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Food security and biodiversity conservation are key challenges of the twenty-first century. While traditionally these two challenges were addressed separately, recently, papers have begun to specifically address the nexus of food security and biodiversity conservation. We conducted a structured literature review of 91 papers addressing this nexus. To ascertain how a given paper approached the topic, we assessed to what extent it covered 68 potentially relevant issues. The resulting dataset was analyzed using cluster analysis. Two main branches of literature, containing a total of six clusters of papers, were identified. The 'biophysical-technical' branch (clusters: 'sustainable intensification' and 'production focus') was dominated by the natural sciences, focused strongly on the production aspect of food security, and sought general solutions. In contrast, the 'social-political' branch (clusters: 'social-ecological development'; 'empowerment for food security'; 'agroecology and food sovereignty'; and 'social-ecological systems') often drew on the social sciences and emphasized social relations and governance, alongside broader considerations of sustainability and human well-being. While the biophysical-technical branch was often global in focus, much of the social-political branch focused on specific localities. Two clusters of papers, one from each branch, stood out as being particularly broad in scope-namely the clusters on 'sustainable intensification' and 'agroecology and food sovereignty.' Despite major differences in their conceptual basis, we argue that exchange between these two research clusters could be particularly helpful in generating insights on the food-biodiversity nexus that are both generally applicable and sufficiently nuanced to capture key system-specific variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will present new challenges for transboundary governance of international river basins, many of which will experience increasing levels of environmental variability in the coming decades. Failure to adequately respond to these challenges will increase vulnerability for people across the globe who rely on these river systems for their livelihoods. To be effective, governance systems will need to embrace uncertainty, increase international cooperation, and authentically engage local actors in decision-making. This paper considers the potential for transnational governance that accounts for local livelihoods by presenting findings from qualitative research in Namibia and Botswana, two of the three countries located in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin of Southern Africa. Findings show the importance of local livelihoods for communities in the basin, which have been historically overlooked by governance systems, and which now face increasing threats from development and climate change. The paper illustrates how these livelihoods are governed by a complex institutional arrangement that includes national governments inclined to protect their own interests and a transnational governance body whose mission is to coordinate decision-making across the basin to support sustainable development. The paper concludes with a call for increased attention to the impacts of governance decisions on the livelihoods of river basin communities, with insights for the Cubango-Okavango River Basin specifically, as well as for international river basins more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic is experiencing a rapid temperature increase, four times faster than lower-latitude regions, disproportionately affecting rural, coastal, and Indigenous communities. These areas confront multiple urgent climate challenges. Adaptation strategies encompass out-migration, community relocation, and enhancing resilience, yet research in this critical area is notably limited, particularly for the most vulnerable communities. This paper presents a comprehensive review of environmental stressors and contextual factors influencing migration decisions in the North American Arctic. While migration is primarily driven by job opportunities, education, healthcare, cultural, and infrastructural factors, factors such as family, culture, safety, subsistence life, and community ties strongly influence residents to stay. The study reveals a lack of clear evidence for climate-driven migration at the individual/household level, but it underscores well-documented community-level relocations. Two major challenges in studying Arctic climate migration are identified: the complexity of migration and the uniqueness of Arctic climate change. Recommendations include considering migration typology, disentangling climate drivers from contextual factors, and addressing data limitations through systematic collection, integration, and creative use of traditional and nontraditional data. The paper underscores the importance of establishing partnerships with local communities to achieve a holistic understanding of factors driving migration or immobility, ensuring research outcomes are connected to addressing community challenges. This review lays the groundwork for empirical research on Arctic migration and community adaptation, aiming to comprehend the challenges faced by these communities and explore potential solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, people have always had to deal with climate-related hazards, and in the majority of places, they have adapted gradually. However, these gradual adaptations may not be enough to withstand the expected intensity of climate-related hazards in the future. In this paper, our focus is on the effect of storms in the Faroe Islands. The islands are highly exposed to storms, which are projected to increase in intensity and potentially also in frequency in this region. The islands are characterized by being small, remote, and with a rough terrain, which makes it difficult for external actors to provide assistance. As a result, the civilian population—especially in the outer regions—often have to deal with storms and their consequences themselves. The geographical focus in this paper is the Northern Islands, and in particular the communities of Viðareiði and Hvannasund. The approach applied is qualitative, and the central question this paper tries to answer is how aspects of place attachment (social, physical, functional) affect the way in which the local population handle storms. The findings show communities that are impacted by storms, but also that their previous experiences with storms have led to an improved adaptation level, which today enables them to cope with more severe storms. The attachment they have to where they live will assist them in coping with future storms, although it can also be a hindrance to the implementation of the necessary adaptation and preparedness measures, since they presume that they are already safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate Change research plays a pivotal role in Africa’s sustainable development by providing the required scientific evidence to inform the design of Africa’s development priorities. The need for enhanced climate research is heightened by the fact that Africa is one of the regions likely to be most affected by the impacts of global warming and climate change. This paper highlights some key lessons learnt from the provision of climate research support in Africa under the Climate Impact Research Capacity Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE) project implemented by the African Academy of Sciences and the Association of Commonwealth Universities in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, Vitae, and the University of Greenwich’s Natural Resources Institute. The paper discusses the early-career research support landscape in Africa, the place of institutional strengthening in climate research programming, and the need for a well-coordinated community and public engagement in the climate research projects. Lessons from the CIRCLE programme provide useful insights for future climate research programme