Addressing Livelihoods In Adaptation Activities: Lessons from the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia

The document examines the vulnerability of climate-sensitive livelihoods—primarily agriculture, fishing, and forestry—in Asia. It highlights that while governments and NGOs are implementing adaptation measures like crop diversification and mangrove restoration, externally led interventions can sometimes cause maladaptation by increasing market dependency. The brief emphasizes the need to integrate local and traditional knowledge, address the specific vulnerabilities of women and marginalized groups, and leverage social assets and community forestry to build resilience.

• Climate change significantly threatens livelihoods in the Asia and Pacific region, particularly in rural areas dependent on agriculture, fishing, forestry, and tourism. Impacts manifest as erratic rainfall, water scarcity, seasonal shifts, and extreme weather, which are exacerbated by urbanization and socio-economic changes.
• Water scarcity is a critical issue in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Nepal, leading to increased costs for water and local conflicts. In China, droughts cause an estimated annual loss of 30 million tonnes of food and average GDP losses of about 1% since the 1990s, while floods cause annual losses of approximately 1.5% of GDP.
• Poor and marginalized populations, including women, are the most vulnerable to climate shocks due to a lack of resources, connections, and knowledge. Women specifically face barriers in accessing land, credit, agricultural inputs, and technologies.
• While external technical and financial assistance has produced some of the strongest adaptive measures, it can also lead to maladaptation. For example, encouraging cash crops like maize in Thailand has increased dependency on middlemen and displaced subsistence crops, while strict forest restrictions in Nepal have disproportionately harmed women and the poor.
• Community forestry is identified as a promising entry point for adaptation because it utilizes collective natural resource management to generate revenue for livelihood diversification. This has been observed in pilot programs in Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, and Cambodia.
• There is a tension between short-term economic gains and long-term climate resilience; for instance, commercial shrimp farming provides higher incomes but destroys mangroves that serve as essential storm barriers and support traditional fisheries.
• Local and traditional knowledge is vital for effective adaptation. Examples include the 'subak' system of democratic water governance in Bali, Indonesia, and autonomous adaptations in Nepal where communities are switching from rice to maize and from cows to goats.

APA

Davis, M., & Walker, S. T. (2013). Addressing Livelihoods In Adaptation Activities: Lessons from the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-akp-pb-2013-livelihoods-adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Davis, Marion, and Skye Turner Walker. Addressing Livelihoods In Adaptation Activities: Lessons from the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2013. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-akp-pb-2013-livelihoods-adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Davis |first1=Marion |last2=Walker |first2=Skye Turner |title=Addressing Livelihoods In Adaptation Activities: Lessons from the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2013 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-akp-pb-2013-livelihoods-adaptation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{davis2013addressing, author = {Davis, Marion and Walker, Skye Turner}, title = {{Addressing Livelihoods In Adaptation Activities: Lessons from the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2013}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-akp-pb-2013-livelihoods-adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }