Community Based Issues and Opportunities in Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has given enough evidences to justify the fact that current warming trend is the result of human activities. Climate Change has and will continue to have a profound impact on ecosystems, agricultural production and human well-being; in several ways that impose new threats and challenges to the survival and sustainable development of human beings. Climate Change is not only triggering an increase in frequency and intensity of cyclones/hurricanes, floods, associated land erosion and landslide hazard in some regions while it also causes prolonged periods of heat waves, water scarcity and droughts in other regions where there are reports of drastic depletion of underground water table, drying up of natural water springs and decreasing trends of streams discharge. Mitigation and Adaptation are the two most important approaches to counter Climate Change impacts. While efforts focus on carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reduction, adaptation measures lend strength to resilience and coping capacities at several levels and scales. Powerful countries took decades to acknowledge the reality of Climate Change which is result of their relentless economic and industrial pursuits. After failing to deliver on the Kyoto Protocol, they finally came together again to deliberate and finally agree on suitable mitigation actions at 2015 climate conference in Paris. On the contrary, the simple farmers, fishers, coastal communities, hill tribes, nomads in the high altitudes in all parts of the world have felt and talked about the impacts of Climate Change, much before climate scientists and the IPCC alarmed the world about it. These local communities in remote corners of the world are at the front line to receive the impact of the Climate Change. They have been dealing with it on their own with their resilience, adaptation and coping strategies. In this background, this chapter discusses Community-based Adaptation (CBA) practices and suggests that the wisdom of simple communities should guide policy measures for boosting adaptation and resilient capacities.