Community Based Adaptation (CBA)

Community Based Adaptation (CBA) embodies local community action on climate adaptation initiatives. This may involve participatory learning and problem-solving (including creative trial-and-error approaches), documentation and sharing, collaborative planning and local implementation of climate adaptation initiatives.

Some examples of Community Based Adaptation may be local adaptive planning around changing rainy seasons with modified agricultural planting seasons as well as adjusted crop choice, sometimes termed climate-smart food production; community disaster risk trainings to store water and food stuffs on high-and-dry lands to cope with increase of floods; local redesign of building structures to mitigate losses from high-intensity cyclones, floods, or soil erosion; community cooperation on mangrove and native biodiversity restoration, increasing resilience to coastal erosion while creating local sustainable livelihoods.

CBA can be locally derived or managed, reflective of local cultures / eco-cultures / bio-cultures (perceptions of, and relationships to, humans and non-humans and nature) and societal functions. This offers an opportunity for sustainable and sustaining, self-organising and evolving local engagement on climate change adaptation, guided by local knowledge and wisdom, including Indigenous and other forms of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) relating to adaptive management of complex social-ecologies of specific populations.

This CBA Theme spaces also opens consideration of ‘local’ community based climate action within local-to-local network engagement of climate iniatives wherein the diversity and local endogeneity remains, yet is enhanced through wider network collaboration and sharing.

The CBA Conferences

This CBA Theme on the weADAPT platform was launched in conjunction with, and celebration of, the CBA13 conference (and the series of conferences building a CBA community) in Ethiopia, which focused on ‘Local Solutions Inspiring Global Action’. Click here for details of and resources from CBA 13 and other past CBA conferences.

• The 17th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA17), Bangkok, Thailand

CBA17 is the first in-person conference since CBA13 in 2019. It will take place from 22nd to 25th May 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. The four days of this in-person CBA conference will allow networking, reconnecting, discussions, debate, peer-to-peer skill sharing, learning and knowledge exchange. CBA17 will attract a diverse community of local and international climate change adaptation practitioners to share their lessons and experiences of putting the principles of locally-led adaptation into practice

Find out more about the CBA17 conference and the five conference themes here.

Get involved in CBA17:

• Register to attend the conference.
• Sign up to receive regular updates on the conference.
• Apply to host a CBA ‘market stall’.

Past Conferences

• The 16th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA16)

The 16th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA16) brought together practitioners, grassroots representatives, local and national government planners, researchers, policymakers and donors, working at all levels and scales to discuss how to put the principles for Locally-Led Adaptation (LLA) into practice and to create a world where all people are on a pathway to climate-resilient, low-emission sustainable development.

CBA16 took place online from 3 – 4 October 2022. The virtual agenda brought wider access to global climate practitioners, reducing our carbon footprint and environmental impact. It helped create interactive networking opportunities so participants could gain more ideas, inspiration and connections for climate action.

Explore the CBA16 conference…

• Visit the live blog pagefor an overview of the event.
• Discover the four key messages from the CBA16 conference in this blog.
• Read the publication of the Key messages.

• The 15th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA15)

The 15th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA15) took place from June 14th – June 18th 2021.For a summary of messages from CBA15,Click here.

• CBA14: From local solutions to global action

The 14th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change took place online from Sun, 20 Sep 2020 – Thu, 24 Sep 2020. For a summary of messages from CBA14,Click here.

You can find an overview of past international climate change conferences on Community Based Adaptation by clicking here.