Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice: seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal

The authors critique mainstream adaptation research for focusing too narrowly on climate risk and biophysical impacts, which they argue overlooks the wider social context. Using rural Nepal as a case study, the paper highlights that rural livelihoods are undergoing transformations—such as declining farming populations, increased migration, and mechanisation—that are not captured by standard climate-risk frameworks. The authors propose a dual approach to adaptation research that asks both about climate impacts and the most significant general changes occurring in people's lives to better identify vulnerabilities and opportunities.

• Mainstream adaptation research often focuses on the consequences of biophysical impacts, which the authors argue leads to asking the wrong questions by overlooking the wider social, economic, and political contexts that differentiate adaptation needs.
• In rural Nepal, adaptation efforts typically focus on climate risk management and agricultural production, yet rural livelihoods are actually being transformed by factors including rising education, land abandonment, increasing wages, mechanisation, and global labour market migration.
• The authors suggest that adaptation research should adopt an epistemology that asks both 'what are the impacts of climate change?' and 'what are the most significant changes taking place in people’s lives?' to reveal new vulnerabilities.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2019). Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice: seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal. https://www.sei.org/publications/asking-the-right-questions-in-adaptation-research-and-practice-seeing-beyond-climate-impacts-in-rural-nepal/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice: seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal. 2019. https://www.sei.org/publications/asking-the-right-questions-in-adaptation-research-and-practice-seeing-beyond-climate-impacts-in-rural-nepal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice: seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal |date=11 February 2019 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/asking-the-right-questions-in-adaptation-research-and-practice-seeing-beyond-climate-impacts-in-rural-nepal/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2019asking, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Asking the right questions in adaptation research and practice: seeing beyond climate impacts in rural Nepal}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/asking-the-right-questions-in-adaptation-research-and-practice-seeing-beyond-climate-impacts-in-rural-nepal/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }