Engagment in adaptation is a specialised field that requires being able to communicate different levels and types of risk, to diverse end users, in a way that is empowering. This requires not only specialised understandings of the risks themselves but also how people communicate and responses to risk. How things are communicated and by whom, is as important as the information being conveyed. 

This presentation will outline some of the key lessons learnt to date from engagement practitioners who communicate risk in the area of adaptation and also natural hazards. It will explore what has worked, what hasn’t and why.  It will outline some of the challenges facing practitioners in this field and look at what is being done to overcome these; as well as providing key points for practitioners undertaking work in this area.

It will outline why communicating dangerous knowledge is not a simple transaction, but a negotiated space where trust and common understandings provide the foundation for action.