Vulnerability and adaption to climate change of ethnic minority women in thanh van commune cho moi district bac kan province

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

TRAN LE THU THAO

VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OF ETHNIC MINORITY
WOMEN IN THANH VAN COMMUNE, CHO MOI DISTRICT, BAC KAN PROVINCE

BACHELOR THESIS
Study Mode : Full-time
Major

: Environmental Science and Management

Faculty

: International Programs Office

Batch

: 2013 – 2017

Thai Nguyen, September 2017

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DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT
Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry
Degree program

Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management

Student name

Tran Le Thu Thao

Student ID

DTN1353110242

Thesis title

Vulnerability and adaption to climate change of ethnic minority
women in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan
province

Supervisor

Dr. Ho Ngoc Son

Abstract:
Moving towards to 21st century, a controversial problem over the world is
vulnerability and adaptation of women to climate change. Indeed, those are living in
poverty, especially ethnic groups will be more vulnerable because they have less
access to health service, clean environment, useful assets, good education and many
other patterns. The goal of this study is to evaluate the vulnerability, adaptation of
ethnic minority women and their resilience as well as suggest certain ways of
addressing women’s difficulties in the context of climate change. By using household
survey, interview, group discussion methods, the thesis was carried out in Thanh Van
commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province where is one of the northern

mountainous area heavily impacted by climate change. As a result, ethnic minority
women in Thanh Van are very vulnerable to climate and non-climate stresses because
of limited access to services. Although they have many difficulties in adaptation
process, they adopted various adaptation strategies such as applying indigenous
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knowledge in agriculture, using local cop species that are drought-tolerant…to adapt
to climate risks. Hence, increasing adaptive capacity and reducing vulnerability of
ethnic minority women are key factors to build their resilience to climate change.
Key words

Climate change, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience,
ethnic minority women

Number of pages

57

Date of submission

20/09/2017

Supervisor’s
signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the research process and completion of the thesis, I received a lot of
help from my teachers, my university, my friends and my family.
First and foremost, I would like to send my deep thanks to Dr. Ho Ngoc Son
who provided comments and suggestions for the thesis to be completed and gave
direct guidance during the research process and completion.
Moreover, I would like to say thank with staffs of Agriculture & Forestry
Research and Development Center for Mountainous Region (ADC) for providing
me with useful materials and helping me during the time I stayed in Thanh Van
commune.
I also thank the Tay women, local officials in Thanh Van commune who spent
their time to share their experiences during the survey, interview, and activities of
mine in the commune. Without their enthusiasm and effort, I could not finish my
thesis.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks also go to my family and all my classmates
K45 – Advanced Education Program for their supporting, helping and loves
throughout my study.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. ix
PART I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1
1.

Research rationale ......................................................................................................... 1

2.

Research’s objective ...................................................................................................... 2

3.

Research questions ........................................................................................................ 3

4.

Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 3

PART II. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 4
1.

Climate change in the world ......................................................................................... 4

2.

Climate change in Vietnam .......................................................................................... 6

3.

Climate change in Bac Kan .......................................................................................... 7
3.1.

Impacts of climate change in Bac Kan .................................................................... 7

3.2.

Unequal impacts between women and men ............................................................. 9

3.3.

Responses of women.............................................................................................. 11

4.

Some features about Thanh Van commune .............................................................. 12

5.

Concepts of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation ............................................... 13

6.

5.1.

Vulnerability .......................................................................................................... 13

5.2.

Adaptive capacity................................................................................................... 14

5.3.

Resilience ............................................................................................................... 15

Linkages of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity .................................... 15

PART III. METHODS ........................................................................................................... 17
1.

Case study approach ................................................................................................... 17

2.

Data collection methods .............................................................................................. 17

3.

2.1.

Household survey................................................................................................... 17

2.2.

Interview ................................................................................................................ 18

2.3.

Focus group discussion .......................................................................................... 19

2.4.

Participation method .............................................................................................. 20

2.5.

Reviewing literature ............................................................................................... 20

Data analysis methods ................................................................................................. 20

PART IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................................... 21
1.

Vulnerability of ethinic minority women in Thanh Van ......................................... 21
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2.

3.

1.1.

Causes of vulnerability of ethinic minority women ............................................... 21

1.2.

Reasons of vulnerability of ethinic minority women ............................................. 25

1.3.

How ethnic minorty women are vulnerable to climate change .............................. 30

Adaptation strategies .................................................................................................. 33
2.1.

Challenges of ethinic minority women in the context of climate change .............. 33

2.2.

