Abstract
There is an increasing call for local measures to adapt to climate change, based on foresight analyses in collaboration with actors. However, such analyses involve many challenges, particularly because the actors concerned may not consider climate change to be an urgent concern. This paper examines the methodological choices made by three research teams in the design and implementation of participatory foresight analyses to explore agricultural and water management options for adaptation to climate change. Case studies were conducted in coastal areas of France, Morocco, and Portugal where the groundwater is intensively used for irrigation, the aquifers are at risk or are currently overexploited, and a serious agricultural crisis is underway. When designing the participatory processes, the researchers had to address four main issues: whether to avoid or prepare dialogue between actors whose relations may be limited or tense; how to select participants and get them involved; how to facilitate discussion of issues that the actors may not initially consider to be of great concern; and finally, how to design and use scenarios. In each case, most of the invited actors responded and met to discuss and evaluate a series of scenarios. Strategies were discussed at different levels, from farming practices to aquifer management. It was shown that such participatory analyses can be implemented in situations which may initially appear to be unfavourable. This was made possible by the flexibility in the methodological choices, in particular the possibility of framing the climate change issue in a broader agenda for discussion with the actors.
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Notes
Here, we use the term “actor” since, as mentioned above, local actors may not initially consider they have any stakes in climate change, so the implication of the term “stakeholder” cannot always be taken for granted at the beginning of the participatory process. Even if they acknowledge being affected by a particular issue, actors may also be quite happy to leave the responsibility for handling it to the authorities (Warner and de Groot 2011).
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Acknowledgments
The study was part of the Aquimed project, which took place in the framework of the Eranet Circle-Med initiative (http://www.circle-med.net/). It was funded by the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. In Roussillon, the workshops with public organizations were organized with the support of the Vulcain project, funded by the French National Research Agency.
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Faysse, N., Rinaudo, JD., Bento, S. et al. Participatory analysis for adaptation to climate change in Mediterranean agricultural systems: possible choices in process design. Reg Environ Change 14 (Suppl 1), 57–70 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0362-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0362-x