and instability - government bureaucrats were
moved frequently, leading to a lack of authority - yet the documents themselves
are devoid of explicit consideration of the political transition. As I explore in
more detail below, I suggest that this absence is not simply an oversight. Rather
it is the result of both the internal situation in Nepal, but also a framing of
climate change adaptation that is unable to account for competing visions of
'moderating harm and capitalizing on benefits'. Perhaps most significantly, the
Nepal experience indicates that far more attention should be paid to adaptation
for whom and at what cost for others within globally supported planning
processes. In Nepal we see very clearly how some people are able to capitalize
upon changes in resources, at the expense of others.
political instability, intersectionality and environmental
change
The apolitical framing of the NAPA and LAPA documents contrasts with the
messy politics that lay behind their delay (and, indeed, everyday life in Nepal)
in the period when they were written (2008-2011). Almost every sphere of life
became increasingly politicized, with party politics cementing patronage and
violence as the norm (International Crisis Group (ICG) 2011). In Nepal's NAPA,
the political transition is mentioned only as a reason to immediately implement
the plans, and it does not appear at all in the LAPA strategy document. There is
no analysis of how political instability might shape the success of the proposals.
Interestingly, people involved told me that the decision to sidestep contentious
politics was made to avoid delays. However, political instability clearly presents
many challenges for adaptation, as well as providing justification for their urgency.
Nepal's politics have been wracked with competition for power between
the main political parties, causing three Constitution writing deadlines to be