Role of community-based conservation and natural resource management in building climate resilience among vulnerable mountain societies

ABSTRACT The role of community-based conservation (CBC) and natural resource management (CBNRM) in protecting ecosystems and improving socioeconomic well-being has received considerable attention, but its contribution to climate adaptation is less understood. Using a mixed-method case study approach, the current study compares two sites (Khyber and Khudaabad) in northern Pakistan with comparable socioeconomic features but varying levels of effectiveness of CBC/CBNRM programmes. The CBC in Khyber has been proactive than that of Khudaabad. The data was collected through household surveys (n = 220, 110 at each site), key informant interviews (n = 8 office-bearers of community-based organizations, 4 at each site), and extensive document review. In comparison to Khudaabad, the findings revealed that the local communities in Khyber demonstrated improved resilience to climate change because of a proactive community-based governance system, improved practices, access to social services, disaster preparedness, and improved knowledge of climate change. The study concludes that CBC/CBNRM contributes to building climate resilience among vulnerable mountain communities by strengthening social and ecological systems. The study suggests that for building the climate resilience of vulnerable communities, instead of investing in stand-alone adaptation measures, the governments must focus on ecosystem-based adaptions or integrate the specific adaptation or mitigation actions into the existing CBC/CBNRM programmes.


Introduction
The continuous loss of biodiversity due to the impracticality of coercive conservation practices has led to the emergence of participatory approaches such as Community-based Conservation (CBC) and Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) (Armitage, 2005;Berkes, 2007). CBC "includes natural resource or biodiversity protection by, for and with the local community" (Western & Wright, 1994, p. 7) and CBNRM has been defined as "a rigorous process of institutional reform that combines the devolution and delineation of property rights with collective action in rural communities to improve the value and sustainability of wild resources" (Child & Barnes, 2010, p. 283). Such approaches have been recognized for contributing to improved environmental conditions and more resilient social-ecological systems, improved forest conditions, species conservation (Berkes, 2007;Pemunta, 2019;Western & Wright, 1994) and pasture management (Christmann et al., 2015). These approaches have increased the support of local people for conservation and improved household income (Armitage et al., 2020;Cagalanan, 2015;Child, 1995). CBNRM also promotes sustainability by harmonizing development, conservation, and sustainable livelihoods (Ceptureanu et al., 2018;Jones & Murphee, 2004).
Simultaneously, the CBC/CBNRM programmes have been observed to contribute to climate adaptation by increasing social-ecological resilience (Harrison, 2002;Schipper et al., 2014). Social and ecological resilience is referred to as "the capacity to adapt or transform in the face of change in social-ecological systems, particularly unexpected change, in ways that continue to support human well-being" (Folke et al., 2016, p. 41). An effective CBC/CBNRM itself is also an indicator of enhanced adaptive capacity because the complexity of ecosystem or natural resource management requires a multi-pronged, responsive, and highly adaptive approach. The CBC/CBNRM initiatives enhance people and biological systems' abilities to adapt to climatic changes (Gardner et al., 2012). Adaptation to climate change is defined as "initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change effects" (IPCC, 2007). Climate change vulnerability is the susceptibility of a species, a system, or a resource to the negative effects of climate change and other stressors (IPCC, 2007). Climate change adaptation is a priority for the people of climatically vulnerable regions of the world such as the Hindu Kush Himalayas (Krishnan et al., 2019), where the warming effects are more pronounced (Xu & Grumbine, 2014) as the assessment and magnitude of climate risks differ among the scientific domain (Schneiderbauer et al., 2021). Pakistan is said to be among the top ten most vulnerable countries globally for climatic change effects (Chaudhry, 2017). The extreme arid conditions, tenuous nature, steep gradients, topography, and presence of glacial systems in mountainous landscapes like northern Pakistan make this region one of the most vulnerable places on earth (Beniston, 2003).
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Paris Agreement recognized natural resource management as an adaptation action that improves the resilience of socioeconomic and ecological systems. It supports gender-sensitive and participatory approaches to adaptation, considering vulnerable groups, communities, and ecosystems (United Nations, 2015). Several researchers have also highlighted the importance of ecosystems in adaptation approaches (Arora & Mishra, 2021;Gardner et al., 2012;Milman & Kripa, 2017;Nalau et al., 2018). National priorities and legislation, for example, Pakistan's climate change policy has emphasized managing natural areas to withstand the effects of climate change (Khan & Salman, 2012).
However, the success of CBC/CBNRM programmes has been inconsistent across different socio-ecological settings, which needs to be understood while attributing their usefulness to enhancing climate resilience. For example, in Nepal, Thoms (2008) found that the community forestry was successful in the regeneration of natural forests but less effective in improving rural livelihoods. Moreover, the same study also asserts that the strict protection measures under the community-based forestry programmes challenged the poorest households in meeting their firewood requirements. Similarly, Oduor (2020) observed a lack of transparency and fairness in benefit-sharing under a community-based wildlife conservation programme in Kenya. Hence the limitations of CBC/ CBNRM need to be underpinned while attributing its role in building climate resilience.
The recent scholarship has also highlighted the overlapping aspects of CBC/CBNRM and Community-based Adaptation (CBA), e.g. in Reid (2014). CBA is a bottom-up process, derived from local needs, capacities and experiences in dealing with climate variabilities and resultant impacts, through rightbased approaches, targeting vulnerable people in adaptation planning and implementation (Reid, 2014). On the other hand, the limitations of CBA have also been underlined. For example, Dodman and Mitlin (2013) assert that CBA cannot be successful without local participation in project planning and implementation, proper attention to risks and uncertainties, supportive political structures and institutions. Ayers and Forsyth (2009) emphasize operating at the local level (neighbourhood, settlement, and village) with vulnerable communities; identifying and implementing community-based development activities, generating adaptation strategies through a participatory process involving local stakeholders, and building on existing cultural norms.
A considerable body of literature has addressed the role of CBC/CBNRM in the conservation of species and habitats and socio-economic wellbeing (Agrawal, 2001;Agrawal & Ostrom, 2001;Cagalanan, 2015;Edwards, 2006;Khan & Ghaznavi, 2021). But only a few research studies have highlighted the role of these approaches in climate change adaptations (e.g. Christmann et al., 2015;Schipper et al., 2014). Hence the role of participatory conservation and CBNRM approaches in building climate resilience is not well understood. Northern Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan) where the CBC/CBNRM approaches are proactively being implemented for the last two to three decades (Edwards, 2006;Khan & Ghaznavi, 2021), provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the usefulness of CBC/CBNMR initiatives in building climate resilience.
As a result, the current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of CBC/CBNRM initiatives in increasing local community resilience to climate change effects in northern Pakistan's mountainous landscapes. By comparing the two sites, implementing CBC/CBNRM programmes with different levels of success, the present study seeks to determine "to what extent the CBC/CBNRM initiatives are effective in building climate resilience among local communities? Hence the study compares the outcomes of CBC/CBNRM in both sites that contribute to reducing climate vulnerabilities and or enhancing climate resilience. It also comparatively analyses peoples' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) regarding climate change adaptations at the two sites.

