Mapping adaptive capacity and smallholder agriculture: applying expert knowledge at the landscape scale

Abstract

The impacts of climate change exacerbate the myriad challenges faced by smallholder farmers in the Tropics. In many of these same regions, there is a lack of current, consistent, and spatially-explicit data, which severely limits the ability to locate smallholder communities, map their adaptive capacity, and target adaptation measures to these communities. To explore the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in three data-poor countries in Central America, we leveraged expert input through in-depth mapping interviews to locate agricultural landscapes, identify smallholder farming systems within them, and characterize different components of farmer adaptive capacity. We also used this input to generate an index of adaptive capacity that allows for comparison across countries and farming systems. Here, we present an overview of the expert method used, followed by an examination of our results, including the intercountry variation in expert knowledge and the characterization of adaptive capacity for both subsistence Climatic Change (2017) The Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA and smallholder coffee farmers. While this approach does not replace the need to collect regular and consistent data on farming systems (e.g. agricultural census), our study demonstrates a rapid assessment approach for using expert input to fill key data gaps, enable trans-boundary comparisons, and to facilitate the identification of the most vulnerable smallholder communities for adaptation planning in data-poor environments that are typical of tropical regions. One potential benefit from incorporating this approach is that it facilitates the systematic consideration of fieldbased and regional experience into assessments of adaptive capacity, contributing to the relevance and utility of adaptation plans.

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

“…Our parallel field survey of farm practices used by these smallholder farmers [53] found that smallholder farmers with insecure land tenure were less likely to have implemented adaptation strategies than those farmers who owned their land, because they were unwilling to make long-term investments in practices that yield longterm benefits. Insecure land tenure, limited capital, low education, and lack of access to financial and technical support have also been identified as key constraints to adaptation elsewhere [e.g., 6,16,54,55]. The fact that farmers identified the need for government support in providing agricultural inputs, technical support, training, and access to finance further corroborates that these factors serve as constraints to farmer adaptation.…”

“…We focused our study on coffee and basic grains as these the two most common types of smallholder systems in the region [39]. We characterized landscapes as having low adaptive capacity using expert mapping interviews, validation workshops, and expert online surveys, in which experts from the region characterized landscapes based on 20 variables (representing natural, human, social, physical, and financial capital) that contributed to farmer adaptive capacity (see [6] for details). The Turrialba and Los Santos landscapes are dominated by smallholder coffee production, Choluteca is dominated by basic grain production, while the remaining landscapes (Yoro, Chiquimula, and Acatenango) include a mix of coffee and basic grain production.…”

“…Globally, there are an estimated 475 million smallholder farmers cultivating less than 2 ha of land [3], many of whom are poor, experience food insecurity, and live in highly precarious conditions [4,5]. Smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to climate change because most depend on rain-fed agriculture, cultivate marginal areas, and lack access to technical or financial support that could help them invest in more climate-resilient agriculture [4,6,7].…”

Climate change, ecosystems and smallholder agriculture in Central America: an introduction to the special issue

“…Bouroncle et al (2016) address the adaptive capacity and vulnerability of smallholder agricultural livelihoods in four countries in the region at the municipality level. Holland et al (2016) present an innovative methodology, applicable in data-poor environments, for mapping the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to climate change at the landscape level, using expert knowledge.…”

Ethnobiology and research on Global Environmental Change: what distinctive contribution can we make?

“…Research on GEC has rarely included local perspectives; to be precise, human experience has been excluded, and studies have focused on the use of quantitative indices that give an indirect measure of vulnerability (ArceNazario 2007), or of societies' capacity to adjust (Holland et al 2016). This would seem paradoxical, given that we humans are the central players in GEC, both as perpetrators and victims.…”