design and early-career research support initiatives in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appeals to the importance of place are limited in the adaptation literature. While place has been acknowledged to contribute to individual and collective identity, its broader role representing meaningful connection between people and location has not been sufficiently developed or acknowledged in this literature, and is largely absent from key IPCC documents. As climate change disconnects people from their surroundings, it can compromise their sense of place. The loss of connection with one’s environs generates difficulties, not only in that under such conditions it is harder to find food, water, and shelter, but also in that under such conditions one is unable to recognize what choices and options are available. This paper contends that these choices and options are vital for human flourishing. Relying on the capabilities approach, according to which human flourishing should be understood not in terms of whether some state has been achieved, but whether an individual has the capacity to bring about certain chosen and endorsed states of being, this paper argues that place and place-making are central to human flourishing and should play a significant role in our adaptation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of scientific information about future weather and climate offers enormous potential for society to better manage the risks associated with climate variability and change. There has been significant investment in weather and climate services (WCS) over the past years; however, empirically based evidence of the socio-economic benefits of such services is very limited. Understanding and capturing the real benefits of WCS as they unfold on the ground are key to ensure continue investment in WCS as well as to enable adaptive management. In this paper, we conduct a review of the literature of WCS evaluations in South Asia. We systematically document and analyse empirical evidence as reported in the academic and grey literature to highlight (1) the scale and scope of WCS that have been evaluated in the region; (2) the methodological approaches that have been used to monitor and evaluate the benefits of WCS initiatives on the ground and (3) the socio-economic benefits of WCS categorised under a triple bottom line approach that takes into consideration economic, social and environmental benefits. The paper explores these findings and highlights key areas that warrant further discussion and research. These include a limited effort to systematically record and document the benefits of WCS and an over-emphasis on capturing evidence of short-term economic benefits at the expense of long-term economic benefits, as well as social and environmental benefits. We conclude this paper with a call for increased cooperation between meteorologists, economists and social researchers to develop empirical case studies of benefits and trade-offs as they occur on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the need to situate the climate change narrative in lived everyday life for conceptualizing adaptation strategies. Climate change in its dominant narrative talks of global risks while it is the local risks experienced in everyday life which adaptation needs to address. This paper engages with this challenge using the specific case study of coffee growers in South India and focuses on two strategies available to them to address their rainfall risk: irrigation (sprinkler and rain-guns) and rainfall insurance. The paper unpacks growers’ decision-making process to invest or not to invest in insurance and irrigation and showcases that even though variation in rainfall is a significant concern for the growers still investing in neither of the two strategies (insurance and rain-gun irrigation) or only in sprinkler irrigation remains the most preferred decision scenarios. The paper argues that rain-gun irrigation and insurance reconfigure growers’ relation with rainfall. In this reconfigured relation, the agency is removed from growers and passed on to a scientifically calibrated assessment of rainfall. Growers’ reluctance to buy into these schemes, thus, is indicative of their reluctance to buy into the reconfigured system where the agency of knowledge has been removed from them and passed on to the scientific assessments. In a situated context, thus, climate change for coffee growers in South India is an issue of agency and trust. Therefore, thinking through adaptation strategies for addressing the situated narrative of climate change challenge would require opening the process of calibrating rainfall for insurance to gain growers’ trust. Additionally, making science more inclusive of lived experiences on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors across all economic sectors of society will need to adapt to cope with the accelerating impacts of climate change. However, little information is currently available about how microeconomic actors are adapting to climate change and how best to support these adaptations. We reviewed the empirical literature to provide an overview of (1) the climate change adaptations that have been undertaken in practice by microeconomic actors (i.e. households and firms) and their determinants; and (2) the outcomes of these adaptations and the manner in which public policies have supported them. About a quarter of actors across the studies included in our review took no adaptation measures to climate change. Of those that did, the most commonly identified determinant of adaptation was assets, which were predominantly discussed as facilitating diversification within livelihoods. Few (14 out of 80) of the studies we reviewed which described empirical climate change adaptations evaluated the outcomes of these adaptations. Of those that did, evidence suggests that conflicts exist between the microeconomic outcomes of adaptations, social and environmental externalities, and long-term resilience. Different public policy interventions intended to support adaptation were discussed (57 in total); the provision of informational support was the most prevalent (33%). Our analysis suggests that microeconomic adaptation occurs as a cycle in which social and ecological feedbacks positively or negatively influence the adaptation process. Thus, efforts to facilitate adaptation are more likely to be effective if they recognize the role of feedbacks and the potential diversity of outcomes triggered by public policy incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to climate change is becoming a routine and necessary component of planning at all levels. In the case of small island developing states (SIDS), the successful development, implementation and evaluation of national-level adaptation policies are especially important because of their disproportionate vulnerability. The status of adaptation policies in these countries, however, is poorly understood and documented, particularly for the Atlantic, Indian Oceans, Mediterranean and South China Seas (AIMS) region. This is so largely because of minimal mainstream research interest in these small nations. This paper helps fill this gap. It develops an Adaptation Policy Assessment Framework that facilitates a rapid qualitative assessment of countries' national adaptation policies. It applies the framework to seven representative policies across six of the nine SIDS in the AIMS region—Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles and Singapore. It finds that countries are mostly successful in identifying climate and climate-related vulnerabilities and linking associated risks to other national development priorities such as poverty reduction. Countries, however, struggle with establishing and maintaining systems to review and improve adaptation interventions, which is not entirely unique to them or their circumstances. This paper's findings provide critical points of reflection for countries preparing and revising their National Adaptation Plans in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They