Closing the Adaptation Gap in Mountains

McDowell, Graham; Stevens, Madison; Lesnikowski, Alexandra; Huggel, Christian; Harden, Alexandra; DiBella, Jose; Morecroft, Michael; Kumar, Praveen; Joe, Elphin Tom; Bhatt, Indra D.

doi:10.1659/mrd-journal-d-21-00033.1

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…With regard to the three components of adaptation gaps (exposure, realisation and coherence) [11], the main difference between ethnic groups is realization. It could be argued that exposure (the gap between the magnitude of climatic exposure and the sum of all of the adaptation options) is similar for both groups, as both ethnic groups live in the same mountain and report similar climatic changes and impacts.…”

Section: Adaptation Strategies Wealth and Adaptation Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is an increasing interest in understanding the limits of adaptation [9] or adaptation deficits [10], with recent work on mountain systems being focused on adaptation gaps [11]. The latter authors highlighted three components of adaptation gaps: exposure, realisation and coherence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter authors highlighted three components of adaptation gaps: exposure, realisation and coherence. While the first component refers to the gap between the magnitude of climatic exposure and the sum of all adaptation options, the second component refers to the gap between all of the adaptation options and actual adaptation action, and the third refers to the gap between actual adaptation action and the proportion of adaptations that are in alignment with established national or international goals, such as the Paris Agreement's Global Goal on Adaptation [11]. Adaptation gaps are context specific, and the realization gap can be particularly large in areas where social conditions (e.g., poor access to education, information or financial capital) inhibit adaptation, but other social conditions such as high social capital might foster a high adaptive capacity [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kahuzi showed that smallholder farmers were implementing only four on-farm strategies (improved seeds, new crops, irrigation, and increased farm size) and only two off-farm strategies (diversification into animal rearing, diversification into selling charcoal/timber) [4], with labour and membership in farmers' organisations not being cited. Indeed, many mountain communities continue to face socioeconomic difficulties that constrain their ability to enact their own locally appropriate responses to climate change [11]. This leads to persistent vulnerabilities and greater reliance on external actors and outside intervention [11], if such external actors are present.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, many mountain communities continue to face socioeconomic difficulties that constrain their ability to enact their own locally appropriate responses to climate change [11]. This leads to persistent vulnerabilities and greater reliance on external actors and outside intervention [11], if such external actors are present.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Climate Change Perceptions and Adaptations among Smallholder Farmers in the Mountains of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Amani

Riéra

Imani

et al. 2022

Land

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The warming rates in many mountain areas are higher than the global average, negatively impacting crop systems. Little is known about the climatic changes which are already being observed in eastern Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo, due to the lack of long-term meteorological data. Local perceptions could help us to understand not only the climatic changes and impacts but also which adaptation strategies are already being used by local smallholder farmers. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 300 smallholder Bafuliru (n = 150) and Lega (n = 150) farmers living in the Itombwe Mountains. The respondents reported climatic changes and impacts, with the Bafuliru—living on the eastern drier slopes—reporting more changes and impacts. While the Bafuliru were implementing several adaptation strategies (e.g., increased irrigation and use of inputs, more soil conservation, more income diversification), the Lega were implementing very few, due to soft limits (access to inputs, markets, and information) and culture (less interest in farming, less capacity to organize into groups). The results highlight important differences in sociocultural contexts, even for one ‘remote’ mountain, calling for a more collaborative approach to adaptation planning and action.

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Section: Adaptation Strategies Wealth and Adaptation Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Climate Change Perceptions and Adaptations among Smallholder Farmers in the Mountains of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Amani

Riéra

Imani

et al. 2022

Land

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Adaptation to climate change in the mountain regions of Central Asia: A systematic literature review

Saidaliyeva,

Muccione,

Shahgedanova

et al. 2024

WIREs Climate Change

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The mountains of Central Asia support many environmental functions and ecosystem services. The mountain environments and their services are affected by climate change and climate change adaptation (CCA) actions are required to increase resilience of regional communities. This paper is a systematic review of the English and Russian‐language literature published between 2013 (IPCC AR5) and May 2021 (IPCC AR6) focusing on CCA in the Central Asian mountains. In all, 52 publications have been reviewed. Criteria defining incremental and transformative adaptation were established and the reviewed studies were assigned to one of these approaches. The relatively low number of publications shows that the extent of CCA knowledge represented in academic literature is limited in comparison to other mountainous regions. There is a disparity between the growing body of publications addressing climate change and limited and decreasing number of academic publications focusing on adaptation in the region. Only 11 publications reported transformative adaptation actions. Most of the reviewed papers (55%) focus on water resources and future water availability; 15% focus on land degradation, 10% on changes in vertical zonation of plant species, 7% on loss of plant species, 3% on impacts of hazardous events, and 10% on multiple impacts of climate change. The awareness of the importance of CCA among the regional actors should be improved through closer collaboration between researchers, international organizations focusing on sustainable development and adaptation which have recently become more active in the region, practitioners, and local communities and co‐production of knowledge on the development and implementation of CCA.This article is categorized under: Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Observed Impacts of Climate Change

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The evolution of “riskscapes”: 100 years of climate change and mountaineering activity in the Lake Louise area of the Canadian Rockies

Hanly,

McDowell

2024

Climatic Change

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Climate change is contributing to the rapid warming of mountain environments, resulting in glacial retreat, diminished snowpacks, and permafrost thaw. These changes modify conditions and increase objective hazard on mountaineering routes, threatening the safety and wellbeing of mountaineers. In response, this study used a mixed-methods approach that combines statistical climatological analysis with archival-content analysis to examine the relationship between climate change, route conditions, hazards, and adaptations reported by climbers in the Abbot Pass area of Banff National Park (Canada).Results revealed an increase in temperature and decrease in total precipitation, corresponding with considerable changes in climbing conditions and increases in objective hazards on approach and popular climbing routes in the area. These changes can be classi ed based on the original character of the route and their climate-driven trajectory, creating a novel typology that informs how mountaineers adapt (i.e., spatial vs. temporal substitution). This typology has substantial implications for mountaineers as it could enhance their decision-making processes by allowing them to proactively develop plans that reduce exposure to objective hazards and capitalize on climate-related opportunities.However, our ndings also highlight the potential inevitability of mountaineers encountering hard biophysical limits to adaptation, resulting in forced transformations and signi cant loss and damages. While focused on a Canadian context, the ndings and methodologies developed herein are relevant to other mountain geographies, where climate change is rapidly transforming environments frequented by mountaineers and represents a call to action for more research in eld of climate change, adaptation, and mountaineering.destabilization of countless pieces of alpine infrastructure (Duvillard et al., 2019(Duvillard et al., , 2021, including Canada's historic Abbot Pass Hut (Parks Canada Agency, 2022).Despite extensive literature documenting these widespread physical changes, research examining adaptation amongst mountaineers remains limited. Adaptation is "the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits bene cial opportunities" (IPCC, 2013) and can range from shallow, short-term coping to deep, longer-term transformations (Moser & Ekstrom, 2010). In the context of mountaineering, the literature has identi ed substitution as the predominant adaptation strategy, classi ed as temporal, spatial, and activity

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Closing the Adaptation Gap in Mountains

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 16 publications

References 68 publications

Climate Change Perceptions and Adaptations among Smallholder Farmers in the Mountains of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Climate Change Perceptions and Adaptations among Smallholder Farmers in the Mountains of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Adaptation to climate change in the mountain regions of Central Asia: A systematic literature review

The evolution of “riskscapes”: 100 years of climate change and mountaineering activity in the Lake Louise area of the Canadian Rockies

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