“…Although there is an increasing realization of the interplay of different driving forces for rural development and environmental change in the tropics (Lambin et al 2001, Reynolds et al 2007, Mbow et al 2008, understanding the relative impact of climate factors is not straight forward (Reenberg 2001, Mortimore et al 2005, Reid and Vogel 2006, Ziervogel et al 2006, Reynolds et al 2007, Thomas et al 2007, Tschakert 2007, Barbier et al 2009, Mertz et al 2009b). This debate has gained increasing importance as it is realized that the impacts of climate change, all other things equal, will require significant adaptation in many different sectors of society (Adger et al 2007, Mertz et al 2009a. In developing countries, many of the impacts are likely to be more severe than elsewhere, and because of the low adaptive capacity especially in the least developed countries, the costs and scale of the needed adaptation strategies may be prohibitive for many people, communities, and nations (Adger et al 2006, Mertz et al 2009a.…”