1. Integrated Assessment of Social Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change Among Farmers in Mexico and Argentina Project Coordinator: Dr. Carlos Gay, Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, UNAM, México DF Project Duration: 3 years

2. RESEARCH TEAM MEXICO Carlos GAY– Atmospheric Physics - UNAM Patricia ROMERO – Sociology/Public Policy – UAM Cecilia CONDE – Climatology – UNAM Jorge ADAME – Hydrology – U.of Tamaulipas Hallie EAKIN – Geography – U. of Arizona ARGENTINA Roberto SEILER – Biometeorology – UNRC Enrique GROTE – Social Psychology – UNRC Marta VINOCUR – Agrometeorology – UNRC Ana María GEYMONAT – Agricultural Economics – UNRC Mónica WEHBE – Rural Development – UNRC BRAZIL*: Maria del Carmen Lemos - Political Sciences-U.of Arizona CHILE*: Alejandro León – U. of Chile. Agricultural Economics COLOMBIA * NOT SEEKING FUND

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS How are broad-scale socioeconomic processes of change in Mexico and Argentina, translated into region and sector-specific policy and institutional reforms, affecting the vulnerabilities of different types of farm systems and their capacities to adapt? What are the implications of particular agricultural and water policy reforms for the production strategies of different types of farmers, and what is the significance of these strategies in terms of enhancing or diminishing the vulnerabilities of farmers to climatic risk and their capacities to adapt to such risk? How can existing water and agricultural institutions and decision-makers make better use of climate research? How can adaptation capacities be enhanced within the context of current policy trends?

4. RESEARCH SITES Small-scale export: Veracruz and Córdoba Large-scale diversified export: Tamaulipas and Córdoba

5. Córdoba, Argentina

6. Climate data required for our project Surface Basic Variables Temperature (maximun and minimun) Precipitation Solar radiation, cloud cover Variables used in previous Mexican downscaling statistical method Sea surface temperature Sea level pressure Temperature and vorticity (700, 500 mb) Possible variables that depend of the stakeholder interest (related to hazards) Winds, evaporation, days with frosts, heavy rains, hail, etc.

7. T hese variables are needed at: The following time scales Historical: at least 30 years for baselines (1961-1990, if possible) Recent years: 2000-2002 ENSO years Climate trends and climate change scenarios: 2020s, 2050,.. The following time resolutions l Monthly (used also for generating seasonal, annual,..) l Daily for extreme event analysis and for crop simulation models The following spatial resolutions l Regional l Local, county level

8. Methods/tools used for developing climate scenarios Base scenarios: 30 years trends and averages (1961- 1990) if possible Climate change scenarios Incremental Historic analogues (trends, El Niño years, decades similar to selected GCMs outputs) GCM outputs, interpolation, downscaling Tools: Climlab, Magicc/ScenGen

9. Non-Climate data required for our project Indicators to be examined Socio-economic and environmental indicators will be developed as the final step of the proposed methodology. If the attributes proposed in the original project are accepted, some indicators could be (examples):  Related to System flexibility: range of income sources, diversity of crop base,..  Related to Livelihood stability: range of variability in production (yields), income, participation in labor markets  Related to Equity: access to services, technical support, irrigation

11. These indicators are needed at: The following time scales Historical: perhaps 1970 as baseline for the two countries; perhaps 1995 as example of changes in livelihood strategies (e.g. Post NAFTA, in the case of Mexico), for the two countries. Recent years: 2000-2002. Current livelihood practices and resources Strong ENSO years: droughts, floods Perhaps only 2020 for some indicators (population, economic growth). What if? Exercise The following time resolutions l Seasonal l Annual l Decadal (particularly last decade of the 20th century) The following spatial resolutions l National l Regional l County level, farm level

12. Methods/tools used for developing non-climate scenarios and for the socioeconomic analysis Identification with stakeholders participation of a set of political-economic and economic factors that actually affect them, such as markets, policies, risk management strategies. Analysis of aggregated agricultural and socio-economic data at regional and county level and other environmental statistics In depth interviews and household surveys will be used to generate specific indicators Statistical and qualitative data analysis, e.g. estimation of the relative importance of climate in decision-making. Recent years‘ trends (globalization, neo-liberalism in the Americas) and socio-economic projections will be used as future possible scenarios- Tools: SPSS; detailed ethnographies, focus groups qualitative interviews

13. Additional knowledge and skills expected to gain from these workshops Extreme events analysis. Downscaling techniques Magicc / Scengen and regional models basic features In depth analysis of climate scenarios development and application: state of the art. Plans to communicate and transfer the knowledge/skills to the rest of the project team We will develop our first bi-national workshop on May, 2002. Colombian researchers are invited to this workshop, mainly to discuss the adoption of the same methodologies and to develop their AIACC research agenda. Students will use during this year the proposed methods /tools in their thesis.

14. Advantages of using these methods/tools Methods/tools. Climate: Generally accepted (consensus of climate change community), Well documented Some of them applied/used previously by our research team. Methods/tools. Non- climate Well documented; Some of them applied/used previously by our research team. Disadvantages of and obstacles to using these methods/tools Methods/tools. Increasing uncertainties, when changing time scales, spatial scales. Downscaling techniques not agreed / applied at local / farm level by our research team for both countries before Consistency / integration between climate and socio-economic scenarios for both countries is still an open question How our climate and non – climate products will be discussed and feedback with stakeholders and into our research is also an open question. Particularly, we will define during the project how to assess the interest and understanding of the stakeholders of possible climate change conditions.