p.152 Adaptation and resilience not only can reduce the risks from climate
change, they can also improve living conditions and meet broader development objectives
p.152 Vulnerability is the basic condition that makes adaptation and resilience necessary.
p.153-154 Whereas vulnerability is a particular state and adaptation is a set of activities in response
to it, resilience is a less distinct concept... the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC... defines resilience
as "the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and
ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organization, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change." ... perhaps
it is more appropriate to consider resilience as a process, a way of functioning, that enables not only coping with
added shocks and stresses but also addressing the myriad challenges that constrain lives and livelihoods and facilitating
more general improvements to the quality of human lives. Resilience as a process therefore needs to take into account
the... factors that are necessary for humans to survive and thrive.
p.154 Resistance and resilience are shaped by a person’s access to rights, resources, and assets.
Mobilizing these assets, however, requires local institutions and national and international systems of governance to provide
the framework within which they can function. All these disparate elements... need to come together in a mutually reinforcing
manner to help individuals, households, and communities cope with change
p.155 The resilience of ecosystems to climate change depends in large part on the stresses, human and otherwise,
that are already being faced. Natural systems will be better able to adapt if other stresses are minimized... more resilient
and developed communities may have a greater capacity to exploit natural resources to support their adaptive strategies.
p.156 Adaptation strategies that focus on either social or ecosystem resilience must take
into account the tight interactions between them - and then aim to address both. This requires a holistic approach
that addresses the institutional barriers to sustainable development and livelihood diversification, as well as sound
and participatory natural resource management strategies.
p.159 Efforts to build... resilience need to address the... processes that have caused particularly
vulnerable groups to be vulnerable in the first place... Higher-level structures are needed to mediate increasing
competition for resources... All of this requires adaptive institutions
p.160 What can be done to build resilience in these settings? Resilience will require improving... infrastructure,
creating more effective... structures of governance, and building the capacity of individuals and communities to address these
new challenges and move beyond them.
p.166 mitigation is another response strategy that is both necessary and urgent to ensure long-term resilience.
As Tom Wilbanks and colleagues note, "if mitigation can be successful in keeping impacts at a lower lever, adaptation can
be successful in coping with more of the resulting impacts".
p.167 Building resilience requires... response measures that bring together... resource management concepts
to build adaptive capacity.
p.168 Rather than thinking about resilience as “bouncing back” from shocks and stresses,
it is perhaps more useful to think of it as “bouncing forward” to a state where shocks and stresses can be dealt
with more efficiently and successfully and with less damage to individual lives and livelihoods.