Adaptation strategies of ethinic minority women .................................................. 37

Building resilience to climate change ........................................................................ 41
3.1.

Increasing adaptive capacity .................................................................................. 41

3.2.

Reducing vulnerability ........................................................................................... 41

PART V. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 43
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 45

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1. A household survey with Tay women ........................................................ 18
Figure 3.2. Group discussion with hazard map making ............................................... 19
Figure 3.3. Group discussion with historical timeline making ..................................... 20
Figure 4.1. Average temperature of 50 years in Bac Kan (1960-2010) ....................... 21
Figure 4.2. Average rainfall of 50 years in Bac Kan (1956-2006) ............................... 22
Figure 4.3. Hazard map of Thanh Van commune......................................................... 31
Figure 4.4. Historical timeline in Na Ray village, Thanh Van commune .................... 31

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1. Tay women's assessment about local weather changes in 10 recent years in
Thanh Van commune .................................................................................................... 23
Table 4.2. Tay women’s assessment about frequency of disasters in 10 recent years in
Thanh Van commune .................................................................................................... 24
Table 4.3. Tay women’s assessment about intensity of disasters in 10 recent years in
Thanh Van commune .................................................................................................... 24
Table 4.4. List of diseases in plants and livestock in Thanh Van ................................. 26
Table 4.5. Diseases on Tay women suffering from disasters, erractic weather .......... 29
Table 4.6. Historical timeline table in Na Ray ............................................................. 32
Table 4.7. Adaptation of Tay women in Thanh Van .................................................... 37
Table 4.8. Tay women use indigenous knowledge and modern method in agriculture 40

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ADC

Agriculture & Forestry Research and Development Center for
Mountainous Region

CARE

Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere

FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organization

INSPONRE Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment
IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

PRRS

Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome

VSLA

Village Savings and Loans Associations

WBGU

German Advisory Council on Global Change

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PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Research rationale
In the 21st century, climate change is one of the greatest challenges that have
caused tremendous changes through extreme climatic events such as rising

temperatures, strong storms, heavy rain, floods, droughts and rising sea levels for
mankind. It is noteworthy that the impacts of climate change are significant and
increasing, causing a considerable impact on the national economy, even more
strongly on the livelihoods of the poorest groups living in countryside. Vietnam is one
of the countries most severely affected by the increasing manifestation of these
phenomena. In addition to policies promulgated by the Government of Vietnam to
adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the international
community has been actively supporting the Government of Viet Nam in climate
change response activities, towards sustainable development in localities, especially
underdeveloped and poor areas.
Generally, climate change becomes more serious and unpredicted in the
Northern mountainous areas. In fact, climate change will cause serious consequences
to these areas because the Northern mountainous areas have many factors creating
vulnerability status easily such as high poverty rate, limited mitigation approaches,
degraded ecology environment, complex terrain, many ethnic minorities, main works
depending mainly on agriculture and forestry and the like, which are influenced
greatly from natural disasters and weather. However, it is inherently more vulnerable
in some groups of people such as ethnic minorities, the very old or very young, the
sick who have limited access to information, resources and services. Especially,
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women are often particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to few
educational opportunities, spending more time and effort on care-giving to parents,
children, and the sick, having limited voice in society, lacking of skills to survive from
a disaster or extreme weather and many other reasons.
In particular, with diverse, complex terrain, midlands and high mountains very
steep slopes up to 20° (CARE, 2013), tropical monsoonal climate, plentiful river
systems and low literacy level, financial woes, Bac Kan which is belonged the
Northern mountainous areas is dealing with many difficulties about complicated

happening of climate change, harmful effects and solutions.
For the reasons mentioned above, this topic was chosen as “Vulnerability and
adaptation to climate change of ethnic minority women in Thanh Van commune, Cho
Moi district, Bac Kan province" to assess the impact of climate change on people's
livelihoods, daily life, and the vulnerability of ethnic minority women in the context of
climate change and its complexity. This will provide the basis for proposing
appropriate solutions and strategies to improve the livelihoods of households in the
face of increasingly complex climate change and to help women raise their voice,
improve adaptive capacity and reduce the vulnerability in the future.
2. Research’s objective
-

To analyze impacts of climate change on ethnic minority women in Thanh Van
and their adaptation strategies.

-

To assess how ethnic minority women are vulnerable.

-

To analyze how could they become more resilient.

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-

To improve adaptive capacity to climate change in agriculture of Thanh Van
ethnic minority women.

-

To find out policies and approaches that help ethnic minority women to adapt to
climate change.

