Capacidade adaptativa das comunidades nas áreas susceptíveis à desertificação no Estado do Ceará

Abstract

The search for improvements rooted in the skills and resources of the direct beneficiaries is a strategic tool for development given level of commitment, independence and the local empowerment, especially in regions where people face serious problems such as drought. Being a recurring phenomenon of high economic and social impacts and wide geographic coverage in the State of Ceará, it becomes a challenge both political and academic to find solutions to mitigate the damage and increase the capacity to take benefit from the opportunities that arise; revealing the need to understand how people exposed to this phenomenon adapt to live as best as possible within the constraints in terms of available resources, in other words, understand the Adaptive Capacity of people exposed to this situation. Thus, the objective of this work was to investigate the Adaptive Capacity level of rural communities inserted in the Areas Susceptible to Desertification (ASDs) of State of Ceará. The Adaptive Capacity Index (ICA) resulted from the aggregation of four capitals (Social, Human, Natural and Economic) weighted according to their importance defined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on the results of the Delphi methodology. Between the four capitals that constitute the Adaptive Capacity of rural communities in relation to droughts in the ASDs of the State of Ceará, the Social Capital is the best that communities have and Human Capital is the weakest component. It is concluded that the rural communities of ASDs of the State of Ceará have an average level of Adaptive Capacity in relation to droughts and Human Capital is the most critical determinant of it.