Climate Smart Villages in Guatemala and Honduras as Local Innovation Platforms for Scaling Ecosystem-based Adaptation

The municipalities of Santa Rita (department of Copán, Honduras) and Olopa (department of Chiquimula, Guatemala), are located in the Central American Dry Corridor region, characterized by irregular rainfall, high susceptibility to climate variability, and, according to IPCC models, high vulnerability to climate change. These challenges will be critical for farmers due to the effects that climate has on cash crops such as coffee (Bunn, Castro and Lundy, 2018), fundamental for the region’s economy, as well as for self-consumption crops such as maize and beans (Eitzinger et al., 2017).

What’s the story?

In recent years, more frequent droughts have forced many farming families to push their land and resources to the limit. However, this short-term strategy has a downside: overusing natural resources weakens the land and makes it even harder to cope with future climate impacts. That means lower harvests, lower incomes, and fewer opportunities to improve living conditions.