also contribute to a broader understanding of the complexities of climate policy development in small jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will create warmer temperatures and greater precipitation in mountainous regions, making agriculture increasingly possible in these areas. To determine the potential of agricultural expansion, this paper approximated how much new land could become suitable for cropping maize, rice, wheat, millet, buckwheat, and barley in Nepal by 2041–2060 and 2081–2100 periods under climate change projection. Additionally, this paper estimates the potential environmental trade-offs of agricultural expansion in Nepal by evaluating how carbon stores, protected areas, tree cover, and river systems would be traded for agriculture. Results show that under climate change projected by WorldClim under three different climate change scenarios, up to ~36,983km2 of land may become available for agriculture by 2100 in the high mountains of Nepal. If all this area is utilized for agriculture, up to 3.1 GtC (gigaton carbon) would be released from soil carbon and 0.12 GtC from above ground carbon stores, 11,129 km2 of tree cover would be impacted, 9934 km2 of protected areas would be impacted, and river systems will be impacted as 4446 km2 of climate-driven agricultural frontiers identified in this study lie within 200m of a river. These results highlight that agricultural frontiers will emerge in northwestern part of Nepal, which would have very important food security implication as this region of Nepal has been suffering from a very high level of food insecurity. However, before moving toward any potential development of agricultural activities, in-depth analysis about the potential food production benefit of developing frontiers against their potential ecosystem service trade-offs is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is vulnerable to a diverse range of climate change hazards that have significant impacts on food security, biodiversity loss, water crises and prevalence of infectious diseases. With much of the continent’s population reliant on ecosystems to sustain their livelihoods, degradation of ecosystems caused by both climatic and non-climatic stressors is increasing vulnerability, reducing adaptation potential and limiting progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) presents a critical opportunity to address complex climate change vulnerabilities and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions across Africa. This study examines both the proposed extent of EbA actions across Africa and assesses alignment with existing research on EbA actions. A quantitative assessment of 52 Nationally Determined Contributions together with a review of available academic literature is undertaken. Results show that out of the 713 individual adaptation actions, 36.2% can be classified as EbA. The four sectors of agriculture, environment, forestry/land use and land use change, and water contribute ~ 82.5% of the total number of EbA actions identified across the continent. The meta-analysis revealed that 58% of EbA-focused research papers explicitly address or reference mitigation co-benefits. However, research on EbA actions focuses on mitigation and adaptation independently with little focus on integration of these outcomes. Understanding the current status of EbA and its integration of mitigation and adaptation provides a solid foundation for scaling up efforts to adapt to the current and impending impacts of climate change across Africa. Limited resources necessitate a structured and programmatic approach towards scaling up the implementation of EbA mitigation synergies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors engaging in integrated landscape approaches to reconciling conservation and development represent multiple sectors and scales and actors with different powers, resource access, and influence on decision-making. Despite growing acknowledgement, limited evidence exists on the implications of power relations for landscape governance. Therefore, this paper asks why and how different forms of power unfold and affect the functioning of multi-stakeholder platforms in southern Zambia. Social network analysis and a power influence assessment reveal that all actors exercise some form of visible, hidden, or invisible power in different social spaces to influence decision-making or negotiate a new social order. The intersection of customary and state governance reveals that power imbalances are the product of actors’ social belongingness, situatedness, and settlement histories. We conclude that integrated landscape approaches are potentially suited to balance power by triggering new dynamic social spaces for different power holders to engage in landscape decision-making. However, a power analysis before implementing a landscape approach helps better recognise power differentials and create a basis for marginalised actors to participate in decision-making equally. The paper bears relevance beyond the case, as the methods used to unravel power dynamics in contested landscapes are applicable across the tropics where mixed statutory and customary governance arrangements prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As socio-ecological systems undergo regional environmental change, there is a need to create adaptive governance that can manage uncertainty through the coordination of actors. Social capital can help overcome some of these challenges to facilitate a transition to adaptive governance, but social capital has often been treated as a catch-all phrase without offering strong theoretical or empirical contributions to how social processes influence governance outcomes. This paper addresses this gap by offering empirical insights into the conditions that activate individuals’ linking social capital to form new institutions to adapt to environmental change in two small-scale fishing communities in southern Chile. We used a mixed methods approach to examine the relationship between linking social capital and whether or not our individuals in our study adapted their diving practices or joined new organizations as a form of adaptation. We then use ethnography to illuminate the community-level factors and mechanisms that fostered the ability for individuals to use their linking social capital to transition governance and why a collaborative transition was successful in one community, but not the other. This paper suggests that leadership, shared visions, and a culture of cooperation underpin successful governance transitions, while intra-community conflict inhibits transitions even when linking social capital is present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this letter, we respond to the commentary by Kamp et al. on our paper (Nunez et al. in Reg Environ Chang 20:39, 2020) that reports on potential biodiversity change in Central Asian grasslands using climate and land-use change scenarios. In their commentary, Kamp et al. criticize data and methods employed and discuss several shortfalls of our approach. In this response, we argue that in our paper projections of future biodiversity already acknowledge the issues indicated by Kamp et al. We elaborate on the reasons why. We maintain our main finding that, based on a number of contrasting scenarios (shared socioeconomic pathways and representative concentration pathways combinations), biodiversity in grasslands in Central Asia will potentially decline under each scenario. We conclude that while our data and methods conservatively estimate potential biodiversity changes in the Central Asian grasslands, they could be enriched with more elements. The results, however, are likely to confirm the vulnerability of these grasslands and the possible decline in their biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and biophysical vulnerability of agriculture to climate change has increased exponentially in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Although contract farming (CF) schemes have burgeoned in developing countries as a resilience-building strategy