doi: 10.3850/S1793924012100055

Developing Multi-Scale Adaptation Strategies: A Case Study for Farming Communities in Cambodia and Laos

Christian H. Roth^1,a and Clemens M. Grünbühel^{2,b 1}CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, Brisbane, Australia. ²Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. ^achristian.roth@csiro.au ^bclemens@ait.asia

ABSTRACT

Adaptation interventions can be differentiated into two broad categories – top down adaptation initiatives primarily based on national scale climate change vulnerability and impact assessments, as opposed to bottom up practical adaptation interventions occurring at the community level. In this paper we present and discuss a methodological framework to develop multiscale adaptation strategies for farming communities in Cambodia and Lao PDR, designed to demonstrate how the bridging of these two scales can be accomplished. Key aspects of the framework revolve around the integration of social and biophysical research methods to embed technical adaptation strategies and practices within the broader livelihood context of households. Alignment of adaptation strategies and practices with the differing needs of different household types is seen as the primary vehicle to facilitate upscaling from case study villages to wider geographical or administrative entities. Ongoing farmer and stakeholder engagement is seen as a critical determinant of testing and codeveloping adaptation strategies likely to be feasible and relevant. Initial evidence of the effectiveness of the approach is provided, and some emerging lessons and conclusions are discussed.

Keywords: Adaptation research, Typologies, Integration, Scaling.

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