The study area
The research was carried out in two villages of District Hunza in northern Pakistan, namely Khyber and Khudaabad, about 150 km from the regional capital city of Gilgit ( Figure 1). These villages provided a unique setting for the comparative analysis of climate resilience attributed to the various level of conservation and natural resource management outcomes, achieved by the community-based organizations of the respective villages, while possessing similar socio-cultural and ecological features. The main reason of selecting these two villages was their socio-ecological similarity and varied degree of success of the CBC/CBNRM programmes in the respective villages. The CBC/CBNRM programme in Khyber have been quite successful yielding tangible outcomes, whereas in Khudaabad those were less successful due to various reasons, such as internal differences, lack of trust in leaders of community-based organizations and apprehensions of conservation programme for sacking their traditional use rights of pasture lands. Hence these two villages provided a reasonable context to comparatively assess the climate resilience of local communities attributable to certain outcome of the CBC/ CBNRM programme.
Khyber is one of the oldest Community-based Conservation Areas in northern Pakistan that covers an area of 125 km 2 and is divided into three settlements known as Karimabad, Khyber, and Imamabad, with an approximate population of 150 households. Burushaski and Wakhi are commonly spoken in this village. After inspiration from the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme's (AKRSP) 1 approach of cooperative action, the village formed its Village Organization in 1990 named "Shahi Khyber Imamabad Welfare Organization" (SKIWO) (Virk, 1999) to promote conservation and sustainable use of natural resources (wildlife and natural vegetation) through local actions. SKIWO partnered with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for community-based wildlife conservation and succeeded in soliciting community support for protection of Himalayan ibex and other species and subsequently as a result of increasing number of ibexes the community offered hunting licenses, of which 80% of the revenue was contributed to local development Khan & Ghaznavi, 2021;Virk, 1999). After the success of SKIWO, they formed another organization in 1998, namely "Shahi Khyber Imamabad Development Organization (SKIDO)" mandated to the development of the village as well as to represent the villagers in various government and civil society forums. SKIDO was registered under the Companies Act with the Government of Pakistan. SKIDO along with SKIWO worked with different organizations on various initiatives of development and conservation such as irrigation, water supply, plantation, ban on free grazing and wildlife protection (Khan et al., , 2022. Khudaabad covers an area of 175 km 2 and is divided into three settlements known as Imamabad, Central Khudaabad, and Karimabad. The village comprises more than 170 households, Burushaski is commonly spoken in this village. According to key informant interviews, the conservation programme was launched in 1996, but community-based conservation initiatives were not proactively implemented until 2017. The local community at Khudaabad could not be mobilized for conservation due to various reasons explained above in section 2.1. In November 2017, local stakeholders began to re-encourage local communities to participate in conservation programmes. Although it has now been declared as a community-controlled Hunting Areas (CCHA) 2 , as announced by the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan, community-based conservation initiatives have yet to gain traction. Table 1 shows that various demographic and socioeconomic variables in both villages are comparable. Services, subsistence agriculture, and some entrepreneurial activities are the primary sources of local livelihoods in both the villages, which are contiguous with the emerging town of Sost near the Sino-Pak border of Khunjerab.
Both villages possess similar species of wild flora and fauna. Himalayan ibex (Capra sibirica), the gray wolf (Canis lupus), and the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) are key large mammals; junipers, salix, and poplars are major trees found in the villages. Both villages have vast slope lands covered by Artemisia spp. grazed by domestic as well as wild ungulates, whereas cultivated lands cover less than 2% of the land surface in both the villages.