for smallholder farmers, there is a lack of empirical evidence to show how and why CF enhances smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change in SSA. This paper combines theoretical insights from climate change adaptation literature with qualitative data to explore three CF schemes implemented in northern Ghana to find out whether or not they enhance smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change. The results show that smallholder farmers perceived a change in climate parameters, namely declining rainfall, uneven rainfall distribution and rising temperatures, leading to reduced agricultural yields. In response, smallholder farmers have implemented three CF schemes, which vary, not only in terms of crops cultivated but in terms of the contractual arrangement, as a resilience-building strategy to the changing climate. The CF schemes provided material and non-material resources to participating farmers and enhanced their resilience to climate change better than non-contract farmers. Contrarily, depending on how production risks are distributed in the schemes studied, CF can undermine the resilience of smallholder farmers. Ultimately, the paper provides critical insights on how to design and implement CF schemes to enhance the resilience of agrarian societies in the face of increasing climate change in SSA and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, water governance struggles to reconcile increased demands on water resources with climate change–induced reductions in supply, making climate adaptation in water governance a pressing concern. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has emerged as a climate adaptation tool designed to help make adaptation decisions. However, there is limited understanding of social and political factors, which are critical in driving RAD decisions. This paper explores how communities are employing RAD to make climate adaptation decisions, using a case study of the Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy (the Strategy); a community-led strategy that uses a version of the RAD framework to build regional resilience in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District (GMID) in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The Strategy focuses on building socio-economic, rather than ecological, resilience, making this research a valuable contribution to RAD literature. To apply the RAD framework to socio-economic adaptation, we adapted the framework to include IPCC language around incremental, transformational, planned, and autonomous adaptation. With the GMID considered a leader of resilience thinking in Australia, the Strategy may help decision-makers address water overallocation and contested governance in the MDB, and provide lessons for water governance globally. Data analysed from 20 semi-structured interviews with people involved with the Strategy revealed two main findings: (1) Communities and governments prioritise different actions under the RAD framework. Governments, particularly at the state level, preference incremental planned adaptation to maintain the status quo (resist), over incremental autonomous adaptation to changing conditions (accept), and transformational planned adaptation at various scales (direct). (2) Community and government actors perceive that factors driving governments’ preference for incremental-resist adaptation include electoral short-termism, linear planning, and conservative government culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within scenario-based research of social-ecological systems, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of normative scenarios that define positive outcomes for both nature and society. While several frameworks exist to guide the co-creation of normative scenario narratives, examples of operationalizing these narratives in quantitative simulation modelling are still limited. To address this gap, this paper presents an example of how aspects of normative scenarios can be realized within a spatial model of land use and land cover change. This is achieved through a combination of data-driven approaches to encapsulate scenario-specific differences in local and global scale phenomena, as well as iterative expert elicitation to quantify descriptive trends from narratives. This approach is demonstrated with a case study simulating five scenarios of landscape change (three normative and two exploratory) in Switzerland between 2020 and 2060. The resulting maps of future land use and land cover exhibited distinct variations between the scenarios, notably with regard to the prevalence of areas of heterogeneous semi-natural land, such as alpine pastures and grassland, often considered culturally emblematic of Switzerland. While the simulation results were generally consistent with the outcomes expressed in the scenario narratives, following a process of expert feedback, we reflect that there are clear challenges in leveraging such results to elicit further discussions as to the desirability and plausibility of future scenarios. Specifically, the need to summarize spatial simulations in a manner that is easily interpretable and encourages consideration of the broader patterns of change rather than focusing on fine-scale details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China-Vietnam border plays a crucial role as a vital ecological barrier in China, and along with the development of the border, the pattern of production-living-ecological (PLE) spaces has been significantly affected by human activities. Therefore, the resulting landscape ecological risk is worthy of attention. Based on the perspective of PLE spaces, the paper employs transfer matrices, landscape ecological risk evaluation model, and spatial models to examine the evolution of land space and landscape ecological risk over the past 40 years along the China-Vietnam border. The findings are as follows: (1) agricultural production space is shrinking by 49.82 km2, and the problem of arable land non-agriculturalization is escalating. Meanwhile, industrial and mining production space has witnessed considerable expansion of 94.38 km2. Similarly, urban living space experienced an increase of 52.91 km2. Although rural living space initially contracted, it later experienced rapid growth, surpassing urban living space. In 2020, rural living space is 2.3 times larger than urban living space. Woodland ecological space has slightly expanded but subsequently contracted. Grassland ecological space reduced by 44.20 km2, while watershed ecological space expanded significantly by 88.42 km2. Other ecological space decreased sharply by 807.84 km2. (2) Both ecological protection and destruction behaviors are observed in the study area. Landscape ecological risk (LER) is increasing. Moving from west to east, the LER index consistently rises. (3) LER in the study area exhibits a significant spatial aggregation. High-high (H–H) areas are predominantly concentrated in the mineral resource-rich regions and coastal tourism zones of the central-eastern region, while low-low (L-L) areas are primarily distributed in border villages and cottages. Based on our findings, we can conclude that human activities in the study area have resulted in the transformation of PLE spaces, leading to a deterioration in the quality of the ecological environment. To address this issue, it is essential to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization and improve the ecological compensation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation has been at the heart of the transformation of the Amazon. Global concerns over deforestation and its impact on climate change have resulted in the adoption of a number of initiatives in the framework of zero deforestation. However, undifferentiated application of the concepts of zero net, gross, and illegal deforestation has revealed a lack of understanding of their scope and of challenges to their implementation. Zero legal and illegal deforestation is, in particular, a controversial subject from the point of view of regulation and sovereignty