Not so helpless

Local responses to climate change in developing countries

Local populations in developing countries are not helpless victims of climate change, but relate and respond actively to changes in their local environment. That was one of the key messages coming out of a recent seminar held at DIIS in collaboration with the Danish Development Research Network.

The seminar was attended by practitioners, researchers and diplomats from the development community and took its outset in a presentation by Chasca Twyman from the University of Sheffield. Twyman described the findings of a recent cutting-edge study from South Africa, which showed that rural communities were well aware of the environmental changes brought on by climate change, and respond by adapting their livelihoods in multiple ways.

Drawing on these findings, the seminar participants discussed and identified some of the key challenges that policy makers, donors and researchers need to confront and address in order to support such local adaptation strategies. A summary of these and the seminar in general is available below, as are the slides from Chasca Twyman’s presentation.

Seminar summary (pdf, 58 KB)
Twyman presentation [pdf, 11 MB]

The seminar was the first of two that address local livelihood strategies and climate change. The next will be held on 27 May 2008, 13.30-16.30, DIIS Main Auditorium, and will focus on work in progress on climate change and local livelihoods within the Danish resource base. Both seminars are part of the Poverty & Environment seminar series

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