Adaptation to climate change and variability has recently emerged as an important research focus, as projected climate change scenarios for this century suggest significant disturbance to the livelihoods of natural resource dependent communities in the developing world, and especially in Africa. Within the international policy arena, there is growing awareness that adaptation to the impacts of climate change is crucial. Despite considerable work on livelihood strategies to climate vanability and change in 25 years, there has yet been little examination of the actual processes through which adaptations occur, especially what leads to successful pathways of adaptation.