Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Adaptação e Vulnerabilidade à Mudança Climática no Semiárido Nordestino: Um Estudo de Caso no Sertão do São Francisco

Climate Change represents a relevant risk to Brazilian smallholder farmers, in particular to those living in the Semi-arid territory, which has been historically affected by high climate variability and drought episodes. Understanding how the smallholder farming systems are vulnerable and how they respond to climatic stimulus within a Sustainable Development (SD) context are paramount in political and scientific agendas. The present paper discusses the climate impacts and adaptation responses and their trade-offs with SD within a case study covering four Semi-arid municipalities in Bahia: Uauá, Remanso, Casa Nova and Juazeiro. The results point out that environmental and technological drivers are key to explain differences in impacts and responses to climate stimulus among the municipalities. Uauá – located away from the São Francisco River – features the higher vulnerability within the historical series considered. On the other hand, Remanso, located near the river, took advantage of the drought episodes, expanding its animal herds and agriculture area into the ebb territory. Juazeiro’ and Casa Nova’s impacts are moderated by wide use of irrigation technology, even though such strategy is unequally available among the smallholder farmers. This and other trade-offs between adaptation and SD are briefly discussed in the paper’s conclusion.