Adaptive Responses and Resilience of Small Livestock Producers to Climate Variability in the Cruz Verde-Sumapaz Páramo, Colombia

Enhanced anthropogenic climatic variability challenges small farmers. In the Sumapaz páramo (Colombia), higher irregularity in precipitation and temperature reduces the quality of pasture and cattle health. Data from surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were analyzed to understand livestock farmers’ responses to the impacts of climatic variability. To estimate the communities’ resilience in the páramo, we used the capitals framework, the Baseline Resilience Indicator for Communities (BRIC), and cluster analysis. The responses of most households aim to reduce the impacts of climatic variability on the production system, chiefly intensifying practices such as the rotation of paddocks, livelihood diversification, purchase of grass, and buying and selling livestock. Interestingly, farmers did not recognize the value of the types of capital for responding to climatic variability. Results showed that the use of available physical, social, and economic capitals render the farming system resilient. Our probit model estimated that economic and human capitals are the largest and most significant contributors to communities’ capacity to respond to climatic variability. However, pre-existing non-climatic vulnerabilities are also important. For example, poverty hinders farmers from using their income in response to climatic variability. The place-based measurements used in this research are easily understood and applicable by local policy makers to address increasing climate variability.