Adapt-CA Roadmap

Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships

Stakeholder engagement and partnerships are critical for local governments to successfully and efficiently implement adaptation projects. Local governments may achieve community buy-in by increasing public understanding of the variety of climate change impacts and risks, the need for resilience-building strategies, and the uncertainties associated with climate impacts as well as possible solutions. Building and sustaining support requires engagement with a wide swath of the community, especially with disadvantaged communities, who may experience greater climate impacts.   Integrating voices from citizens, businesses, faith groups, and industry groups into the planning process can enhance community ownership of adaptation activities, contribute to political support for action, and increase the ability of the community to adjust to changing circumstances.

In addition to building local community member engagement, local governments can avoid conflicting adaptation efforts, engage in shared legal considerations, and even gain efficiencies from collaboration with external partner entities who may be able to provide sector-specific expertise, shared resources, or regional scale perspective. Such partnerships may include regional agencies, neighboring municipalities, non-profit organizations, private sector companies, academia, and the science community. Collaborating with external entities allows for information sharing, coordination of activities, and leveraging of limited resources to conduct joint projects.

This section of the guidebook is designed to help local governments achieve robust and consistent coordination with and response to community stakeholders (both community members, other local governments, and outside experts) with respect to adaptation activities.