Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

BOX 5.1 CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE POORadversely affected by climate change. While it is impossible topredict what will ultimately happen in Niger, we know that up tohalf of the country’s farmers have adopted land managementtechniques that make them far more resilient in the future.The model of enterprise promotion outlined in this book holdspromise for addressing the persistence of rural poverty. Itappears to deliver other important benefits as well. In the mostrecent Climate Change Assessment from the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II identifiedthe critical determinant of “adaptive capacity”: the abilitymake the changes necessary in land use, economic activity, andsocial organization necessary to respond to climate change. Itis worth noting that many of them are the same elementsnecessary for establishing community nature-based enterprises.The IPCC offered this list of determinants of adaptive capacityfrom the literature (IPCC WG II 2007:816):■ Access to economic and natural resources■ Entitlements (property rights)■ Social networks■ Institutions and governance■ Human resources■ TechnologyThere are no guarantees, but experience shows that the poor,rural communities that have nurtured robust nature-basedenterprises have, in the process, become more resilient tochallenge and more capable of dealing successfully withchange in the future. 194