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Building Resilience on the Prairies

Adaptation as Resilience Building

In October 2004, IISD initiated a new project in partnership with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (the rural extension service of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) and the University of Manitoba's Natural Resources Institute. This two-year project funded by Canada's Climate Change Action Fund will examine the resilience of prairie communities to past climate stresses as a means of strengthening adaptation to future climate change.

The project is based on the premise that prairie agro-ecosystems, or the inter-relationship between social and ecological systems in the prairie region, have been continuously adapting (successfully and unsuccessfully) to historic climate variability. By examining successful examples of how agro-ecosystems have adapted to past climate stress, IISD and its partners believe that we learn how to promote adaptive capacity and build the resilience of prairie agro-ecosystems to present climate change. It is expected that the project's research findings will make an important contribution to the design of Canada's evolving Agricultural Policy Framework.

Project Reports

• Farmer Responses to Weather Shocks and Stresses in Manitoba: A Resilience
  Approach (PDF - 644 kb)
  A Masters Thesis by Peter Myers describing how producers in Manitoba have dealt with past weather- related shocks and stresses as a view toward future coping and adaptation for climate change.

• Living with Climate Change: How Prairie Farmers Deal with Increasing Weather
  Variability (PDF - 2.4 mb)
  A technical report by Masters student Kent Pearce describing how producers in Saskatchewan have dealt with past weather -related shocks and stresses as a view toward future coping and adaptation for climate change.

• Producer Coping and Adaptation Responses to Weather Shocks and Stresses in Southern Alberta (PDF - 1.4 mb)
  A technical report by Jennifer Medlock and Andrew McCoy describing how producers in Alberta have dealt with past weather -related shocks and stresses as a view toward future coping and adaptation for climate change.

• Indicators of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change for Agriculture in the Prairie Region of Canada: An Analysis based on Statistics Canada's Census of Agriculture
  (PDF - 2.4 mb)
  This draft working paper documents a collaborative IISD/AAFC-PFRA effort to develop an index of adaptive capacity at the Census Division level for the Prairie Agricultural region. IISD used this index to select case study locations for farm-level analysis of adaptation responses to climate stress and shock.

• Indicators of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change for Agriculture in the Prairie Region of Canada: Comparison with Field Observations (PDF - 1.6 mb)
  A 2009 update of the joint IISD-PFRA working paper.

• Synthesis Report
  An IISD synthesis report of findings from the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta Resilience Analyses.

Primer Brochures

• Adapting to Future Weather: Insights from Manitoba Agricultural Producers (PDF - 1 mb)
  This brochure provides a summary of how Manitoba producers have coped and adapted to past weather-related shocks and stresses. It is based on Masters degree research undertaken by Peter Myers at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba.

• Adapting to Future Weather: Insights from Saskatchewan Agricultural Producers (PDF - 1 mb)
  A summary of how Saskatchewan producers have coped and adapted to past weather-related shocks and stresses.

• Adapting to Future Weather: Insights from Alberta Agricultural Producers (PDF - 1 mb)
  A summary of how Alberta producers have coped and adapted to past weather-related shocks and stresses.

• Prairie Policy Primer
  A summary of policy insights for promoting the resilience of prairie agriculture to future weather-related shocks and stresses.

Project Presentations

• From Cumulative Threats to Integrated Responses: The Prairie Climate Resilience Project (PPT - 17 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Regional Climate Meeting: Developing a Common Vision Dec 6 & 7, 2007.

• Climate Change – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (PPT - 17 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, Executive and Directors Annual Planning Session May 11, 2007.

• Adaptation as Resilience Building (PPT - 13 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to Natural Resources Canada, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division, Adaptation Series March 2, 2007.

• From Cumulative Threats to Integrated Responses: The Prairie Climate Resilience Project (PPT - 17 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to the Alberta Agriculture and Food Council, March 4, 2009.

• The Prairie Climate Resilience Project: AG-Water Forum III (PPT - 17 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to the AG-WATER FORUM III: State of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, Knowledge and Capacity in Canada.

• A Policy Study of Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation on the Canadian Prairies (PPT - 12 mb)
  Presentation by Henry Venema to the Canadian Agricultural Drought Adaptation (ADA) Project Researchers and Advisory Group Workshop.

• Implications of Climate Change for Food Production: Planning for Adaptation and Adaptive Capacity (PPT - 7 mb)
  Presentation by Darren Swanson to the annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

• Policymaking in a Changing Climate (PPT - 5 mb)
  Video lecture by Darren Swanson for the Universidad del Pacifico, Facultad de Economía.

Adaptive Policy Case Studies

The Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta Resilience Analyses were used to identify policies to study in IISD's Adaptive Policies Research Project.

• The Canadian Prairies: biophysical and socio-economic context (PDF - 353 kb)

• Adaptive policy case study: analysis of the Crow Rate in Prairie Canada: a cautionary tale (PDF - 708 kb)

• Understanding Adaptive Policy Mechanisms through Farm-level Studies of Adaptation to Weather Events in
  Manitoba, Canada (PDF - 1.4 mb)

• Adaptive policy case study: analysis of Manitoba's conservation district policy (PDF - 504 kb)

• Understanding Adaptive Policy Mechanisms through Farm-level Studies of Adaptation to Weather Events in Saskatchewan, Canada (PDF - 1 mb)

• Understanding Adaptive Policy Mechanisms through Farm-level Studies of Adaptation to Weather Events in
  Alberta, Canada (PDF - 1.5 mb)

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