Study design and data collection
The CBC/CBNRM outcomes and climate change adaptation indicators relating to the study sites were compiled and followed for subsequent data collection and reporting using relevant literature (Appendix A). The CBC/CBNRM and climate adaption indictors were selected based on their relevance to the study area and customized according to the local contexts. The customized indictors were selected across various sectors such as biophysical, ecological (ecosystems and biodiversity), social, economic, infrastructural and technological, knowledge and attitudinal and resilience. The data on the CBC/CBA and adaptation indicators was collected using a mixed-method case study approach during May-October 2018. The primary data consisted of both qualitative (key informant interviews) and quantitative (household surveys using a semi-structured questionnaire) methods. The secondary data was collected using document reviews, such as land cover maps, village conservation plans, and socio-economic survey reports.
The semi-structured questionnaire used for the household surveys, comprised of four major sections, (a) demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, (b) information on CBC/CBNRM outcomes indicators, (c) information on climate adaptation indicators, and (d) people's knowledge, attitudes and practices about climate change and adaptation collected through the KAP survey. A KAP survey "is a representative study of a specific population to collect information on what is known, believed, and done in relation to a particular topic (WHO, 2008). The prime reason behind conducting KAP surveys in the present study was to evaluate communities' sensitization of climate change and adaptation actions. Because it is pertinent to know significant gaps in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioural practices while addressing climate change adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk programming (Hope, 2016). For the present study KAP consisted of information about people's knowledge of climate change, their beliefs about conservation and climate adaptation and their actions to adapt to the certain climate adaptation actions.
For household survey a stratified random sampling technique was used to select a total of 220 households, 110 each from Khyber and Khudaabad, calculated with a 95% confidence level and 0.05 margin of error, following equation (Yamane, 1973): (1) where n is the sample size, N is the population size (total households), and e is the level of precision. The sample was divided among the settlements/clusters and maximum households in each cluster were covered. In the household survey, adult household representatives (age ≥30 years), both male and female were interviewed for about 30-40 min, using a pre-tested questionnaire, following informed consent (see respondent profiles in Table 1). As compared to men fewer women (23% in Khyber and 24% in Khudaabad) took part in the household surveys as respondents. This type of gender segregation in meetings or discussions is common in a patriarchal society like northern Pakistan. The reason for selecting respondents aged thirty years and above was mainly to recall the weather and climate situation from 2 to 3 decades for establishing a realistic opinion about climate change. For those who could not understand English, an interpreter or bi-lingual interviewer translated questions into the local language (Burushaski or Wakhi). All households contacted for the survey took part, as this type of active participation is very common in these areas due to the supportive nature of local people. Similar high response in household surveys has also observed previously, e.g. .
For the interview the key informants were comprised of the community elders or traditional community leaders (Namberdars); office bearers of the community-based organizations such as Conservation Committees, Local Support Organizations, Village and Women Organizations. Respondents were asked about their participation in the local conservation programme, the outcomes of the conservation initiatives, their opinions about the causes, effects, and possible adaptation actions on climate change. Furthermore, different socioeconomic benefits of conservation that can improve the climate resilience of nearby communities were investigated.
For analyzing some variables of conservation outcomes of the biophysical environment (change in vegetation cover) Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques were used. The analysis was carried out using 30 m spatial resolution Landsat TM and ETM + images which were available in the United States Geological Survey (USGS) global archives. The images were accurately selected to acquire maximum data by considering the solar azimuth angle at the time of image acquisition and percentage of cloud cover in an image. The satellite images used for the land-cover change analysis mostly pertain to the period of July to October. While conducting the study, most of the time, multiple images for a single land cover area were used to assess vegetation (grasses, shrubs, and agriculture) and the topographic relief effect. Multi-spectral data downloaded from the Landsat 5, 7, and 8 images of the USGS data archives for the years 1995, and 2017 have been used for land-cover change detection.

