@phdthesis{Techoro2013, author = {Techoro, Prosper Somah}, title = {Climatic change impacts on subsistence agriculture in the Sudano-Sahel Zone of Cameroon - constraints and opportunities for adaptation}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus-28441}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Unlike many areas of the world where agricultural producers exhibit the physical, economic and social resources to moderate, or adapt, subsistence agriculture in the Sudano-Sahel region of Cameroon is seem to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climatic variability. This is in part due to the fact that the majority of the population depends on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood. Adapting to climate change in the subsistence agricultural sector is therefore very imperative in providing food security and concomitantly protecting the livelihood of rural communities. This study examined the patterns of current climatic variables on some selected subsistence staple crops namely; millet and sorghum in the Cameroon´s Sudano-Sahel. It also valorized and documented the community based adaptation strategies used by local farmers to cope with current climate change, explored the constraints and opportunities in adaptation and mitigation that could facilely be integrated and incorporated into policies and programs. The guiding premises were that climatic change impacts subsistence crop yields as the lower the rainfall, the higher the vulnerability of the yields of staple crops. It also hypothesized that the present community-based strategies used by the local farmers are relevant and crucial to the present day quest for climate change adaptation strategies. Analyses of agricultural droughts using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), spatio-temporal land use and land cover dynamics via remote sensing were utilized as well as the application of statistical tools for the investigation of pressure and state indicators. A participatory research approach was used in exploring adaptation patterns perceived by the ruralites in the face of variable climatic condition via administered questionnaires. The results suggested critical impact asymmetries due to climatic and socio-economic factors affected subsistence crops in the Sudano-Sahel of Cameroon. Furthermore, SPI results indicated incidences of droughts; with the Multilinear Regression (MLR) models showing temperature and rainfall to an extent determined agricultural crop productivity in the Sudano-Sahel. However, other factors such as population growth have undoubtedly caused enormous impacts on the agricultural system as seen in remote sensing analyses. Questionnaire survey findings also connoted that subsistence farming communities have a rich repertoire of strategies ranging from changing of planting dates, changing of crop varieties, switching from crops to livestock, use of local indicators, movement from rural to urban areas, increment in cultivated lands, irrigation soil conservation practices among many others as they perceive varying climatic conditions. Additionally, some of these indigenous strategies are inherent in ecological agricultural practices that offer a win-win scenario for the simultaneously tackling of climate change adaptation and mitigation and hence meeting the development goals. The results further highlighted the lack of money, poor access to climate information, the encroachment of desert and shortage of man power as some of the factors hindering subsistence farmers' ability to adapt. The study concluded that adaptation measures in subsistence agriculture were highly significant for poverty reduction, thus improving on the well-being of the ruralites. The key to the ability of farmers to adapt would be access to relevant knowledge and information. Following the rich repertoire of strategies by local farmers, adaptation needed to be mainstreamed and institutional networks strengthened in order for effective community based adaptation.  }, subject = {Kamerun; Sahel; Subsistenzwirtschaft; Klima{\"a}nderung; Klimawandel; D{\"u}rre; Anpassung; Bev{\"o}lkerung; Armut; Climate Change; Drought; Adaptation; Rural Population; Poverty}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schinkel2014, author = {Schinkel, Ulrike}, title = {Enabling local climate change response - a conceptual approach for the governance and management of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) with a special focus on Vietnam}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-35243}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) to climate change is a people-centred approach designed for the enablement of communities to collectively develop strategies to respond to local impacts that directly affect their lives and livelihoods. Nevertheless, CBA requires political support and the integration into larger-scale adaptation plans and policies; as the scope of local initiatives is rather small, they cannot substitute national or city-level adaptation efforts, but they may be a supplement as short- or medium-term response measures. Despite the success of single CBA pilot projects, the institutionalisation of CBA and its integration as a bottom-up approach into larger-scale adaptation plans and policies is definitely a challenge: firstly, the potential of CBA is still overlooked by decision-makers and planners; secondly, the decentralisation of decision-making is still underdeveloped in many countries and communities are not yet empowered and enabled to actively participate; and thirdly, there is lack of approaches to 'scale-out' and 'scale-up' successful CBA pilot projects. Consequently, this doctoral thesis aims at going beyond the work of theorists and focuses on the identification of ways to institutionalise CBA. In the theoretical section of this thesis, an academic concept of CBA is formulated; the scope of CBA is defined and challenges for taking CBA beyond the pilot stage are identified. In a further step, a governance and management concept for the integration of CBA as a bottom-up approach into top-down planning approaches is developed. In order to do that, suitable existing governance and management concepts are identified and transferable concept components are combined. The first result of this concept development step is an ideal-typical 'CBA Governance Management Model' (CBA-GMM), which combines concepts for a policy instrument and a pro-poor funding mechanism, for a governance approach, based on multi-level and network governance, as well as for a management approach that altogether may theoretically help to enable CBA activities. In a next step, the CBA-GMM is applied to the real case of Vietnam. After the assessment of the political and institutional framework, its strengths, constraints and challenges with regard to the institutionalisation of CBA, an 'Applied CBA Governance Management Model' for Vietnam (CBA-AGMM) is developed, which proposes a concept for the integration of CBA into the strongly hierarchical structure of the Vietnamese administrative and decision-making structure. This doctoral thesis shows that it is theoretically possible to integrate CBA as a bottom-up approach into larger-scale adaptation efforts, while it honestly reflects the constraints for putting it into practice.}, subject = {Community-Based Adaptation; Climate change adaptation; Climate governance; Urban development; Empowerment; Community-Based Adaptation (CBA); Klimawandelanpassung; Klimagovernance; Stadtentwicklung; Vietnam; Klima{\"a}nderung; Stadtentwicklung; Bev{\"o}lkerung; Anpassung}, language = {en} }