3. Research questions
-

How are ethnic minority women in Thanh Van vulnerable to climate change?

-

How are they adapting to climate change impacts?

-

How could they become more resilient?

4. Limitations
There was very few in-depth semi-structured interview results of local officials in
Thanh Van commune.

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PART II. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Climate change in the world
In the geological history of our planet, climate change has happened many
times with cold and warm periods lasting thousands of years that we call ice ages and

interglacial period. Last glacial period have occurred 10,000 years ago and now that is
warming period of interglacial period. In terms of the causes of climate change, we can
see the precession and tilt changing in the earth’s axis, changing the Earth's orbit
around the sun, the position of continents and oceans, and especially changes in
atmospheric composition.
While the first causes are the cause of the planet, the final causes are the huge
impacts of human that we call that it is heats the atmosphere or greenhouse gases. It is
understandable that: the average temperature of the earth's surface is determined by the
balance between absorbed solar energy and heat returning to the universe. When the
heat is retained more in the atmosphere, it will make the earth's temperature to rise. A
big number of CO2 in the atmosphere will affect as a layer of glass to keep the heat
radiating back into the Earth. Beside, there are some other gases are called collectively
greenhouse gases such as NOx, CH4, CFCs…With the strong development of
industrial production and the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal, ..), the observational data
indicate a global surface warming of 0.74 °C (+/- 0.18 °C) since the late 19th century
(NOAA, n.d.)
In 2015, one billion people still lived in extreme poverty and many depended on
their surrounding natural resources for survival. Poverty and inequality, which we
have been working to improve for decades, will only get worse with climate change
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because disadvantaged groups do not have the resources to cope with effects such as
extreme flooding or droughts that may displace them or change their way of life
(Rosaly Byrd, 2014). Many poor people live in regions that are susceptible to changes
in the climate, for example drought-prone sub-Saharan Africa, or in marginal areas
such as floodplains or unstable hillsides. As already poverty-stricken people lose what
little economic stability they have and are unable to subsist, villages are abandoned
and previously settled people become refugees. Poor families become trapped in
poverty when they have limited or no access to resources, and no way to break the

cycle. According to the United Nations Development Program, developing countries
suffer 99% of the casualties attributable to climate change (Global citizen, 2012). At
the same time, the least 50 developed countries of the world account for a tiny,
imbalanced, 1% contribution to the worldwide emissions of greenhouse gasses that
create global warming. Climate change is hitting hardest on the poorest people and the
poorest countries.
Global climate change is a significant long-term challenge for the whole world.
Across the nations, individuals, businesses, and federal, state, and local governments
are already consciously making decisions to respond to climate change. It is generally
assumed that adaptation to changes in climate is not new. Some examples of
adaptation: breed crop varieties that are more tolerant of heat, drought, and water
logging from heavy rainfall or flooding, promote land and wildlife management
practices that enhance ecosystem resilience, implement early warning systems and
emergency response plans to prepare for changes in the frequency, duration, and

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intensity of extreme weather events, learn more about adaptation in the areas of
forests, transportation, and society…etc.
2. Climate change in Vietnam
In recent years, climate change in Vietnam which has very long coastline, high
dependence on agriculture, and relatively low levels of development in rural areas has
been a source of controversy because it will be one of most vulnerable countries in the
world. According to projections, by the end of the 21st century, the annual temperature
in Viet Nam will increase by between 1.1-1.9°C and 2.1-3.6°C rainfall is likely to
increase by 1.0-5.2% and 1.8-10.1%, and sea level is likely to rise between 65 and
100cm, in comparison with the period 1980-1999, under low and high emission
scenarios respectively (ISPONRE, 2009). This is particularly the case for rural ethnic
minority groups those remote and rely heavily on natural resources.

The statistics data shows that the community of ethnic minorities in Vietnam
include about 14 million people, currently live in an area of 17 million hectares,
accounting for over 50% of the territory of Vietnam but they live mostly in
mountainous and midland, coastal, estuarine and watershed forest regions and river
basins where are always affected strongly by natural disasters. It is clear that the
variability of the weather and the climate tend to more complicated and cause many
consequences, severe damages that have strong effects on the nature, key socioeconomic sectors, especially human beings.
Unfortunately, the mountainous areas are in worse and worse conditions due to
not only impacts of climate change but also lacking of organizations’ attention. This
has the potential to further limit the ability of remote ethnic minorities to access
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support and resources to adapt to climate change. Under this circumstance, Vietnam
offers a great number of strategies to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change,
reduce the vulnerability of society and look after status of mountainous regions.
3. Climate change in Bac Kan
3.1.