Data analysis
The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, where the eloquent information was entered and coded in Microsoft Office Excel 2016 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS). The different aspects of conservation outcomes and adaptation indicators (explained in Section 2.2 and given as Appendix 1) such as socioeconomic variables, conservation benefits, climate awareness, and adaptation actions were analyzed using the Chi-squared test to see the significant variation between the sites. The Chi-squared test is a frequently used statistical tool to examine the variability between binary factors. The quantitative data was supplemented by insights from the key informant interviews. To identify the impact of climate adaptation capacities and KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices), which includes the primary heating source, conservation programme involvement, household access to financial service, etc over the choice of location Khudaabad and Khyber we have used logistic regression (Eq. 2): Here b ′ s are regression coefficients that present the influence of respective factors. For interpretation purposes, the β's are transformed as odds ratio as log (b). The significance of the factor is described by p-value, moreover, the 95% confidence interval (CI) around the odds ratio assists in identifying the significance of respective factors in Table 6.
The key research question we sought to answer was how the proactive community-based conservation in Khyber differed in enhancing climate adaptations among local communities compared to the less proactive community-based conservation approach in Khudaabad. Ideally, these questions would have been answered with data comparing resource outcomes. However, there has been insufficient monitoring and evaluation to assess these outcomes. Therefore, this study relies on selfreported perceptions and opinions about potential management outcomes, which may have a chance of inaccurate reporting. However, we tried to triangulate the perceived responses with secondary data (office records of communitybased organizations) and interview responses.

Conservation programme in Khyber and Khudaabad
A review of the literature and key informant interviews (KIIs) 3 revealed that both villages differed in their conservation efforts and outcomes. Khyber has been one of the most proactive villages in community-based conservation in northern Pakistan (Khan et al., 2019;Virk, 1999). The Community-based conservation programme in Khyber was initiated in the late 1990s by establishing a community-based Conservation Organization (CBCO) namely SKIWO. Subsequently, the Government of Pakistan declared the area as CCHA in 1997 (Virk, 1999). This declaration was aimed to facilitate legal or trophy hunting of Himalayan ibex in the area. Trophy hunting is the practise of shooting carefully chosen animals for sport while operating under a valid government permit that generates revenues from hunting licenses; 80% of this revenue goes to local communities, who spend part of it on conservation actions such as the hiring of community watchers, tree plantation, fodder cultivation, etc, contributing to biodiversity conservation and socio-economic wellbeing. The KIIs revealed that in addition to facilitating trophy hunting, the community-based conservation organization in Khyber partnered with various national and international organizations in implementing various schemes of wildlife conservation, efficient farming and irrigation practices, firewood plantation, fodder cultivation, and energy-efficient housing.
On the other hand, community-based conservation initiatives in Khudaabad were also kick-started in the late 1990s, but the community could not take up the conservation actions actively until the last 2-3 years. Although the Government of Pakistan had also declared this area as CCHA in the early 2000s, the KIIs disclosed various reasons such as community apprehensions regarding the declaration of CCHA hampered the way of trophy hunting and other wildlife conservation actions. The apprehensions were primarily regarding sacking their traditional grazing and resource use rights if the government would declare their areas as CCHA. However, some of the activities of CBNRM such as firewood plantations on communal lands and the ban on free grazing remained successful in Khudaabad.

Conservation outcomes
In Khyber, the majority (99%) of the respondent households confirmed their membership in the village conservation programme, compared to only 10% of the respondents in Khudaabad. Similarly, 98% of the respondents at Khyber positively responded to a question regarding obtaining benefits of the conservation programme compared to only 3% at Khudaabad. Regarding their participation in conservation and NRMrelated training, 53% of the respondents in Khyber confirmed their participation while only 4% at Khudaabad said about any of their household member's participation in such a training programme. Similarly, the other benefits of conservation earned during 1993-2018 such as support in the provision of clean drinking water, health facilities, and access to credit schemes were said to be availed by a considerable majority of the respondent households at Khyber while such benefits of conservation were unnoticed in Khudaabad (Figure 2). The opinion of local peoples about participation and benefits of conservation programmes differed significantly among the respondent household representatives of both the study sites (p < 0.001 for all the cases, Table 2).
A GIS/RS based assessment of land use/land-cover change from 1995 to 2017 revealed a greater increase in natural vegetation coverage in Khyber (560 ha to 755 ha, 3.5% per year), than that of Khudaabad (365 ha to 672 ha, 2.6% per year). There was a 1.8% increase in the mixed forest in Khyber while a 17% decrease in Khudaabad.

