Land Management

Greenland et al (1998) - Issues of land accessibility = hard to get to or land owned by someone else and not able to afford to buy it

Changing historic climate changes the rate of geomorphic processes

• Generally an increase in temps seen but not uniform - especially seen across the Caribbean and other tropical areas (Gamble, 2009)
• Change in rainfall - again no uniform pattern, some areas getting wetter some drier
  • In Caribbean, this is mainly a drying trend however areas which do have increases such as Bahamas, do so in large amounts (increase of 554mm/100yrs ) (Gamble, 2009)
• Change in CO2 levels (from deforestation?)
• Harder to predict local weather and outcomes in a certain area = issue of scale - trends seen at a global/ regional scale but not locally 
• Deforestation is enhancing dessication - 
  • 40--50% rainfall in tropics is convectional
  • Removal of natural forest with replacement of agricultural crops, reduces convection and thus rainfall causing bare soils from less plant cover
  • This increases surface temps and evaporation resulting in dessication
  • Bare ground also leads to soil compaction enhancing runoff therefore more topsoil is lost

Since 2000 there has been an increase in variability of temps and rainfall - harder for vegetation to survive

Hurricanes fairly low in 1960s:

• In 2000's see a rapid increase 
• 2005 = largest number of hurricanes in 1 yr since 1937 (6 in total)
• 2008 and 2010 = 5 in 1 yr - largest number since 80s
• Shows increased variability and frequency in conjunction with rising SSTs and increasing air temps (McGregor, 1995)
• Has affected crops in many countries e.g. Jamaica after Hurricane Gilbert in 1980s (Campbell et al, 2011)

Developing of la nina = high number of hurricanes due to the hotter SST = la Nina oscillations are occurring more frequently 

Climate change is making farmers more vulnerable and increasing risk - particularly in arid/ semi-arid areas

Rielly (1996) - Defines vulnerability as:

• To farmers:
  • Yield losses reduce income which in turn causes poverty and limits adaptation potential
  • Limited technological availability

• In regional economy:
  • limited economy
  • heavy reliance on farm sector (biggest single employer)
  • Limited…