Impacts of climate change in Bac Kan

Changes of climate have plenty of disadvantages on natural and social factors
of Bac Kan province. For agricultural production, higher frequency and strong
intensity of cold weather has caused damaging cold weather that killed livestock and
crops. For instance, in February 2008, damaging cold weather made over 4,000
buffaloes and cows die. Climate change with the prolonged heat wave is the main
cause leading to continuous forest fires in the dry season. Transport sector also
suffered many losses due to climate change causes. The torrential rains with high
intensity occurred frequently that broke transport infrastructure, affected to travels and
costly for remedial works. Since 2005 - 2009, natural disasters caused losses of about

43 billion VND, with the volume of soil erosion is 584.466m3 positive talus, negative
talus landslide minus 75 positions and 20 points of congestion (X.N, 2010).
Thousands of meters of irrigation canals, dams was washed away by flood,
buried by soil and rock affected to agricultural production. Thousands of homes and
thousands of hectares of agricultural land of the people were washed away and
destroyed resulted from climate change. For example, torrential rains in7/2009 induced
deaths to 13 people of Pac Nam district, homes and crops were buried, transportation,
irrigation were destroyed so it wasted of over 100 billion. Another typical example is

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that due to the storm Chan Chu in October 7/2010, Ba Be, Bach Thong, Cho Don has
suffered many damages to houses and farms (X.N, 2010).
As a province with abundant river systems, with four major river systems are:
Cau, Nang, Pho Day, Bac Giang rivers, Bac Kan has faced water scarcity in domestic
and production in the dry season. Meanwhile, the impact of mining operations made
the pollution of river water was increasingly more serious (X.N, 2010).
Climate change also affected to public health. This is because the change in the
temperature, photoperiod, and rainfalls has caused many species of bacteria, insects,
diseases carriers that grew, thrived and harmed to human health and also agricultural
production (X.N, 2010).
The percentage of ethnic minority in Bac Kan is over 80 including Tay, Nung,
Dao, Mong and things (Nga).Bac Kan province is one of the poorest provinces the
northern mountainous region and in Vietnam overall. The poverty rate in 2010 was
32.1% (CARE, 2013). As a result, the poor and ethnic minorities in Bac Kan province
are particularly vulnerable to climate change yearly. That is because they live mainly
on the high mountains and border area of the province that vulnerable to wearing away
of soil, flooding, storms and other natural disaster without reliable shelters. They have
to cope with financial difficulties, limited knowledge about climate change and

solutions, many diseases, lack of money to buy health insurance as well. Moreover, in
recent years, the Bac Kan is one of the largest losses in agricultural production caused
by weather conditions and climate patterns. Ethnic minority communities are heavily
reliant on natural resources so the loss of productivity such as rice, maize, chickens,
cows and the like has great effect on their likelihood, domestic use and finance.
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3.2.

Unequal impacts between women and men

Climate change does not affect to women and men equally due to some reasons.
First of all, the work characteristics make the different impacts on women and men.
According to the United Nations Women Watch, Women make up 45 percent to 80
percent of the food-producing workforce in developing countries (Diep, 2015). Many
women in developing countries are farmers with responsibilities such as sowing seeds,
weeding, tending the plots and harvesting which are ongoing throughout the year but
as for men, they do plough, pump water and spray pesticides which are in shorter
periods. It is clear that women in rural areas go to forest to collect mushroom, bamboo
shoots, firewood and other resources for their families. When the climate is sensitive
to change, crop yields decrease, the planet is warmer, it increases burden placed on
women who depends on agriculture which are food, fodder, medicines, construction
materials, and other items, must travel further and work longer to access their works
during stress problems. Although women play an important role in their families, their
works are not income generation. They also do not have time to learn new skills, or
even rest.
Secondly, ethnic minority women are more vulnerable to disasters and climate
change impacts than men because their voice in families and communities are poor. To
family, men usually make final decisions when they have discussion with women

