Abstract
This study aims to assess the climate change vulnerability of forest fringe villages of Madhya Pradesh, India, and to identify the major drivers of vulnerability, which could help to develop effective adaptation strategies. A total of 325 households spread in 29 villages of Hoshangabad, and Mandla districts were chosen for primary data collection during the summer of 2015. The selection of villages and households was carried out through stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling, respectively. The vulnerability index (score) was developed and analyzed with respect to the different socioeconomic parameters. The analysis revealed that it is not the social class of a household but the economic condition, level of education, and type of occupation/livelihood of the members of a household that are significant factors influencing the vulnerability of a household. Such findings suggest that government programs need to be designed to address the welfare of all social classes in the forest fringe villages. The study has significance in terms of providing a framework for prioritizing target households for different programs related to vulnerability reduction in the forest fringe areas.
Highlights
Climate change is one of the most critical challenges in human history and has impacted all sectors globally in the form of a shift in seasons, increase in temperatures, and rise in sea levels
The social structure of India is grouped into four classes, General (Forward caste), Other Backwards Caste (OBCs), Schedule Caste (SC), and Schedule Tribe (ST).In the case of forest fringe villages, ST, SC, and OBCs are the prominent social groups
A similar observation was made by Ganesan and Vishnu [41]: the disparity between the social groups is linked to the underlying differences in economic status between the various groups in rural India
Summary
Climate change is one of the most critical challenges in human history and has impacted all sectors globally in the form of a shift in seasons, increase in temperatures, and rise in sea levels. Such changes have resulted in water scarcity and reduced agricultural production, and have significantly hampered ecosystem services [1,2,3]. In Asia, the significant impacts of climate change have been observed in the sectors of agriculture, water resources, terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, coastal zones and human health (malaria, dengue, and other vector-borne diseases) [5]. Climate change vulnerability assessment of forest-dependent people is important to design suitable adaptation strategies [8,9]
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