Peoples' perceptions of climate change, causes, and effects
The respondents' opinions about various aspects of climate change differed significantly between the villages in comparison, see Table 3. The respondents in Khyber seemed to be sensitized about the climate change phenomenon, realizing human actions being responsible for such adverse changes. At the same time, respondents in Khudaabad appeared to be less likely than those in Khyber to believe that their collective actions would mitigate the negative effects of climate change, as shown in Table 3.

Local adaptation actions
The percentage of the respondent households practicing certain key adaptation actions was significantly higher in Khyber as compared to Khudaabad (Table 4). Against only 11% of the households in Khudaabad, 25% of the respondent households in Khyber said that they have tried to introduce certain new varieties of fruits and vegetables as a response to various stresses of climate change. This includes the introduction of cherry and peas as income generation and food security options.
Similarly, compared to none in Khudaabad, 9 percent of Khyber respondents confirmed the adoption of improved agricultural practices, such as crop rotation, potato storage, less use of chemical fertilizers, and increased use of farmyard manure. The use of energy-efficient technologies such as wall insulation, hatched window, use of underlayer, and integrated water warming facilities was more common in Khyber (90% of households) compared to Khudaabad (64% households). Households practicing improved irrigation technologies were missing in Khudaabad while a considerable number in Khyber (32% of households) said to be practicing at least one of such an improved technology (water-lifting through hydro ramp pump).

Communal actions to adapt to climate change
The communal response at both sites differed in terms of adaptation actions. In Khudaabad the respondent households mentioning the presence of a disaster emergency plan was significantly higher (76%) than those of Khyber (24%). Another important communal action, i.e. strengthening of irrigation water supply schemes was indicated by more respondents (16%) at Khudaabad compared to only 6% in Khyber. The rest of the communal actions such as collective vigilance to avoid damages and purchase of rescue equipment were reported by few respondents in Khyber and none in Khudaabad ( Figure 3).

Community-preparedness and disaster risk reduction
The disaster emergency plan in Khudaabad is significantly higher (76%) as compared to Khyber (24%). Moreover, strengthening of irrigation water supply schemes is significant (16%) in Khudaabad compared to Khyber (6%). Other communal actions, such as collective vigilance to avoid damage and the purchase of rescue equipment, have been reported few in Khyber and none in Khudaabad, as shown in Table 5.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding climate change and adaptation
Logistic regression was run to test the influence of climate adaptation capacities and KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices) between two sites Khyber and Khudaabad, 16 factors  were identified as influential factors ( As a result, dealing with climate change is important in both locations. Opinion statements about practices promoted by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and local community-based organizations were also derived from both study sites. Further, it is identified at both sites that residents are taking measures to cope with the changing climate and water scarcity issues. 93.6% of households from Khyber received information related to climate and hazard, while 70.9% of households from Khudaabad received information related to climate and hazard. 96.4% of respondents from Khyber agreed to report illegal acts, while 17.3% of the respondents from Khudaabad agreed to report illegal acts. Respondents of Khudaabad were 0.93 times less likely to report illegal acts compared to the respondents of Khyber (p = 0.002). Opinion statements regarding practices encouraged by the government agencies, NGOs, and the local community-based organization were also deduced from both the study sites. However, Respondents of Khudaabad are 0.92 times less likely to have trust in government agencies compared to the respondents of Khyber (p = 0.006).

