Community resilience assesment to flood and drought events in the Coyolate Basin (Guatemala)

Resilience describes the response of socio-ecological systems to disrupting forces. Walker et al. (2004) proposed that ecosystem resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb a disturbance conserving its essential features. In contrast, vulnerability is the inability of a system to withstand or cope with adverse conditions. Although these concepts are useful to understand ideal systems it may be not so simple to quantify them. In this context the livelihood framework can be useful to summarize important features of social systems since it describes how people use tangible or intangible resources to achieve their objectives (Scoones 1998). As a consequence, the response of livelihoods to disturbances can be used as an indicator of the resilience of the system. Floods and droughts are recurrent disturbances in the whole world. The capacity to cope with such events is a desirable characteristic of social actors. In the Coyolate basin, located in Guatemalan Pacific basin, devastating floods occurred during extreme events such as hurricanes and tropical storms e.g. Mitch (1998), Stan (2005), Agatha (2010), and depression E12 (2011). Also, droughts affected the country on 1987, 1994, 2001, and 2009; three out of these four episodes correspond to the warm phase of ENSO. Floods and droughts affect crop production which, in turn, may affect food security. Agriculture is the main economic activity of Guatemala. There are two types of agricultural production in the Pacific Basin of Guatemala. First, large scale crops (e.g. oil palm) are generally produced in large states and sometimes are industrialized (e.g. sugar cane). Second, subsistence crops are generally produced in small states and consumed by the producers or within the community (e.g. corn). In the study region, both kinds of production are found, so the negative effects of droughts and floods could affect not only the food security of local communities but the national economy. The lower basin of the Coyolate river is particularly sensitive because of the combination of both types of production in a coastal plain exposed to floods and droughts. The community composition is dominated by non-indigenous people that immigrated from other parts due to the economic opportunities. This implies that the sequels due to disturbances might have cascading effects also in social aspects at larger scales. There are empirical evidences in the Coyolate Basin, of livelihood strategies that have allowed families to deal with change and perturbations. This proposal seeks to investigate in a systematic and participative manner the existence of these strategies and their mechanisms and rationalities behind. Efforts have been made by different institutions (GOs and NGOs) and community leaders to assess risks and the associated vulnerability of communities (CONRED 2011). These efforts aimed to foresee disturbances and to manage risk, and were based on technical tools, which were provided from ¿outside institutions¿. Communities were involved only in the last steps of information transference. This low-grade engagement of communities reduced the long-lasting effects of these efforts. This fact suggests that it is important to get acquainted with the community from the beginning of the project. Thus, the engagement of communities through the whole process will permit them to assess and improve their resilience not only in the short term, but also in the long term.