As the frequency of climate-induced disasters increases in India, communities that are vulnerable to climate change are adopting unique solutions to respond to these crises.

Agriculture is vital to human existence, yet extraordinarily vulnerable to climate change. The impacts of increasing temperatures, changes in weather and more frequent natural disasters, slow and rapid, are already devastating farmers and farmlands.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In a protected mountainous region of Bukidnon in the Philippines, indigenous people are providing ecosystem services by planting endemic forest trees and coffee following the introduction of a voluntary payment mechanism that incentivizes businesses, organizations and individuals to provide financing.  

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India, won the 2022 LAC Award in the Capacity and Knowledge category, for the One Acre Climate Resilient Farming model: women borrow a parcel of land, one acre or less, from their families, to cultivate food crops for their families instead of only water-intensive cash crops like soybean and sugarcane. 

In rural Kenya, farmers are adapting to a more arid and extreme climate as a result of climate change by choosing drought-resistant seedlings and varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and trees.

In the Rukwa region of Tanzania, farmers and pastoralists whose traditional livelihoods are threatened by the devastating effects of climate change are turning to sustainable farming methods to provide for their families.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In the south of Burkina Faso, local communities are reducing their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change by changing farming practices to preserve natural forests and ensure the sustainable management of natural resources.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In the chars of Bangladesh, residents impacted by the changing climate have formed local disaster management committees to focus on capacity building, enhancing their earnings, and developing more sustainable sources of income.

Women-led, local savings groups from slums in Harare are leading the upgrading of their informal settlements, addressing local communities’ housing and basic service needs, and enhancing climate adaptation through the installation of solar energy systems and other infrastructure.

In one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, thousands of people living in informal settlements are increasing their resilience to climate-related impacts thanks to locally-led efforts to address vulnerability.

In the south of Mexico, small-scale farmers are responding to changing climate conditions by working together as cooperatives to implement new practices and support long-term climate resilience.

Smallholder farmers in Cameroon are adapting to the unpredictable rainfall patterns resulting from climate change by using low-cost greenhouses and irrigation systems, packaging machines, vegetable dehydrators and freezers to increase production capacity and efficiency.

In the southwest of Bangladesh, local communities are helping to protect the Sundarbans, the mangrove forest on which they depend for not only food, timber and fish, but also for protection from cyclones and tidal waves.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In the center of The Gambia, people affected by falling incomes as a result of climate change are benefiting from the LoCAL mechanism that channels climate finance to communities for locally led adaptation.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Community Development & Advocacy Forum, Nepal, won in the Local Innovation category, for their efforts to help support tried and tested and cheaper indigenous water management techniques, measures to rehabilitate land, conserve water, and manage the river system.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Rangamati Hill District Council, Bangladesh, won the 2022 LAC Award in the Inclusive Leadership category, for supporting poor communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to battle relentless drought, landslides and floods with solar water pumps.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Adaptation Consortium, Kenya, won in the Financial Governance category for the County Climate Change Fund model that supports communities to access and use climate finance, and provides subnational governments and communities with a predictable and sustained source of finance for adaptation and resilience building efforts.

In the east of the Philippines, people are embracing sustainable farming as a means to improve their economic situation and become more resilient against the increasing threats posed by climate change.

Following a series of catastrophic floods in Albay Province in the Philippines, people are safeguarding their communities by utilizing bamboo as an innovative form of protection against climate change induced natural disasters.

In the slums of Khulna in Bangladesh, climate migrants and other residents of the city’s slums are building their resilience to extreme climate conditions through the Climate Bridge Fund, an international-backed initiative that draws on the knowledge and insights of local leaders.

In farming communities in Vietnam, people are building their resilience to extreme weather conditions by using agro-climate information to help them manage their farms in more climate-smart ways.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In the southwest of Bangladesh, coastal farming communities have formed climate cooperatives to plot risks and create shared action plans that are helping them to adopt saline tolerant agricultural practices and become self-sufficient again.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

With their livelihoods increasingly impacted by droughts, heatwaves, locust swarms and severe storms, smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Kenya are using new insurance products that utilize satellite technology to strengthen their resilience to climate-related problems.

In the south west of Bangladesh, local female entrepreneurs from marginalized households are helping to expand safe water supplies in communities that are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Through mobilizing and organizing local communities, promoting peer learning, and identifying policy priorities and developing plans with the government, grassroot women’s groups in Kenya are enhancing community resilience to address climate change-related challenges such as extreme weather hazards that affect food and livelihoods of grassroots communities.