Chapter 18: Adaptation to Climate Change in the Context of Sustainable Development and Equity
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18.5 Adaptive Capacity and its Determinants
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18.5.2 Determinants of Adaptive Capacity
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18.5.2.6 Equity
It is frequently argued that adaptive capacity will be greater if social institutions and arrangements governing the allocation of power and access to resources within a community, nation, or the globe assure that access to resources is equitably distributed (Ribot et al., 1996; Mustafa, 1998; Adger, 1999; Handmer et al., 1999; Kelly and Adger, 1999; Rayner and Malone, 1999; Toth, 1999). The extent to which nations or communities are “entitled” to draw on resources greatly influences their adaptive capacity and their ability to cope (Adger and Kelly, 1999). Some people regard the adaptive capacity of a system as a function not only of the availability of resources but of access to those resources by decisionmakers and vulnerable subsectors of a population (Kelly and Adger, 1999). In the case of technological innovation, Cyert and Kumar (1996) show that differential distribution of information within an organization can impose constraints on adaptation strategies. Differentiation in demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, educational attainment, and health often are cited in the literature as being related to the ability to cope with risk (Chan and Parker, 1996; Burton et al., 1998; Scheraga and Grambsch, 1998). Wisner’s (1998) study of homeless people in Tokyo provides an example of a situation in which inequality in access to resources results in a diminished capacity to adapt to environmental risk. Homeless people generally occupy marginal areas that are more vulnerable to environmental hazards. An associated lack of financial resources and infrastructure restricts the availability of adaptation options. A study by Bolin and Stanford (1991) draws parallel conclusions about the marginalization of minority groups.
These determinants of adaptive capacity are not independent of each other, nor are they mutually exclusive. Adaptive capacity is the outcome of a combination of determinants and varies widely between countries and groups, as well as over time. “Vulnerability varies spatially because national environments, housing and social structure vary spatially. It varies temporally because people move through different life stages with varying mixes of resources and liabilities” (Uitto, 1998). Bohle et al. (1994) document variable vulnerability to climatic variations of groups in Zimbabwe and its association with poverty, the macro-political economy, and inequitable land distribution. Not only are conditions for adaptive capacity diverse, they also behave differently in different countries and regions, particularly depending on the level of development. These determinants represent conditions that constrain or enhance the adaptive capacity and hence the vulnerability of regions, nations, and communities.
