NAPAs provide a process for the LDCs to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs with regard to adaptation to climate change - those needs for which further delay could increase vulnerability or lead to increased costs at a later stage. The rationale for NAPAs rests on the limited ability of the LDCs to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. In the NAPA process, prominence is given to community-level input as an important source of information, recognizing that grassroots communities are the main stakeholders. NAPAs use existing information and no new research is needed. They are action-oriented, country-driven, are flexible and based on national circumstances. In order to effectively address urgent and immediate adaptation needs, NAPA documents are presented in a simple format, easily understood both by policy-level decision-makers and the public.

This reports concludes that the livelihood resilience of fishermen in Northern Benin is challenged by many factors, among them poverty and lack of institutional support. The assets entitlment and endowment of fishermens are minimal and faced with limited livelihood strategies. Low level of education and lack of vocational training and skills coupled with saving skills restrict the ability of fishermen to acquire the necessary assets for the expansion of their businesses. The open-access nature of river Pendjari attract many people into fishing while the limited space for fishing contribute to resource depletion and rectict accumulation respectively.

This document produced by CERPA in 2011 is a report on the number of water reservoirs/dams per commune in the departments of Atacora / Donga and points of the fishing infrastructures. The objective of this project is to identify pastoral water points in order to allow a good supervision of the agricultural actors. The issue of water management for good agricultural policy remains an important issue for Benin.

Migration presents a common livelihood strategy in the South-West region of Burkina Faso. Cross-border return migration is deeply embedded in the society. This study generates new knowledge about the shared ‘cultures of migration’. It was conducted in Dano, a small market town located in the Ioba province. The local livelihoods are mainly based on rain-fed agriculture. These are exposed to various vulnerabilities such as increasing rainfall variability and land scarcity. Additionally, missing employment opportunities and the low availability of credits to invest in own business ideas limit the choice of livelihood strategies. Although these factors impact the decisions to migrate, the persistent migration flows cannot solely be explained by the current conditions. This is why a theoretical along with a methodical triangulation was conducted. The concept of ‘cultures of migration’ combined with Bourdieu’s ‘theory of practice’ and livelihoods re-search was applied to enrich the understanding of the continuity of these movements. Thus, this study takes a look at the ‘discursive space’ of return migration. By focusing on qualitative methods and including the perceptions and valuations of people who were left behind a differentiating picture of the impacting factors on the migration patterns can be drawn. Additionally, the historical background has been embedded into the analysis. Consolidated dur-ing colonial times return migration towards the neighbour countries Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are part of one of the largest migration systems on the continent nowadays. Despite the climate induced seasonal division and less income opportunities during the dry season, most migration flows do not amount to seasonal periods only but for two to three years. Migration is mainly performed by young men who commonly work on plantations abroad. The number of women, however, is increasing. The study shows that many mi-grants link their journeys to certain individual goals. Common target objects include clothing, bicycles and motorbikes as well as the construction of houses. The study argues that role models, set by former migrants, play a crucial role in the maintenance of the migration flows. Through their behaviour and position within the society they perpetual inspire young people in taking the decision to migrate. Moreover, former migrants can provide important knowledge and social networks for the success of future migrants. Despite economic motivations also social conflict and curiosity lead people to take the decision to migrate. However, for the implementation of this social practice other things such as a certain degree of economic and social capital are necessary. Moreover, family presents a considerable factor influencing the decision-making. During their time abroad, most migrants maintain strong links with their place of origin and especially their relatives, which enables them to return, even in cases of failed targets. Overall, the study concludes that a positive discourse about male migrants and the acknowledgement which they receive after their return influenced the persistence of the migration patterns. However, also certain changes could be detected. After the political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire 2002/2003 the perception as well as the migrant’s behaviour changed significantly. Through the perceived higher risks abroad people expect the migrants to in-vest more at their place of origin. The migrants tend to invest especially in buildings, which also symbolize their willingness to return. The engagement in artisan gold mining and dry season agriculture could be identified as new emerging livelihood strategies, which ‘compete’ with the long developed return migration patterns. Even though the cultures of migration change over time, they also sustain several changes and impacts, therefore also future migrations patterns will be influenced by them.

This chapter supports the argument that social science research should focus on adaptation to climate change as a social and political process, by analyzing the politics and interest of actors in climate change adaptation arenas and by acknowledging the active role of those people who are expected to adapt. Most conventional climate research depoliticizes vulnerability and adaptation by removing dominant global economic and policy conditions from the discussion. Social science disciplines, if given appropriate wight in multidisciplinary projects, contribute important analyses by relying on established concepts from political science, human geography, and social anthropology. This chapter explains relevant disciplinary concepts (climate change adaptation arenas, governance, politics, perception, metal models, culture, weather discourses, risk, blame, traveling ideas) and relates them to each other to facilitate the use of a common terminology and conceptual framework for research in a developmental context.