Discussion
Our findings suggest that the community-based programmes, aimed to conserve and manage natural resources have led to  (Christmann et al., 2015;Sgrò et al., 2011). A socialecological system has been defined as "a system that includes societal (human) and ecological (biophysical) subsystems in mutual interactions" (Harrington et al., 2010(Harrington et al., , p. 2773. The 'social' subsystem encompasses the social and economic conditions of life of a society (Cherkasskii, 1988). A more elaborate definition relating to the context of the present study is a system that "includes the entities of common-pool resource, resource users, public infrastructure, infrastructure providers, institutional rules, external environment and the links between these entities" (Özerol, 2013, p. 73). Understanding of the social-ecological system becomes more pertinent in certain regions of the world such as Asia Africa and South America where people are dependent upon natural ecosystems for their livelihoods (Doughty, 2016;Karanth & Nepal, 2012;Scanlon & Kull, 2009). Greater dependency on natural environments leads to enhanced climate vulnerability in a fragile mountainous ecosystem like northern Pakistan (Tse-ring et al., 2010), necessitating appropriate adaptation options such as Ecosystembased Adaptation (EbA) 4 and community-based adaptation. Environmental vulnerabilities can be reduced through community participation in environmental protection; building resilience; and decreasing the dependency of local communities on natural resources (Clark et al., 2001;Gupta et al., 2022;McClanahan et al., 2008;Sgrò et al., 2011). EbA has also been identified as an area of strong convergence between CBNRM and CBA (Chishakwe et al., 2012), due to the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of the oval adaptation strategies. EbA can provide flexible, cost-effective alternatives for decreasing the impacts of climate change (Munang et al., 2013). The governing bodies of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are encouraging parties to adopt EbA approaches. However, the feasibility and success of EbA and CBA have also been contested. For example, CBA has been criticized for being timeconsuming, and also paying insufficient attention to issues of empowerment and agency (Woroniecki et al., 2019). The present study, thus, underpins certain socio-economic and biophysical aspects of the society that have been improved by implementing CBC/CBNRM programmes in the respective study sites which can be attributed to improved resilience and adaptation. The socio-economic resilience is attributed to community organizations and institutional structures, financial advantages and employment opportunities, health, educational, social welfare, energy-efficient housing, disaster preparedness and response, as well as knowledge, attitudes, and practises regarding climate adaptation. The Ecological resilience considers biophysical aspects such as vegetation cover and species abundance. The findings also suggest that the CBC/CBNRM outcomes significantly vary between the sites resulting in a different level of social-ecological resilience and adaptation capacities. Some aspects of climate adaptation achieved through social-ecological resilience as a result of CBC/CBNRM initiatives are summarized below:

Human and institutional capacity development
Collaborative and community-based natural resource governance improves institutional capacities through policy and institutional support to local organizations, imparting desired training, and providing operational resources. Cooperation and institutional arrangements foster 'social capital' through which local people can attain goods, which otherwise cannot be obtained through individual efforts (Johnson, 2004). In rural and mountainous settings dynamic social institutions enable locals to carry out adaptive responses by facilitating access to resources, promoting mutual trust and decision making (Belay & Fekadu, 2021;Postigo, 2021). It has been observed that proactive local participation in the development process leads to effective CBA (Forsyth, 2013).
Our finding revealed that as compared to Khudaabad the communities in Khyber village have established effective local institutions with proactive involvement of every household, having trained and experienced members who have been able to manage community-based conservation and social development programmes for the last three decades. The longevity of the community-based organization itself is an indicator of effective institutional collaboration and governance (Bryson et al., 2015). Besides, institutional collaboration is not just a concept but a way of solving problems and achieving results (Margerum, 2011). A community activist and former office bearer of SKIDO remarked "SKIWO and SKIDO [community-based organizations-CBOs] are trusted by all community members and hence they are now capable of undertaking all sort of developmental work from water supply to community health insurance, education, conflict resolution, sports, plantation, irrigation schemes, and trophy hunting". He also revealed that "the effectiveness of these [CBOs] is evident from the fact that zero cases have been reported or registered from Khyber village to the nearest police station since the 1970s". The findings also revealed that more respondents in Khyber confirmed their role as office bearers of the CBOs. A key informant at Khyber informed that "every couple of years new members get an opportunity to lead the CBOs [SKIDO & SKIWO], this role enables them to obtain new skills and experiences, they emerge as a local leader and keep playing their role in community development".
However, these local capacities and institutional mechanisms do not seem to have a role in influencing adaptation policies at the national or sub-national level. This has been highlighted as a shortcoming of CBA when it is unable to upscale beyond the local community scale to address risks and policies (Forsyth, 2013).

Skills and technology transfer
Another useful outcome of CBC/CBNRM programmes is skills or technology transfer in agriculture, energy, ecosystem restoration, fisheries, and other sectors. Technologies have been identified as a potential element of building climate resilience but their long-term adaptation has been linked to the availability of resources for successful transfer of technologies to smallholder farmers (Kuhl, 2020). Improved agricultural practices and climate-proof irrigation infrastructure enhance climate resilience (CCC, 2011;Dhakal et al., 2021;Harley & Minnen, 2009;Lamhauge et al., 2012). Public-private partnership programmes have helped improve energy efficiency among local communities. According to the current study, most of the local households in Khyber have embraced better technologies for irrigation, domestic energy, and agricultural as compared to Khudaabad. An interviewee claimed that "Khyber is the first village in District Hunza to demonstrate hydro-ramp pump as an innovative irrigation practice". We argue that the CBC/CBNRM programmes enhance receptiveness of local communities for improved technologies. Secondly, the social and financial capital generated from CBC/ CBNRM initiatives paves the way for adopting new technologies.

