Adaptive Capacity of Households to Degradation of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study in the Colombian Andes.

Abstract

The adaptive capacity (AC) of social systems to degradation of ecosystem services is defined as the response capacity of the system to a threat, such as changes in supply and delivery of ecosystem services (ES). In this paper, we propose an adaptive capacity composite indicator vis-a-vis the loss or degradation of ecosystem services that can be evaluated at household level in rural areas. For the estimation of the AC composite indicator, we evaluated 16 variables grouped into six categories that were previously validated with a group of experts in the area. The variables were evaluated in ten types of household profiles identified in relation with the services of water provision and erosion control in the Riogrande Basin in Colombia. The composite indicator is built both through experts' focus groups to find weights of the variables and categories and principal component analysis. In both methods, variables such as institutional efficiency, distribution and availability of information, technology and innovation, as well as local ecological knowledge were the main determinants of AC of the households.