NAPAs provide a process for the LDCs to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs with regard to adaptation to climate change - those needs for which further delay could increase vulnerability or lead to increased costs at a later stage. The rationale for NAPAs rests on the limited ability of the LDCs to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. In the NAPA process, prominence is given to community-level input as an important source of information, recognizing that grassroots communities are the main stakeholders. NAPAs use existing information and no new research is needed. They are action-oriented, country-driven, are flexible and based on national circumstances. In order to effectively address urgent and immediate adaptation needs, NAPA documents are presented in a simple format, easily understood both by policy-level decision-makers and the public. Adaptation to increasing climate variability and climate change is a very important topic in Liberia. While some national coping strategies have already been developed to deal with extreme climatic phenomena, they are only a beginning. As such, the NAPA process has afforded Liberia the opportunity to reflect systematically and in concert with a comprehensive set of stakeholders, the type of measures that could increase the capacity of vulnerable communities to cope with the urgent and immediate needs associated with increasing climatic volatility and future climate change.

The 2000 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory of The Gambia shows national emission total of about 20.02 Million Tons CO2 Equivalent (TCO2E) and per capita emissions of 13.5 TCO2E. This is insignificant compared to other country emissions. However, as a Party to the Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, Gambia is willing to participate in mitigating global emissions and their concentrations in the atmosphere with the first step of conducting a mitigation assessment and developing this NAMA document. Trend analysis of climate data from 1951 to date shows a progressively warming and drier Gambia. Using General Circulation Model outputs, national temperatures are projected to increase by about 0.3OC in 2010 to about 3.9OC in 2100. Rainfall is also projected to decrease by about 1% in 2010 to about 54% in 2100. This confirms previous results of in the First National Communication that with increase in temperatures under a warming climate, rainfall in The Gambia would correspondingly decrease. The development challenges of The Gambia will be significant as the country faces complex economic, social and technological choices based on the climate change impacts already enumerated in the preceding paragraph. This is compounded by the inadequate capacities, inadequacies in the existing technologies and the non availability of domestic funding from both the public and private sectors for climate change.

Migration presents a common livelihood strategy in the South-West region of Burkina Faso. Cross-border return migration is deeply embedded in the society. These interviews generates new knowledge about the shared ‘cultures of migration’. They were conducted in Dano, a small market town located in the Ioba province. The local livelihoods are mainly based on rain-fed agriculture. These are exposed to various vulnerabilities such as increasing rainfall variability and land scarcity. Additionally, missing employment opportunities and the low availability of credits to invest in own business ideas limit the choice of livelihood strategies. Although these factors impact the decisions to migrate, the persistent migration flows cannot solely be explained by the current conditions.

Occupying a total area of 11,300 sq km, with a population density of 130 persons per sq km, The Republic of the Gambia is one of the most densely populated countries on continental Africa. Because The Gambia possesses only minimal commercial mineral resources and manufacturing sector, agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for many Gambians, employing more than 68% of the workforce and accounting for about 40% of the Gambia’s export earnings contributing about 26% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agriculture is predominantly subsistence and rain-fed with farmers relying on traditional shifting cultivation and livestock management practices. Over the last fifty years cropland area increased from under 100,000 ha to over 300,000 at the expense of natural woodland and wetland ecosystems. Over 51% of The Gambia’s population resides in urban areas. Driven by variable and degrading climate, decline in agricultural productivity in rural areas, and changes in economic activity (tourism, petty trade and small scale manufacturing) in the ecologically favorable West Coast Region, urban population has increased from 110,000 in 1973 to 680,000 in 2003. Between 1980 and 2001, built-up area in the Gambia has increased from 2,725 ha to more than 19,000 ha with over 50% of the increase occurring in Kombo (KMC and the districts of Kombo). The Gambia’s climate is Sahelian characterized by high variability in the amount and distribution of annual precipitation. Analysis of long-term climate data shows that the past 50 years have seen a decrease in total amount of precipitation, length of rainy season, and increase in length and frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and dust storms. The low-lying topography, combined by high dependence on subsistence rain-fed agriculture and inadequate drainage and storm water management system in a context of rapidly expanding un-regulated urban expansion has placed the Gambia among those countries most vulnerable to climate change. This study examines threats associated with anthropogenic climate change; vulnerable ecosystems and ecosystem services; and examines how to integrate responses to climate change and adaptation measures into strategies for poverty reduction, to ensure sustainable development.

This document is a map of land and vegetation cover of the North Bank Region of the Gambia produced by the National Environment Agency of the Gambia (NEA). It is reproduced as a background map in 2015 by Constantine Kouevi, student WASCAL MRP-The Gambia, in her Master thesis. This study shows that there is a densification of human activities in this geographical space, which explains a high human concentration. Land management policies depend on the quality of natural resource management. This can lead to potential conflicts.