Ecol. Econ. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.07.004 (2011)

Credit: © KAREN MILLINGTON

In May 2008, tropical storm Alma struck Costa Rica bringing floods and landslides that caused misery to thousands, loss of croplands and US$35 million in damages.

A few months later, Francisco Alpizar of the Environment for Development Centre in Turrialba, Costa Rica, and his colleagues investigated around 200 coffee farmers' attitudes towards investing in adaptation measures to prevent future losses. In an experiment, 95% of farmers in the Tarrazu valley, which had been badly hit by Alma, told the researchers that they would invest in adaptation if there was a 10% chance of being hit by an extreme weather event. This dropped to 77% if there was a 5% chance and 31% if there was just a 1% chance. When the farmers weren't told what their risk was, half of those who had said that they wouldn't invest in adaptation at a 5% risk hedged their bets and decided to invest.

When neighbouring farmers of differing risk levels were grouped, and told they could pool their resources and share adaptation costs, 69% of the groups said they would invest, irrespective of their individual risk.