Local responses to too much and too little water in the greater Himalayan region
Diversified Livelihoods in Changing
Socio-ecological Systems of Yunnan
Province, China
Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies of Kunming Institute of Botany, and World Agroforestry Centre, China
Key messages
• Government policies play a key role in shaping the extent to which rural households are able to adapt to climate
change and climate hazards.
• Economic reform and shifts in property regime have weakened rural institutions and collective action in water
resource management.
• Local people’s exposure to risks induced by climate change has decreased due to the rural transformation brought
about by the open market period and off-farm income opportunities.
• The various biophysical and socioeconomic conditions in the study sites generate differing degrees of exposure to
natural hazards and climate-induced risks and diverse options for adaptation.
• Agricultural intensification depends on large quantities of chemical fertiliser inputs, and this might cause
maladaptation as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Introduction
a market-driven one. At the same time, they have faced
climatic uncertainties and change. These two processes,
The study examined adaptations and responses in three
climatic and economic, both affect the short-term
locations in Yunnan, China. It also studied how state
responses of farmers to climate risks and change, which
policies and local institutions have shaped the capacity
in some cases leads to maladaptation or unsuitable
of the rural population to respond and adapt to climate
responses.
change and climate-induced risks. This paper highlights
how external interventions can help strengthen the
functioning of rural institutions and innovations relevant to
Study sites
adaptation.
This case study was conducted in three villages that
represent different topographic, altitudinal, and agro-
In many parts of Yunnan Province, China, mountain
ecological zones in western Yunnan, China. Yunnan
farmers have responded to threats from climate
Province covers 394,000 sq.km, and includes the
variability for decades now and centuries in the past.
headwaters of Asia’s six largest rivers that sustain over
Climate change may increase the expected magnitude,
600 million people within the basin boundaries. It is
frequency, and intensity of such threats. The success
home to 46 million people, most of whom dwell in the
of adaptation practices developed by rural farmers
mountain regions.
depends on the nature of prevailing state policies,
formal and informal institutions, and financial investment
The mountain geography creates a mosaic of settlement
in risk-reducing infrastructure.
patterns, land use, and livelihood practices. Local
people, including 25 distinct ethnic minority groups,
Over the past half century, rural farmers in China have
have adapted in ways that demonstrate their local
faced uncertainties in the transformation from a centrally
ecological knowledge and intimate relationship with the
planned and collectively managed agrarian economy to
environment and climate.
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