but an essential aspect from the perspective of public policy design. In Colombia, zero deforestation commitments make no mention of legal deforestation. Papers that analyze deforestation and official data sources fail to incorporate the legal dimension in their analysis. This article addresses this gap by identifying areas where deforestation is legal and where it is illegal in one deforestation hotspot of the Colombian Amazon, the administrative department of Guaviare. Our results show that deforestation has increased since 2013, mainly occurs in illegal zones, and that Guaviare department, 85% of which is covered by forest, has very little legal deforestation potential. Our findings reveal that assessing the legality and illegality of deforestation is more complex than often assumed and must become a priority, especially in forested countries where regulation on forest and land management is shared between different level of governments and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many coastal places around the UK face change, with impacts on communities, livelihoods, and landscapes. A tidal surge in 2013 caused significant erosion and flooding on the east coast of England (UK). This was the catalyst for the innovative Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme, also known as the Sandscaping Scheme, implemented in summer 2019. It is a one-off, large-scale beach nourishment scheme with a design prediction of 15–20 years functional life, the first of its kind in the UK and worldwide outside of the Netherlands. Through stakeholder interviews and a household questionnaire survey, this paper examines the institutional and political challenges, expectations, and hopes associated with this Scheme just before its implementation. The findings indicate that a combination of factors enabled technical and institutional experimentation and innovation at this location: critical erosion risk at a site of strategic infrastructure adjacent to two highly vulnerable villages, extensive stakeholder collaboration across scales, resolute leadership, and recognition of co-benefits. Although most interviewees and local residents foresaw significant benefit from the Scheme—not least respite from the deep anxiety caused by the threat of flooding and erosion risk—tensions were expressed around uncertainty beyond the Scheme’s lifetime and the need to start effective conversations about future adaptation options for the area. This study provides reflections for similar nature-based coastal management schemes elsewhere. It highlights the fundamental challenges facing the governance of natural and social coastal systems for adapting to current and future coastal change and the importance of articulating local and sometimes intangible understandings and expectations of adaptive coastal management interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reality of global climate change demands novel approaches to science that are reflective of the scales at which changes are likely to occur, and of the new forms of knowledge required to positively influence policy to support vulnerable populations. We examine some of the opportunities and challenges presented by a collaborative, transdisciplinary research project on climate change adaptation in Africa and Asia that utilized a hotspot approach. A large-scale effort to develop appropriate baselines was a key challenge at the outset of the program, as was the need to develop innovative methodologies to enable researchers to work at appropriate spatial scales. Efforts to match research to the biophysical scales at which change occurs need to be aware of the mismatch that can develop between these regional scales and the governance scales at which decisions are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has an error that was introduced during the publishing process. In this paper, Figure 3 is mistakenly identical to Figure 2. The correct Figure 3 and its caption are provided here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing fishing effort and fishing capacity was labelled by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a key requirement to ensure the sustainability of global fisheries. The objective of this paper was to analyse the evolution of fishing effort and capacity during the last two decades in Egypt’s marine fisheries. Fishing effort (number of licences and fishers), capacity (number of vessels and engine power) and landings data were obtained from the fisheries management agency’ annual statistical books (2000–2019). The evolution of fishing effort and capacity in total, for Mediterranean and Red Sea fisheries, also by gear and port was presented. The annual catch per unit effort (CPUE), maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and fleet overcapacity were calculated. Some of these indicators were compared to Saudi fisheries in the Red Sea to provide regional insight into the northern Red Sea. Results highlighted the overcapacity of the Egyptian Mediterranean fleet in terms of engine power (increasing average hp) while the Red Sea in terms of number of vessels. The estimated MSY was about 64,388 tonnes for the Mediterranean Sea and about 66,823 tonnes for the Red Sea. The number of vessels was higher about 1.68% and 36.67% than the estimated optimum number of vessels for the Mediterranean and Red Sea respectively. Both fleets’ CPUE is now less than it was in the beginning of this century despite considerable technological advancement. Limitations, gaps and future direction to address the issue of overcapacity and the management of these fisheries are provided in the last section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to social and environmental change requires learning and governance that span ecological levels, political jurisdictions, and management challenges. Governance of these challenges is often comprised of public and private sector actors with overlapping jurisdictions that work together—termed polycentric governance. Polycentric governance systems have been found to improve adaptability through learning. In this paper, we compare how local organizations perceive a governance systems’ function and structure to help them learn and adapt to change. In our interviews with organization leaders in three north-central US states, we used expert elicitation to compare the degree to which the organizations’ partners help them experiment and learn to adapt to challenges. The challenges most frequently identified included social challenges like sharing knowledge and funding as well as ecological issues related to the resource. The associated polycentric governance systems’ structures varied by state. Independence and jurisdictional overlap—measures of polycentricity—differed by partner type, while consideration of partners’ best practices was similar for all partner types. Most partners were said to provide helpful information and respond to queries facilitating learning, but government partners were not always encouraging innovation or flexible implying less space for experimentation. We found that in each of the three states there is a mixture of actors at multiple scales partnering with the lake organizations at different frequencies and modes of interaction. We conclude that polycentric governance is beneficial for learning and experimentation, and that different structures may be beneficial to adapting within different contexts or problems definitions. The challenge for these systems is controlling areas of risk while providing flexibility to experiment and adapt to changing conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meteorological hazards can lead farmers to resort to strategies such as weather modifications. In this paper, we study how the use of such strategies, in this case silver iodide ground generators aimed at protecting vineyards from hail, caused a conflict between farmers (wine producers and cattle breeders) in Burgundy, France. The conflict emerged as the installation of these generators coincided with 3 years of severe droughts (2018, 2019 and 2020), which incurred