6. Adaptive development and developing adaptation in Latin America: Water governance and disaster management in Chile, Brazil and Mexico Chair: Alejandro León, University of Chile Panel members: Paulina Aldunce, Researcher, Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Renewable Natural Resources, University of Chile Rodrigo Fuster, Researcher, Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Renewable Natural Resources, University of Chile Don Nelson, Senior Research Associate, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Hallie Eakin, Professor of Geography, visiting James Martin 21st Century School Fellow, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford Description: The panel will focus on the intersection between development, adaptation and climate change, a topic that despite its increasingly scholarly salience remains relatively unexamined in the context of policymaking in less developed regions of the world. The panellists will report on empirical research being carried out in three countries in South America: Brazil, Chile and Mexico, focusing on how recent policy reform in the wake of political democratization and economic globalization is shaping the adaptive capacity of the water and disaster sectors to climate variability and change. The concepts of resilience and adaptive capacity will be used to examine recent policy change in Latin America—especially considering the adoption of new governance mechanisms both across scales of government and across the state-society divide—and how it may be shaping the ability of policy systems to respond to climate variability and future climate change. The panel will also explore the very real issues of positive and negative feedbacks between adaptation, development and natural resources management. Prof. Lemos and Dr. Nelson will discuss their research in Brazil focusing on comparative adaptive capacity of water management systems and the potential negative feedbacks between technoscientific knowledge use and democracy within river basin councils. Prof. Fuster will discuss adaptation to climate change in Chile’s irrigation in the context of institutional reform. Prof. Aldunce based on the concept of adequate disaster management as an effective tool for adaptation will discuss the key institutional and local elements that improve and limit disaster management in Chile. Paty Romero Lankao will explore the role of recent policy reform in enhancing – or to the contrary constraining the resilience of urban water systems in Mexico. We expect that the panel will encourage a spirited debate on how to integrate climate change adaptation into development theory and practice in Latin America while examining how current policy is promoting adaptation and increasing (or not) resilience in the region. By looking at current policy initiative and governance systems (including both state and non-state actors and organizations), we hope to be able to influence future policy and assess critical areas of future research to amplify our ability to do so. Questions to be explored during the discussion What can we learn from current policy to respond to climate variability to prepare for climate change? Are current policies increasing resilience and promoting adaptation in Latin America? How? How are institutional changes and new governance approaches in natural resources management in LA shaping adaptive capacity to climate variability and change? What are the limitations in Latin American countries to adapt to climate change? What are the feedbacks between resource management, development, and adaptation? How do different development patterns influence adaptation in the region? How can we take advantage of economic and political change to push for the integration of climate into development theory and practice in LA?