Synergies and trade-offs between climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies: lessons from social technologies in the semiarid region of Bahia, Brazil, Latin America

Abstract

Historically, global efforts at dealing with climate change have narrowly focused on mitigation. However, recent studies suggest that mitigation and adaptation efforts need to be combined. This article aims to present evidence from local strategies to address climate change that can be eventually 'upscaled' and that can permeate the international climate change agenda. This research is focused on the Bahian semiarid region, characterised by severe and frequent droughts. The local populations, using their local knowledge systems, of which social technologies are a clear manifestation, have experienced new ways of dealing with their reality. This empirical analysis provides basic understanding of possible trade-offs and synergies between local mitigation and adaptation strategies at the community level. Results suggest that trade-offs can be avoided and synergies exploited, at least in the near-term and over limited spatial scale. Some of the identified local strategies could be replicable in other semiarid regions in Latin America and all around the world.