Community Based Adaptation (CBA)

Above is an example of community developed climate-smart agriculture collaboratively evolved across a network of local farmers in a Karen village bordering Myanmar and Thailand. CBA approaches include a merging of organic techniques with traditional ecological knowledge for adaptive management. Farmers interspersed trees and other plants to help mitigate against landslides becoming more common in these hills, with higher temperatures, protracted drought and fires, followed by heavy rainfall. (Photo: E.Parry, 2014).

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.