CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION IN COLOMBIA

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CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITYAND ADAPTATION IN
COLOMBIA

• INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDIES OF THE AMERICAS
• Course
• Environment and Development in Latin America
• 20th January 2009
• Andrea Lampis
• CIDER
• Universidad de Los Andes
• Bogotá (Colombia)
• Contact alampis_at_uniandes.edu.co

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Paper key facts and agenda

• Purpose case study low coastal city of Tumaco
• Main research question Which are the main
  constraints facing peoples livelihoods towards
  adaptation to climate change and its likely
  effects?
• Relationship with the broader debate
• Methodology
• Existing evidence about climate change and
  disasters
• The relationship between peoples livelihoods,
  the sea and, more broadly the environment
• Vulnerability and constraints towards livelihoods
  adaptation
• Conclusions

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Case study research design

• Exploratory case study
• Explore a complex reality within real life
  settings
• Setting and units of analysis are changing while
  the study is being carried out
• Incomplete or scant evidence
• Combine different methods and sources
• Historical records and data
• Participatory appraisal
• Secondary data
• Qualitative interviews
• Structured questionnaires
• Photographic evidence

House-poles on the Los Puentes neighbourhood
Source Lampis, A.
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Relationship with the broader academic debate

• Low Coastal Areas Urban Settlements exposure to
  climate change
• Feature of climate change impacts and
  implications
• Dual IPCC UNFCCC mitigation - adaptation approach
• Adaptation in Developing countries and
  especially in LDCs and areas

Liquation risk categorization map of Tumaco
Source CLOPAD (2004), Plan Local de Emergencias
San Andrés de Tumaco, DPAD Bogotá and Tumaco.
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Existing evidence about climate change and
environmental risks

• 60 of interviewed households affected by a
  flood related event over the previous 12 months.
• 52 are internally displace households.
• 58.6 have an illegal water provision generally
  using a long pipe from a more inland house, 41.4
  have to carry the water.
• 80 have no waste recollection service

• -

House-poles on the Las Américas neighbourhood
Source Lampis, A
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Earthquakes and tsunamis
Source Rodriguéz-Rubio and López-Isaza (2007)
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Environmental degradation
Poorly controlled or uncontrolled industrial
processes are interacting with natural processes
increasing the speed of sedimentation of the bay
Timber industry on Tumaco Bay. Source Lampis, A.
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Livelihoods, the sea and the environment

• Uneven spatial and social distribution of power
  and control over capital assets
• Insecurity of livelihoods sources
• Social exclusion
• Lack of social protection economic incentives

Informal work Activities in Tumaco various
locations. Source Lampis, A.
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Mapping vulnerability

• Patterns
• Life Events
• Cause
• Consequences
• Strategies
• (To cope, react, recuperate or to prevent life
  events and their impacts).
• Patterns asset level

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What can people perception teach us?

• What are the principal problems preventing people
  from taking action in the face of a natural
  disaster like a tsunami or a flood?

• What is a disaster?

• A total destruction.
• Social distress, such as unemployment of violence
• Political disaster

• Unemployment
• Insecurity
• Violence
• Political disaster
• Poverty
• Lack of social equity
• Lack of social spending in education

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Vulnerability constraints for livelihoods
adaptation to climate change
Tumaco is an example of how lack of how human
rights, human needs and human security closely
relate one to another.
House-poles on the Los Puentes neighbourhood
Source Lampis, A. (both pictures)
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ConclusionsWhere would you start to untie the
knot?

• Main constraints

• Strategic opportunities

• Historical trends of racial segregation and
  political exclusion.
• Environmental degradation
• Economic processes
• Political processes
• Cultural processes

• Political changes before than unsustainable
  technical solutions
• Strengthen governance and accountability
• Leadership of ethnic and social afro - colombian
  movements for identity, autonomy and economic
  inclusion.
• Foster the use of low-cost and appropriate
  technologies in water and sanitation, waste
  disposal and ecological management.
• Provide opportunities for resettle but with
  social protection and assets accumulation
  promotion