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Ethiopia: Greater Trust Increases Community-Level Adaptations to Climate Change

In rural Ethiopian communities threatened by climate change, communities with high levels of trust between members are more likely to work together to adapt to changes, and are less likely to take individual action, a new study finds.

Nicholas School Ph.D. student Chris Paul and his adviser Erika Weinthal, Lee Hill Snowdon Professor of Environmental Policy, conducted a three-year study of rural communities in the Ethiopian Rift Valley to study the role of social capital in the ways that people adapt to climate change.

“This study generates broad lessons for understanding modes of climate change adaptation and forms of resilience,” says Weinthal.

The study was published online last month in Global Environmental Change.

Rod Waddington

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