Income generation
Households abilities to generate cash income determine their choices for coping with shocks (Møller et al., 2019). Conservation programmes also benefit local economies by providing income generation and job opportunities. In addition to the primary objective of generating revenue for conservation financing the trophy hunting programmes in northern Pakistan contribute to the rural and socio-economic development of marginalized communities (Edwards, 2006). According to Aman (2018) and Khan et al. (2019) Khyber village, for being an active CCHAs in Gilgit-Baltistan has been able to harvest 70 trophies of Himalayan ibex during 1997-2016, generating a revenue, amounting Rs. 11,157,016,in addition to USD 141,670. Office records of SKIDO and SKIWO and KIIs showed that the revenues were spent on paying teachers' salaries in a community-based school, provision of clean drinking water to the villagers, paying salaries of community members being hired as wildlife watchers, monetary contribution to community members in purchasing micro health insurance schemes, and organizing cultural and sports events for youth. While this type of communal income is entirely missing in Khudaabad. The present study found that, against only a few, a vast majority of the respondent households in Khyber confirmed to obtain monetary benefits from their village conservation programme. An interviewee in Khyber revealed that "with contribution from trophy hunting revenues Khyber community has been able to construct and fully equip the CBO office, have funds and trained human resource to undertake the development activities".

Improving biophysical environment
An exceptional combination of climate change, associated disturbances, and other global change drivers is likely to slow the efficiency of many ecosystems this century. Species that can adapt to the changes will flourish and those who fail to adjust may become extinct (Hannah et al., 2007). Well-managed conservation areas with appropriate measures to conserve species and habitats enhance ecological resilience for climate effects (Harley & Minnen, 2009). The higher rate of increase in vegetative cover in a proactive community-based conservation area like Khyber village suggests the improvement of the biophysical environment leading to ecosystem resilience. A study by Chong (2014) explains the development of EbA in international contexts for climate change adaptation through biodiversity conservation and the implementation of associated actions. The study revealed that in Khyber village new lands have been brought under cultivation, denuded slopes and vulnerable catchments have been improved with plantation. However, the finding also showed that a large part of the trophy hunting revenue has been invested on social and economic development, while the primary purpose of trophy hunting is to spend revenues on conservation, therefore, it is suggested to increase investment of the funds on conservation related actions such as increase of fodder for wild and domestic ungulates and grazing management.

Disaster preparedness and response
Many activities under climate adaptation and disaster preparedness are overlapping, as both the actions aim to reduce risk (Schipper et al., 2014). Moreover, the social resilience gained through effective community-based governance also contributes to the development of local capacities to deal with hazard situations. Gurung and Bhandari (2009) argue that climate change adaptation requires the incorporation of socioeconomic factors, ecosystem conservation, and disaster risk reduction. Generally, capacity-building initiatives have been an integral part of climate adaptation strategies (Kakumanu et al., 2019). Our findings suggest that despite encountering more flood events, the communities in Khudaabad were lagging behind Khyber in some important measures regarding disasters preparedness and response such as possession of rescue equipment, purchase of land away from flood impacts, raising river/ stream embankments and households having trained members in Community-based Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Another important resilience measure in Khyber was the health insurance schemes purchased by a considerable number of households using the trophy hunting revenues. However, possibly due to more encounters with flood events, most of the respondents in Khudaabad, tend to have some sort of emergency plans and more households had strengthened irrigation channels to avoid flood damages.

Awareness, sensitization an internalizing adaptation actions
Walpole and Goodwin (2001), Dewu and Røskaft (2018), Allendorf (2020), and  suggest that people practicing participatory natural resource management initiatives were more knowledgeable, had positive conservation behaviour, and internalizing sustainable practices. Similarly, community and ecosystem-based adaptation measures appeared to have broader outcomes from socio-economic wellbeing to ecosystems conservation and disaster risk reduction (Gallopín, 2006;Gurung & Bhandari, 2009).
According to our findings, awareness, sensitization, and capacity-building are the primary drivers of respondents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices about climate change and adaptation measures, which differed significantly between the two study sites. Khyber communities tend to be aware of climate change, its causes, and impacts and demonstrated greater competence to adapt to the adverse impacts through a proactive collective response, organized local institutions, availability of monetary resources (trophy hunting revenues), access to credit schemes, improved agricultural practices, domestic energy efficiency, and better preparedness. Reid et al. (2009) also observed that the participatory development processes lead to improved local knowledge of the causes and effects of climate change and appropriate adaptation strategies. The same study, however, suggests adopting the CBA or similar approaches with ethics and quality of participatory processes as the new community of practice emerges and matures.
In Khyber most of the projects or programmes, particularly those related to conservation have successful with community involvement, hence they are more likely to be appreciative of the efforts of organizations including Government. In Khudaabad the conservation initiatives were less successful so people may have slightly less trust in organizations including the government.

