The study sought to determine the adaptation to climate change-related events at the community level. The municipalities of Sta. Cruz, Liliw, and Nagcarlan were selected to represent the different elevation levels (low, medium, high) and two barangays in each of these three were further identified. Focus groups among barangay captains, councilors, peacekeepers, health workers and/or representative of farmers’ association were facilitated in each of the six barangays. Knowledge and understanding on climate change and extreme events, food security situation during extreme events, implemented adaptation strategies and their adaptive capacity were determined. It was found out that there is already a growing (but still insufficient) awareness on the irregularities in weather patterns as a result of climate change because of the impacts to the various sectors in their area (especially agriculture). Though there have been impacts in the agriculture sector, these had no significant impacts to the food security situation in all the study areas. Adaptation strategies employed were more on physical and institutional/social, while less was implemented under technological and economic types of adaptation. The strength of all the study sites was on the institutions and governance component, specifically on frameworks and structures and human resource capability. On the other hand, the absence of land use policies, building codes and standards, weather instruments and relocation sites, and limited food and livelihood security programs and community training weaken the adaptive capacity of study communities.
