Climate Change and development - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 278

de-stocking herds, restricting free-range grazing, and introducing mixed farming
and irrigation systems (Eriksen and Marin Chapter 10 ). Further, it can be seen
in efforts to provide information about climate change and culturally sensitive
institutional support to indigenous groups (Kronik and Hays Chapter 14 ) .
Nonetheless, practical adaptations alone are insufficient to reduce
vulnerability in the short and long term: indeed, in some cases they actually
increase vulnerability, such as in the case of Afar pastoralists (Eriksen and Marin
Chapter 10 ) . Wamsler and Brink ( Chapter 4 ) have shown how institutional
assistance can reinforce existing inequalities and create barriers to adaptation:
for instance, projects that depend on materials and technologies that cannot be
locally maintained, or that deprive people of their livelihoods, or offer a false
sense of security. Ochieng et al. (this volume) point out that the heavy promotion
of environmental conservation measures often overlooks the significance of
other activities, such as charcoal production, as important adaptive measures
and livelihoods.
The success or failure of these responses in relation to the goal of achieving
climate-resilient pathways for sustainable development often depends on the
larger political, economic and cultural systems and structures in which these
solutions are embedded. As Nightingale (this volume, p. 226) argues, 'when
absolute quantities and qualities of resources and services are assumed to
determine the ability of people to adapt, it masks how those with greater social
and political power can harness negative changes in resources for their own
benefit'. Although many adaptation efforts claim to take the local context into
account , taking the vulnerability context as a starting point for development actions
demands a deeper understanding of how various structural processes and
relations, such as gender and power relations, political processes and inequities,
act to generate vulnerability.
Adaptation through transformation in the political sphere
The success or failure of actions in the practical sphere - including their
feasibility and scalability - is influenced by systems and structures that constitute
the political sphere of transformation. It is here that decisions, rules, regulations,
agreements, incentives and priorities are discussed, negotiated, decided or
imposed, and where some interests and agendas are prioritized over others. It
is in the political sphere that problems and solutions are identified and defined,
and conflicts of interest may emerge; it is also here that collective action and
social movements can make a difference by directly challenging the systems and
structures that contribute to vulnerability.
Many of the chapters in this volume support the need for greater attention to
adaptation within the political sphere. For example, Nightingale's research (see
Chapter 12 ) in Nepal shows that access to and control over assets and resources
are primarily constrained by political and economic factors, not biophysical or
environmental ones. The findings of Nagoda and Eriksen (this volume) support