Limited room For manoeuvre - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 258

Table 14.2 continued

Place Bolivian Andes Colombian Amazon Nicaragua's Carib coast Syrian steppe Central and Southern Tunisia

People Aymara Uinane and Uitoto Miskitu and Garífuna Bedu Bedu

Room for
manoeuvre:
possibilities
and
limitations

Strong indigenist and
workers' unions translate
into political, social
and legal opportunities;
however, barriers with
the labour/indigenist
government combine with
pressure on resources from
mineral and hydrocarbon
extraction. Concessions
negotiated with private
and state-owned extractive
industries are in areas
coinciding with mega-
biodiversity hotspots and
indigenous territorial
rights. c All these limit
options for response in
the face of environmental
change.

Effects of climate
change exacerbated by
deforestation and forest
fragmentation. In the
western part of the
Colombian Amazon,
colonization, armed
conflict, illegal crops and
deforestation have had a
great impact. Integration
into mainstream culture
can provide a buffer
against the effects of
climate change that groups
pursuing more traditional
lifestyles do not have;
however, the latter have
more control of forest
resources. In the eastern
part, indigenous peoples
maintain greater territorial
and cultural autonomy,
but are more vulnerable to
climate change variations.

After the hurricane
flattened large tracts of
forest, agricultural settlers
had easy access to colonize
indigenous territories, as
a result limiting control
over resources and
ability to draw on certain
adaptation strategies.
Coastal communities
are slowly inserting
themselves into an
incipient market economy
(shrimp, lobster, timber,
artisanal gold mining),
giving them access to
building materials and
other goods that can make
them better prepared to
withstand climate change
and variability events - but
more vulnerable to market
forces.

Traditional herding
has become a business,
contributing to a current
lack of resilience to long-
term droughts. Increased
numbers of sheep
necessitate investment in
equipment and growth in
the size of flocks results
in increased pressure
on grazing and water
resources. Competition
over edible vegetation leads
to increased dependence
on loans from feed traders.
Reserves established by
the government to protect
fauna and flora decrease
the natural grazing areas.
The combined effect
is a severe limitation of
options.

Expansion of crops and
arboriculture, overgrazing
and detrimental use of
machinery all play a role
in land degradation.
Respondents explained
their lack of social
capital in terms of shame
and uncertainty about
being able to repay
debt. Social, financial
and environmental
livelihood assets are closely
connected, and relevant
to how people respond to
changing conditions.

Notes
a Climate change scenarios and data from Christensen in Kronik and Verner (2010a), and Wilby 2010 and 2013.
b IPCC 2001 and 2007. Various phenomena including the El Niño Southern Oscillation, la Niña, winds from the Antarctic, and warming from the Caribbean.
c Humpreys-Bebbington 2012, p.140; Bebbington 2012, pp.14-15.