Vulnerability of Andean Communities to Climate Variability and Climate Change

Abstract

There is mounting evidence that climate change will increasingly impact large areas of Latin America, affecting people’s livelihoods and important natural resources such as water. These impacts will make rural people disproportionately more vulnerable, given their dependency on natural resources and their exposure to other stressors, such as globalization and restricted fiscal policies. Climate change, however, could also bring new opportunities, such as the expansion of cultivated areas. The paper presents the results of a 3-year study focused on rural vulnerabilities to climate variability in three Andean watershed basins: the Mendoza Basin in Argentina, the Choquecota Basin in Bolivia and the Elqui Basin in Chile. Following the vulnerability approach, the presentation discusses and compares (a) the present exposures, sensitivities and adaptive capacities of different rural producers in the three basins to present and past climate variations and their impacts on local water resources; and (b) the instituional challenges faced by these rural producers in the context of the present climate variability and expected future changes in climate conditions.