The Central American Dry Corridor

Climate Crisis, Structural Vulnerability, and Adaptation Governance

Abstract

The Central American Dry Corridor has become one of the regions most sensitive and vulnerable to climate change globally, covering territories in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and even a strip of southern Mexico. This agroecological zone faces a multiple and structural crisis, where intensifying water stress and recurrent droughts (particularly the dry season) interact synergistically with high levels of multidimensional poverty, structural violence, and deep gender vulnerabilities. The population, whose subsistence depends largely on rain-fed agriculture, is caught in a “development trap” in which recurrent climate shocks nullify economic progress, causing severe food insecurity. This situation, exacerbated by coercion from non-state actors, is the main push factor for forced migration. Human mobility from the Central American Dry Corridor is therefore a manifestation of “failed adaptation,” a forced socio-environmental displacement triggered by the collapse of the productive viability of livelihoods. This article analyzes the synergistic interaction between the climate crisis, poverty, violence, water stress, migration, and food security. From a critical perspective, it evaluates the effectiveness of national public policies and international cooperation schemes (top-down), contrasting them with community-based adaptation solutions (bottom-up) that demonstrate greater structural resilience.