about cropping patterns, land use, buying new equipment and things because women
have lower education that may result from early marriage or poverty. Hence, women’s
adaptive capacity is available more limited. To community, women spend more time
to work outside, face to many tasks so they are less available for social and cultural
activities such as formal socio-political organizations and community meetings about
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mitigation of climate change, adapting to extreme weather and the like. Due to limited
participation, women are not aware of the importance of personal targets and also
difficulties in changes of climate and they have no chance no to share opinions,
enhance knowledge and learn more experiences.
Thirdly, women and children in developing countries are at higher risk of health
problems during and after natural disasters. Combined with the accelerated spread of
diseases and infections, the breakdown of the social order and the malnourishment that
sometimes accompanies climate change have led to higher rates of dengue fever,
malaria, HIV, and STI transmission, especially for women (Lane, et al., 2009;
Rodenberg, 2009). This is because they have to take part in post-flood recovery
activities such as cleaning, clearing houses of debris, environmental sanitation and
ditch dredging so they are exposed to infected environment. Typically, when women
are pregnant or breastfeeding, the food shortages and scarce clean water may cause
nutritional problems and increased sicknesses for them. They do not have chance to
access health care services and facilities to cure and improve their health. Their
illnesses may become worst because of too late treatment or unclean environment.
Another possible reason is cultural norms that prohibit women from learning to swim,
or from visiting relief centers alone, according to the International Food Policy
Research Institute (Diep, 2015).

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3.3.

Responses of women

In the context of the fact that climate change is causing more and more obvious
influences, people need to mobilize forces from all parties to be able to manage
disaster risks more effectively. Women, with the capacity, skills and their knowledge
are valuable force. On September 5, 2016, there was a discussion with topic "Actions
for Climate Change: Women held solutions” at the United Nations. Ms. Mary
Robinson, Special Ambassador of the United Nations in El Nino and Climate Change
has listened to opinions of women from Bac Kan, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Hue which are
most severely affected from natural disasters and climate change in Vietnam (Bo Lao
dong Thuong Binh va Xa hoi, 2016). These women shared about the impact of climate
change and natural disasters on their lives, the challenges and the solutions that are
proposed. In this case, comments of women are one of essential response to process of
planning about disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change.
Moreover, the study results of ADC's Center at Thai Nguyen university of
Agriculture and Forestry in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi District, Bac Kan province
showed that indigenous knowledge should be respected in the program of socioeconomic development to improve effectively plan of adaptation to climate change in
Bac Kan. For example, Tay, Dao ethnic minorities also use indigenous knowledge in
agriculture, especially women in there who depends on agricultural activities. Ethnic
Tay, Dao also use indigenous knowledge in agriculture. Tay ethnic grows maize on
contours and Dao has intercropping techniques to reduce drought, increase soil
fertility. Through monitoring the weather, the Tay and Dao localities also have more
experiences about forecasting, climate and harvest. If Tay people find soil fungi

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(Bjooc Din) growing in forests that means raining. For Dao people, if they see crabs in
stream crawling to the road or the mountain, it is going to have a flood (Diu, 2014).
Overall, the women are keenly aware of their environments because of primary
responsibility for growing food and collecting water, firewood. Therefore, they can
play a paramount role in the management, conservation, use of natural resources, all
aspects of disaster risk management and resilience building. However, these roles are
mostly invisible, rarely acknowledged and not included into formal systems (United
Nations, n.d.).
4. Some features about Thanh Van commune
Thanh Van is a commune in Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province, Vietnam. The
commune is located: North has borders with Quang Thuan (Bach Thong) commune,
Nong Thuong commune (Bac Kan city). The East has borders with Hoa Muc
commune, Cao Ky commune. The South and West have borders with Thanh Mai
commune. According to the Government Portal, Thanh Van commune covers an area
of 29.69 km², has a population of about 2,306 people and has a population density of
77.7 persons per km². Thanh Van has an inter-communal road to Nong Thinh
commune and connects to Bac Kan city center. There are Quan Lang stream and some
lakes, including Tan Minh Lake is the biggest lake in the commune. Thanh Van
commune is divided into villages: Pjo, Na Ray, Na Don, Phung Khao, Quan Lang 1,
Quan Lang 2, Na Kham, Na Chua, Pa Lai and Khau Chu (Wikipedia, 2017)

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5. Concepts of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation
5.1.

