Participatory Scenario Development and Future Visioning in Adaptation Planning: Lessons from experience Part I

In this paper, we introduce and present major lessons learned from the application of participatory scenario-based tools.

We illustrate how such tools provide opportunities to increase the usability of information on climate change impacts when developing adaptation responses and exploring linkages between development, projected climate change and relevant adaptation responses. We show the type of  structured processes needed that can bring together current challenges, potential future socioeconomic pathways and climate change impacts to determine how different stakeholders view the range of policy and management options available to them, and then to identify appropriate policies and adaptation actions in the context of—and across—plausible development pathways.

This paper is followed by another publication outlining specific applications of participatory scenario development (PSD) in three countries: Ghana, Honduras and Tajikistan.