Presentation from the WCCA 2011 conference in Brisbane, Australia.

1. Peter Brown1, Kerry Bridle1,2, Rhonda Toms-Morgan3, Daniel Rodriguez4
1CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, 2Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture,
3Queensland Murray-Darling Committee , 4University of Queensland
Measuring the adaptive capacity of Southern
Queensland farmers to climate change

2. Background
Project: Developing climate change adaptation
strategies for Australia’s mixed crop-livestock
farming systems
Objectives:
• to evaluate the likely regional on-farm impacts of
climate change and variability
• to identify the costs and benefits of regional on-
farm climate change adaptation options and barriers
to adoption
• to increase knowledge and awareness of climate
change impacts and adaptation options

3. What is adaptive capacity?
• Adaptation
• the decision-making process and the set of actions
undertaken to maintain the capacity to deal with current or
future predicted change
• Adaptive capacity
• the preconditions necessary to enable adaptation, including
social and physical elements, and the ability to mobilize
these elements
Coonabarabran, Central West
source: Nelson, D. R., Adger, W. N., and Brown, K. (2007). Adaptation
to environmental change contributions of a resilience framework. Annual
Review of Environment and Resources 32, 11.1-11.25.

4. Why monitor adaptive capacity?
Adaptive capacity
Attributes of
Capacity of rural
management
households
practices
Generic capacity
to adapt Adoption of specific
practices
Aspirations of rural
households
Uncertain future Response to
challenges Degree of uncertainty of threat specific drivers
National, State Scale Local/household

5. The 5 capitals – Rural Livelihoods (Ellis 2000)
• Human capital – the skills, health (including mental) and
education of individuals that contribute to the productivity of labour
and capacity to manage land.
• Social capital – reciprocal claims on others by virtue of social
relationships, the close social bonds that facilitate cooperative
action and the social bridging, and linking via which ideas and
resources are accessed.
• Natural capital – the productivity of land, and actions to sustain
productivity, as well as the water and biological resources from
which rural livelihoods are derived.
• Physical (built) capital – capital items produced by economic
activity from other types of capital that can include
infrastructure, equipment and improvements in genetic resources
(crops, livestock).
• Financial capital – the level, variability and diversity of income
sources, and access to other financial resources (credit and
savings) that together contribute to wealth.

6. National Workshops
Climate projections
Impacts on crops/livestock
• Given the various
climate change
projections, do you
think you will be able
to adapt or
transform?
• How will it impact on
your ability to adapt
or transform?

7. Scoring and ranking indicators
1. What is the rationale for using these indicators?
2. Why are they high or low in each region?
 What are the important differences between regions?
 Is it going up/down/same/don’t know; differences between
regions?
3. What are the priorities for building adaptive capacity?
 Who needs to do what?
Low Medium High
Constraining Enabling
0 1 2 3 4 5
Not supporting effective Supporting effective
Could be improved
adaptation adaptation
Needs monitoring, may Does not need
High priority for action
need some action immediate action

8. Queensland workshops
Roma – 350-650 mm rf (summer)
Goondi – 350-650 mm rf
SEQ – 650-1200 mm rf
Roma
Brisbane
SEQ graziers
Goondiwindi

9. Self-assessment of the five capitals for each region
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

10. Human Capital
Goondi Roma SEQ National
Score Frequency
Age/health 1 3 3 2.3 93%
Attitude for change 3.5 2 2 2.6 50%
Skilled labour 1 3.5 2.3 71%
Business skills 1 2.8 50%
Farmer education/
experience 3 4 2.9 64%
Family support/skills 2
Access to
information 0
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

11. Social Capital
National
Goondi Roma SEQ Score Frequency
Rural communities 3.5 2 2.9 79%
Access to services 2.5 1.9 64%
Family unit 2.5 2.4 57%
Access to information 2 4 2 3.1 50%
Change to traditional
1.5 2.5
agricultural land use
Isolation/rural decline 2.5
Access to labour 2
Farmer networks 4
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

12. Natural Capital
Goondi Roma SEQ National
Score Frequency
Water resources 3 2.5 2 2.7 93%
Soil health 3 3.1 79%
Climate 4 2.7 50%
Land capability 3 2.5 4
Natural resources 3.5 3
Landscape amenity 3.5
Pests/weeds/diseases 1.5
Mining 4
Pasture/ground cover 3
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

13. Physical Capital
Goondi Roma SEQ National
Score Frequency
Regional infrastructure 2.5 1 4 2.5 100%
Genetics (plant/animal) 4 3.3 50%
Plant & machinery 2.5 3.3 57%
Technology 2 2.9 50%
Water infrastructure 4 2 2
Communication technology 3 2
Access to services 4
Farm business size 2.5
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

14. Financial Capital
Goondi Roma SEQ National
Score Frequency
Equity/debt 1.5 0 1.4 79%
Land price 1 2.5 1 2.1 79%
Off farm income 3.5 4.5 3 3.5 71%
Cost of production 1.5 1.4 64%
Value for products 0.5
Attitude for investment 0.5
Business management 2
Enterprise diversification 3.5
Financial policy 1.5
Market access 4
Access to credit 1
≤2 = constraining
≥3 = enabling

15. Summary
• Preliminary results from the 14 workshops indicate that
there are approximately 20 indicators for the five capitals
that are common across the country
• Most indicators are not restricted to climate change or to
particular enterprises
• These indicators may score highly in some areas but low in
others – context is important
• Whether an indicator is perceived to be constraining or
enabling is more important than the score itself
• Additional indicators are locally relevant
• The rural livelihoods methodology allows us to collect
relatively complex information which can then be sorted
according to different needs/audiences at a range of scales

16. Acknowledgements
We thank the regional facilitators who organised the
workshops and all workshop participants from
around the country who volunteered their time to
assist with this project.
We also thank the other researchers involved in the
project for providing information on climate
projections for crops, pastures and livestock in each
region.

17. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture
Dr Peter Brown Dr Kerry Bridle
Senior Research Scientist Research Fellow
Phone: 02 6242 1562 Phone: 03 6226 2837
Email: Peter.Brown@csiro.au Email: Kerry.Bridle@utas.edu.au
Web: www.cse.csiro.au Web: www.cse.csiro.au
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