Vulnerability

There is still much uncertainty about what the term vulnerability covers. The

concept of vulnerability implies some risk combined with the level of social and
economic liability, and the ability to cope with the resulting event. Vulnerability has
been defined as the degree to which a system, or part of a system, may react adversely
during the occurrence of a hazardous event (Virendra, 2014). On the other hand,
vulnerability is a concept that evolved out of the social sciences and was introduced as
a response to the purely hazard-oriented perception of disaster risk in the 1970
(Schneiderbauer, 2004).
In additional, some authors distinguish between social vulnerability which deals
with the susceptibility of human and the condition necessary for their survival and
adaptation and biophysical vulnerability on the other (WBGU, 2005) In this context,
biophysical vulnerability is a concept developed from global environmental change
research, where it is widely used to describe the extent to which a system is vulnerable
to adverse effects on climate change and to what extent it is able or not to adapt to
such impact (WBGU, 2005). In the study of evolution of approaches to
vulnerability originated in the social and the natural sciences, Adger (2006) concludes
that vulnerability is most often conceptualized as being constituted by components that
include exposure to perturbations or external stresses, sensitivity to perturbation, and
the capacity to adapt (Gilberto, 2006).
However, in this research, it can be underlined vulnerability as an intrinsic
predisposition to be affected by or to be susceptible to damage, that means
13


vulnerability represents the system or the community’s physical, economic, social or
political susceptibility to damage as the result of a hazardous event of natural
(Cardona, 2004). In terms of climate change, vulnerability determines how severe the
impacts of climate change might be. There are three dimensions of vulnerability to
climate change: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

5.2.

Adaptive capacity

Adaptive capacity in this research is defined as the ability of a system (human
or natural) to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to
moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the
consequences (CARE, n.d.). One of the most important factors shaping the adaptive
capacity of individuals, households and communities is their access to and control over
natural (safe water resources, productive land, etc.), human (knowledge of climate
risks, conservation agriculture skills, etc.), social ( women’s saving and loan groups,
traditional welfare, etc.), physical ( irrigation infrastructure, seed and grain storage
facilities, etc.) and financial (micro-insurance, diversified income sources) resources
(CARE, n.d.). According to Brooks and Adger (2005), the presence of adaptive
capacity has been shown to be a necessary condition for the design and
implementation of effective adaptation strategies so as to reduce the likelihood and the
magnitude of harmful outcomes resulting from climate change (IPCC, 2007).

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5.3.

Resilience

The concept of resilience is important to understanding adaptive capacity to
climate change. Resilience refers to the ability of a human system (such as a municipal
water system and the community that supports it) to withstand contemporary shocks
and to anticipate and plan for future shocks (Yarnal, n.d.). Others believe that
resilience implies the ability of a system to perform properly even when placed under
pressure or the ability of systems to absorb and recover from the impact of disruptive

events without fundamental changes in function or structure (Virendra, 2014).
However, Adger (2000) defines social resilience as the ability of groups or
communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social,
political, and environmental change (Gilberto, 2006). In this research, resilience can be
defined as the ability of a system (human or natural) to resist, absorb and recover from
the effects of hazards in a timely and efficient manner, preserving or restoring its
essential basic structures, functions and identity (CARE, 2007).
6. Linkages of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity
Vulnerability is the propensity of a system to suffer significant transformations
as a consequence of its interaction with external or internal processes or events which
is called perturbations (Gallopín, n.d.). Central components of vulnerability are
exposure (degree, duration and/or extension in which the system is in contact with, or
subject to, the perturbation), sensitivity (the degree to which they could be harmed by
that exposure) and adaptive capacity(ability of the system to adjust to or resist the
perturbation, moderate potential damage, take advantage of opportunities, cope with
the consequences of the transformations that do occur).
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A system with more adaptive capacity will tend to be less vulnerable because of
changing the sensitivity of the system to perturbations and reducing the exposure of
the system to perturbations. In other words, some people and the things they value can
be highly vulnerable to low-impact climate changes because of high sensitivity or low
adaptive capacity, while others can have little vulnerability to even high-impact
climate changes because of insensitivity or high adaptive capacity. Climate change
will result in highly variable impact patterns because of these variations in
vulnerability in time and space (Yarnal, n.d.). According to Holling (1973) resilience
is “the capacity of a system to absorb and utilize or even benefit from perturbations
and changes that attain it and so to persist without a qualitative change in the system
structure” (Kumar, 2012).

It can be seen that there several relations between resilience and vulnerability: a
resilient system is less vulnerable than a non-resilient system, resilience is not clearly
related to the sensitivity component of vulnerability, a sensitive system may be
resilient or not, an insensitive system may exhibit low vulnerability and also low
resilience, resilience does not encompass exposure, but a history of exposure may be
important to build resilience (at least in ecological systems). Therefore, systems with
high adaptive capacity are resilient and able to reconfigure themselves to deal with
climate change. Systems with low adaptive capacity are much less resilient and much
more vulnerable to climate change.
In conclusion, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity are related in
nontrivial ways. If care is not used, the field of human dimensions research can
become epistemologically very messy (Gallopín, n.d.).
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