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Climate change is becoming a defining factor for communities in South Asia. Forming one-fifth of the world population, the region increasingly faces climate-induced disasters such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, cyclones etc. This region also has one of the world's poorest people who struggle to cope with the rapidly changing climatic conditions. Agriculture still employs many people in the region, one of the worst-hit sectors. Agriculture will become untenable in some parts of the region due to climate change. Monsoon patterns have changed, and agriculture does not guarantee sustainable income for the vast majority. Many climate change adaptations have been initiated in the region in response to the threat of climate change. Scholars and practitioners feel that these adaptations must be transformative to be effective. In this paper, we examine eight such adaptations from three South Asian Countries – Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, from the lens of transformative adaptation. We found that no single adaptation initiative meets all the criteria for sustainable socio-ecological transformations. However, there is a significant overlap between different typologies of transformation as envisaged in the paper and literature. We conclude that the concept of socio-ecological transformation is new for South Asia, so integrating it into the programmes and policies is the need of the hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regimes of agricultural modernization and climate change adaptation have converged in Rwanda under the banner of 'climate smart agriculture'. Findings from a study with four agrarian communities show how external agendas of climate smartness can undermine locally rooted strategies for navigating social and environmental uncertainties. Through a focus on two crops (maize and sweet potato), this paper illustrates how climate resilience can be viewed as an uneven and incomplete process situated in peasants' struggles for viability, autonomy, and wellbeing. I suggest that attention to everyday adaptations can help researchers and practitioners think beyond the technical adjustments that currently dominate institutionalized responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being the most tangibly impacted by the first-order effects of a warming climate, much of Australia's agricultural regions have remained relatively conservative in their views on climate change and the need for adaptation. This paper aims to understand how the experience of an extreme climate event like the 2017–2020 drought might shift opinions and values on these issues within agricultural communities. Through in-depth interviews with 20 graziers across Northwest NSW during the worst days of the drought, we found that various psychological lock-ins, historical memories of resilience, and local cultural values appeared to be undermining the perception of their vulnerability, while enhancing perceptions of their ability to endure. Such discursive constructions appear to explain why a jarring climatic event like the 2017–2020 drought was failing to produce a noticeable shift in their views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the perceptions of local communities to climate variability and change in relation to observed climatic data. A perception survey, historical timeline and analysis of sea level and meteorological data from the study area were used to achieve this objective. As perceptions regarding different types of climate stimuli are likely to trigger response actions, this study highlights the importance of integrating local perceptions into planning for adaptation. The study suggests that climate change is happening in Zanzibar and is set to intensify as it is directly linked to regional and global events such as ENSO. The perceptions of local communities regarding variability in rainfall, temperature and sea level are highly influenced by the relationship between these elements and their livelihood activities, namely fishing, farming and seaweed farming; their direct experience of shifts in weather patterns; and their recall of past climate. While variability and changes were recognized, the majority of respondents linked this to God's doing, and most had little exposure to the phenomenon of global climate change. Furthermore, while local people's perceptions of rainfall and temperature changes showed some relationship with observed data, their perceptions on sea level rise did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]