additional expenses and organisational difficulties for local cattle breeders and led them to suspect a potential link between the generators and the droughts. We followed a transdisciplinary research approach, based on local stakeholder input and their need to mitigate the negative impacts of the conflict. Based on this approach, we studied the links between generator use and precipitation, and carried out in-depth interviews to study farmers’ experiences of climate, generators and conflicts in the region. Whilst the climatic analysis shows no local or regional effects of the generators on precipitation volumes, the sociological study highlights the vulnerability of farmers to successive droughts, found to be part of a wider pattern of climate change based on water balance variables (temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration potential, soil wetness index) over a long period (1959–2020). Our results suggest that the use of technical solutions to mitigate meteorological hazards, within a broader context of climate engineering, can lead to conflicts at the regional level, and that the climate change challenge in the context of agriculture requires a focus on wider social issues including vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are creating intensifying and more frequent hazards for human populations inhabiting the coast. In Alaska’s remote coastal communities, flooding and erosion are rapidly increasing due to the combined effect of sea level rise, more frequent storm surges, and increasingly powerful wave action from lack of sea ice. This paper presents survey results documenting socio-economic and psychological livelihood impacts and relocation preferences as reported by residents of a remote coastal Indigenous community. We quantified direct costs of lost or damaged private property, affected community infrastructure, and interruption of public services and found that the resulting financial hardship adds to existing economic challenges and climate stressors. Findings underline a community-level preoccupation with coastal climate threats that manifests primarily in intrusive and distressing thoughts of consequences from storms and other destructive climatic events. We highlight the need to monitor more broadly livelihood impacts to inform the design of innovative risk management tools to moderate financial hardship and strengthen community-driven action. We conclude that new policy responding to the needs of remote Indigenous communities affected by repetitive environmental disasters needs to account for a complex array of community and culture-specific socio-economic, health, and biophysical factors that require frequent co-produced assessments to capture rapidly changing conditions at the local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals and communities socially construct risk, and societies with greater risk perception may be more apt to mobilize or adapt to emergent threats like climate change. Increasing climate change awareness is often considered necessary in the first stages of the adaptation process to manage its impacts and reduce overall vulnerability. Since agriculture is affected by climate change in several ways, farmers can provide first-hand observations of climate change impacts and adaptation options. This paper aims to identify the current research trends and set the future research agenda on climate change awareness, perceived impacts, and adaptive capacity from farmers' experiences and behavior. We analyzed a portfolio of 435 articles collected from WoS and Scopus databases between 2010 and 2020 using bibliometrics. From the original portfolio, we select 108 articles for a more comprehensive and systematic review. Publication trends and content analysis have been employed to identify influential work, delineate the mental structure of farmers' beliefs and concerns, and identify main research gaps. The comprehensive analysis reported (1) farmers' socio-demographic characteristics influencing farmers' perceptions; (2) awareness and changing climate evidence due to human activity; (3) the main perceived effects (rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme events); (4) the most relevant adaptation measures (crop changing and soil/water conservation techniques); and (5) factors and barriers limiting adaptation (lack of information, credit, and expertness). The review outlines the main gaps and their drivers to help future researchers, managers, and decision-makers to prioritize their actions according to farmers' concerns and their adaptive capacity to reduce farming vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding popular attitudes to climate change can be important in developing effective climate adaptation responses. However, in the Pacific region, which is at the forefront of impacts of a changing climate, little attention has been given to popular perceptions of climate change. This paper presents the findings of a climate change module in the first Pacific Attitudes Survey (PAS), conducted in Samoa from December 2020 to January 2021. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of Samoans of voting age (n = 1319), the PAS gauges the views of ordinary Samoans towards climate change, including perceptions of the urgency of climate change action, perceptions of the effects of climate change in Samoa, and of individual or institutional capacity to act on climate change. Findings reveal that while most respondents believe that climate change was an urgent problem that needs to be addressed, a significant minority thought it will "never be necessary" to address climate change. This study also found level of education to be a significant factor in climate beliefs. Respondents who had higher education levels were more likely to rate climate change as an urgent problem. Those identifying climate change as an urgent problem that needs to be addressed were significantly more likely to agree that climate change was affecting Samoa in general and their own personal lives. We also found a significant association between perceptions that climate change was an "urgent problem that needs to be addressed", and willingness to permanently migrate for work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. Although it might adversely impact all of the world in varying magnitudes, tropical biodiversity is expected to be impacted the most. Central and South America (CSA) is among the most biodiverse regions in the world, housing several important areas for conservation due to high levels of diversity and endemism. Thus, because of its disproportionate tropical biodiversity, CSA might be severely vulnerable to climate change in the future. We performed a systematic review to assess how risk projections varied for different aspects of biodiversity in CSA, and the potential benefits of limiting climate change. We evaluated 71 scientific papers, amounting to > 3000 risk projections in the priority areas for conservation in CSA. CSA houses some of the most studied richspots in the world, with a strong bias towards the Atlantic Forest, Mesoamerica and Cerrado hotspots. Our results indicate that up to 85% of risk projections predict negative impacts, with 26% of projections predicting species extinctions. While high emissions scenarios indicate severe adverse impacts for biodiversity in CSA, noteworthy risk reduction arose from mitigation. Considering a climate change mitigation scenario in line with the Paris Agreement, risks for the region could be substantially reduced by over 80%. However, for endemic species, which are predicted to be the most impacted by climate change in CSA, mitigation alone will not suffice to minimize climatic risks. This highlights the urgent need of adaptation measures to increase the resilience of natural systems in the CSA to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature suggests that direct national access to multilateral climate funds could promote climate change adaptation investment that focuses more on the needs of vulnerable local communities when compared to indirect access through multilateral agencies. However, there has been no systematic comparative assessment of the level of community focus of direct-access and indirect-access projects. The lack of a standardized methodology to assess the level of community-focused adaptation has also constrained such comparison. To address this gap, this paper proposes a new framework to assess the level of community focus in adaptation projects, using a combination of financial, participatory, devolutionary, and design for policy adoption and replicability criteria. Using the Adaptation Fund (AF) as a case study, we apply the framework to systematically assess 63 projects approved by the Fund as of May 2017, comprising 22 direct-access and 41 indirect-access projects. We find that direct-access projects are more community-focused than indirect-access projects because they exhibit higher community-oriented financial, participatory, and devolutionary characteristics. We find no difference between the direct-access and indirect-access projects with regard to how they are designed to promote policy adoption and replicability of AF project-financed adaptation actions through policy and geographical mainstreaming. Our findings contribute to an improved understanding of the pattern of adaptation investment that takes place in developing countries with the support of international adaptation finance under both access modalities. The proposed assessment framework could also inform the development of a standardized methodology to track the delivery of international adaptation finance to the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently published article by Albizua et al. (2020) contained an error. The reference to Guerrero et al. (2013), cited in the Introduction section of the paper, was missing in the list of references. Below the full reference is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable barriers can emerge in developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies. Understanding the nature of barriers to adaptation is important so as to find strategic ways of dealing with them. However, our current understanding is limited and highly fragmented across the academic community. This paper aims to bring some conceptual convergence in these debates by applying a systematic review method to assess the current state of knowledge on barriers to adaptation in the peer-reviewed literature. The review results show that: (1) Barriers to adaptation have hardly been defined in the literature and no clear indicators exist so as to identify and assess them systematically. (2) An impressive number of barriers have been reported, but the list of possible barriers is seemingly endless. (3) The most frequently reported barriers relate to the institutional and social dimensions of adaptation. (4) Barriers are identified as configurations of climate and non-climate factors and conditions that emerge from the actor, the governance system, or the system of concern. (5) Barriers are mainly studied in developed countries with a strong focus on water-related domains. (6) The majority of studies on barriers use small-n inductive case approaches while comparative studies across different contexts are limited. (7) Although interventions to overcome barriers are recommended by most studies, empirical studies on interventions are scarce. We present further conceptual clarification and a more precise definition of barriers to adaptation. We conclude that future research should go beyond asking the questions 'if' and 'which' barriers to adaptation exist and begin asking 'how' and 'why' barriers emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to assess future hazards due to extreme meteorological events in the Wielkopolska region, Poland, based on five climate model projections and three scenarios: SSP126, 370, and 585. The paper analyzes the changes of mean and extreme precipitation, mean and extreme temperatures, and humidity index, as well as changes in difference between maximum temperatures observed from day to day and changes in difference between mean atmospheric pressure at the sea level observed from day to day. Additionally, we look at possible future occurrence of wildfires due to changes in fire weather conditions. Based on climate model projections, future hazard due to extreme meteorological events in Wielkopolska region is to be more serious and will be most noticeable in the end of twenty-first century and for two higher scenarios: SSP370 and SSP585. For near future, 2021–2050, projected conditions of meteorological extremes for analyzed scenarios are quite consistent. Therefore, there is a strong need for implementing adaptation actions. Nevertheless, such activities are so far lacking, and several adaptation options are not present in local and national legislation, even though they are recognized as effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand is increasingly facing environmental and social challenges associated with its current land-use choices. There is therefore a drive to find ways to continue to add value to its primary sectors, which are of significant economic value to the country whilst at the same time mitigating the externalities associated with the use of land in primary production. Next-generation systems (NGS) are identified as potentially being able to address these challenges. Through the application of a multi-criteria decision making tool, this paper identifies the factors that are important to individual land managers in terms of choice of land-use and how these factors may act as barriers or facilitators of change. By examining land-use change as a combination of push and pull factors between alternative systems, this paper highlights the complex and context specific nature of decision-making at the individual land-manager level and the importance of risk perceptions. It argues that simply pushing land managers away from land-uses that have “undesirable” characteristics through regulation is unlikely to lead to a sustainable transition without the existence of viable alternatives. There is a need to balance increasing the risk of current land-uses whilst at the same time reducing the risk of transitioning to next-generation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangrove ecosystems provide a wide range of goods and services including timber, fuelwood and fish products, for the local population and nationwide. However, these ecosystems are undergoing significant degradation and deforestation because of local and regional/global drivers. Local drivers relate to mangrove use by local populations. Regional/global drivers include changes in abiotic parameters of mangroves due to sea level rise (global) and sedimentation (regional). The aim of this paper is to analyze the relative importance of these two sets of drivers, with a particular focus on mangroves in western Madagascar. We analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of mangroves in the study site over the last 30 years by processing four Landsat satellite images (1990/2000/2010/2020) using a supervised classification method with the maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Transition matrices have been developed between the years 1990 and 2020 to identify the causes of mangrove degradation and deforestation. An annual loss of 0.38% was recorded during this period of time. This loss is primarily the result of local drivers such as charcoal production and timber extraction (85% loss over the last 30 years vs 15% of losses attributed to regional/global drivers). Excess sediment input and coastal erosion are the regional/global drivers of mangrove degradation and deforestation. Developing deep-sea fishing is the main way to sustainably manage mangrove wood resources and reduce the dependence of local populations on them. Future research should analyze the effects of mangrove degradation and deforestation on the diversity and biomass of fish in this ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, the biofuel boom for climate mitigation, energy security, and socio-economic development has triggered large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) and land grabbing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, several of these LSLAs and land grab deals have failed, leading to large-scale land abandonments. In rural SSA, land is a primary asset for climate change adaptation because it enables income and livelihood generation thereby improving adaptive capacity. However, land abandonment raises critical issues for climate adaptation. Drawing on empirical data from household surveys and interviews, this paper explores the implications of land abandonment on local adaptation and ecological restoration in Ghana. It was found that land abandonment can positively influence climate mitigation through ecological restoration for carbon sequestration, and negatively influence adaptation through loss of employment and income by lowering the adaptive capacities of households. These mechanisms are embedded in broader socio-economic and political processes that can be addressed through policy instruments securing land rights to boost adaptive capacity for climate adaptation after land abandonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of an increasing frequency of climate change–related hazards such as landslides, climate adaptation is increasingly on the agenda of Norwegian municipalities. Nevertheless, municipalities face constraints in addressing these challenges, with smaller, remote municipalities being particularly susceptible. They often cover expansive geographical areas with high landslide risk, yet have limited financial resources, expertise, and personnel for climate adaptation. Consequently, the active involvement of citizens in adaptation plays an important role in these remote places. This paper investigates how citizens of three small remote communities deal with landslides, emphasizing the role of people–place relations in shaping adaptive practices. Grounded in assemblage theory, our analysis reveals that most citizens maintained a pragmatic relation to landslides, while only a few expressed concern. Regardless of the degree of concern, all citizens constructed landslides as integral element within their socio-material place assemblages, as part of their lives in the respective places. Furthermore, citizens developed various adaptive practices, including nature observation, reporting to authorities, and implementing practical preventive measures to control water that could trigger landslides. These practices are manifestations of socio-material assemblages that have evolved through citizens’ relations to their specific places. Importantly, irrespective of the level of concern regarding landslides, these practices were carried out as part of everyday life. Through these practices, enabled by experience-based, embodied, and often tacit local knowledge, citizens acted as community guardians. Thus, comprehensive people–place relations emerge as a pivotal factor for a community’s adaptative capacity in the face of climate change-induced hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of tidal flat wetland is closely related to the ecological security of the Yangtze estuary. Based on the method of multi-sourced data analysis, this paper aims at revealing the evolution process of the tidal flat of Chongming Island on a centennial scale and the phases of reclamation intensity change over the last thousand years, and discussing the driving human and environmental factors. The results of this study show that the landscape transformation from natural wetland to reclamation region of Chongming Island has experienced four stages: early development during the seventh to eighteenth centuries, slow reclamation from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, rapid reclamation in the 1960–1990s, and limited reclamation in the last 20 years. The proportion of natural tidal flat above 0 m in elevation (Wusong Datum) outside the sea dikes in total land area of this island dropped from about 50% of the mid-twentieth century to less than 20% of the early twenty-first century. Sediment accumulation was the main cause of tidal flat growth before the 1950s, while human reclamation after the 1950s was the driving factor of tidal flat shrinkage. The rapid urbanization of the Yangtze estuary in the last 30 years has exerted great pressure on the protection of tidal flat wetland. With the evolution trend of tidal flat from expansion to erosion, sharp decline of sediment, and shrinking of the northern branch in the Yangtze estuary, there will be limit space for further expansion of the shape of Chongming Island, and the environmental conditions that supported the past rapid reclamation were no longer held. Maintaining the present tidal flat wetlands space, and constructing ecological reclamation and coastal engineering system for promoting the dynamic balance between human reclamation intensity and tidal flat evolution will be the key to the future ecological security of the Yangtze estuary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how claims for transformative adaptation toward more equitable and sustainable societies can be assessed. We build on a theoretical framework describing transformative adaptation as it manifests across four core elements of the public-sector adaptation lifecycle: vision, planning, institutional frameworks, and interventions. For each element, we identify characteristics that can help track adaptation as transformative. Our purpose is to identify how governance systems can constrain or support transformative choices and thus enable targeted interventions. We demonstrate and test the usefulness of the framework with reference to three government-led adaptation projects of nature-based solutions (NBS): river restoration (Germany), forest conservation (China), and landslide risk reduction (Italy). Building on a desktop study and open-ended interviews, our analysis adds evidence to the view that transformation is not an abrupt system change, but a dynamic complex process that evolves over time. While each of the NBS cases fails to fulfill all the transformation characteristics, there are important transformative elements in their visions, planning, and interventions. There is a deficit, however, in the transformation of institutional frameworks. The cases show institutional commonalities in multi-scale and cross-sectoral (polycentric) collaboration as well as innovative processes for inclusive stakeholder engagement; yet, these arrangements are ad hoc, short-term, dependent on local champions, and lacking the permanency needed for upscaling. For the public sector, this result highlights the potential for establishing cross-competing priorities among agencies, cross-sectoral formal mechanisms, new dedicated institutions, and programmatic and regulatory mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate adaptation governance increasingly investigates the cultural capacities of communities to cope with climate variability and change. This paper reports on research of the symbolic representations of summer rainfall in the cultural repertoires guiding diverse institutionalised fields of activity in Sylhet Division. The research conducted interviews and co-created ‘cognitive maps’ with communities, to critically reflect on their changing seasonal symbols. The study revealed a common stock of summer symbols in Sylhet communities, which individuals reconfigure for strategizing and justifying particular practices. Symbols are stable but not static. As people’s uses of knowledge systems change—moving toward scientific representations—so too does their use of symbols. Moreover, environmental and climatic changes, such as a drying summer, are undermining long-held semiotic templates. Many local and traditional signs no longer hold, leaving communities without cultural templates for timely seasonal action. This work highlights the importance of cultural frameworks for organising communities’ seasonal adaptation, and the imperative for critically revisiting frameworks in rapid flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]