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McSweeney, Kendra and Oliver T. Coomes. 2011. “Climate-related disaster opens a window of opportunity for rural poor in northeastern Honduras.” PNAS 108 (13):5203-5208.


Our results challenge common ways of thinking about how traditional communities respond to climate-related shocks and offer process insights for research and policy meant to enhance the resilience of rural communities in the face of climate change.

Most striking was the bottom-up, almost “viral” way in which the new tenure system spread. No leader emerged to champion the new system, and no meetings were held to discuss it; even by 2002, some interviewees remained unaware of its existence. Instead, the process spread from neighbor to neighbor, through individual negotiation of parcel boundaries (see also refs. 36 and 40). By 2009, all households had reportedly adopted the system.

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