Conclusion and recommendation
CBC/CBNRM contributes to climate adaptation by enhancing social-ecological resilience in vulnerable regions like northern Pakistan, which harbours fragile mountain ecosystems where local communities are greatly dependent upon natural resources. The CBC/CBNRM programmes have fostered grassroots community organizations, which have been transformed into a strong local governance mechanism, taking up diverse roles from wildlife conservation to educational improvement, supply of clean drinking water, high-value agriculture, climate-resilient irrigation water supply, micro-health insurance, and rural credit schemes, etc. Most of these initiatives have been carried out with the help of non-governmental organizations or aid agencies. The government usually plays its role in resource regulation and policy formulation. Keeping in view the empirical evidence of multiple areas of convergence between CBC/CBNRM and CBA/EbA the present study asserts that a proactive CBC/CBNRM area demonstrates better adaptation capacities and or resilience than that of a weaker CBC/CBNRM area. One strong aspect of the CBC/CBNRM programmes is the openness of the community to externalities including their prompt response in adopting new and improved practices. The CBC/CBNRM programmes promote sustainable use initiatives such as the trophy hunting, that provides a viable option for locals to opt for diversified income generation and livelihood options. The trophy hunting revenues benefit the local communities at large that helps in soliciting local support for conservation and other participatory development initiatives.
The CBC/CBNRM programmes due to their broader scope help in community competencies and skills in diversified fields from office management to financial record keeping, social organization and biodiversity monitoring. These competencies are utilized not only in conservation but also in other areas such as disaster preparedness and response, leading to climate resilience and adaption.
Furthermore, strong social organization, access to credit and social welfare and insurance schemes, adoption of innovative agricultural practices, adoption of alternative and efficient energy technologies, improved preparedness and greater realization of climate change, and proactive approach to dealing with climate change effects are some of the tangible outcomes of proactive CBC/CBNRM initiatives, whereas most of these outcomes arose from the proactive CBC/CBNRM area. The contribution of CBC/CBNRM outcomes in building climate resilience in the study area of northern Pakistan has a global significance due to the commonalities of such programmes in rural, resource-dependant mountain societies living around common pool resources.
However, there is a point of caution while attributing the success of CBC/CBNRM to an adaptation or resilience building. Most of the CBC/CBNRM programmes are originally carried out with local communities; the nature of these programmes is usually limited in scope and scale. Hence these programmes have a meagre role in influencing policies for national mainstreaming of adaptation initiatives which are considered a key determinant of effective CBA. Because without a robust national policy the adaptation action cannot be greatly sustainable. Future studies in terms of linking climate adaptation and conservation should be carried out to see the best possible ways to tackle and cope with the changing environment. Further studies focusing on ecological outcomes such as improved ecosystem services with diversified benefits leading to improve human welfare and adaptive capacity will advance the knowledge on the contribution of communitybased resource conservation to climate change adaptation.

A non-governmental rural development organization associated
with Aga Khan Development Network, which pioneered community-based conservation and natural resource management programs in northern Pakistan 2. A CCHA is an area declared by Government to allow the practice of community-based trophy hunting of wild ungulates 3. Key informant interviews are qualitative in-depth discussions with individuals who are knowledgeable about the local community. 4. Ecosystem-based adaptation is a method of coping with climate change that makes use of ecosystem services and solutions provided by nature.
Muhammad Zafar Khan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor with teaching and research experience in wildlife ecology, conservation, natural resource management and climate adaptation. He has been a Fulbright Postdoc Fellow at the University of Oregon, the USA and currently teaches in the Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan.
Tahir Mehmood, PhD is working as a Professor of Statistics, at SNS, NUST. He completed his Ph.D. from NMBU, Norway. He is the author of more than 50 articles. His research interest lies in data science, machine learning, and multivariate statistics with diverse applications including animal sciences, public health, chemometrics, and biological sciences.
Farida Begum, a PhD & Postdoc in Environmental Science and currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, KIU Gilgit. Her research interests are in Ecosystem health risk assessment, climate vulnerability and resilience, soil quality, carbon sequestration, water quality issues and environmental monitoring.
Maryam Sadiq is an Assistant Professor at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan. Her research fields are statistical modeling, high-dimensional data, factor selection, environmental studies, and survival analysis.

Authors contribution
SZ and MZK contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, data collection, analysis, and write-up. TM, MS and FB contributed to data analysis, explanation and improving the draft. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SZ, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.