Climate change threatens the natural resource base across much of the developing world. Climate change accelerates ecosystem degradation and makes agriculture more risky. As a result, smallholder farmers, who are so critical to global food security, are facing more extreme weather. Small-scale farmers are impacted more immediately by droughts, floods and storms, at the same time as they suffer the gradual effects of climate change, such as water stress in crops and livestock, coastal erosion from rising sea levels and unpredictable pest infestations. Smallholder farmers and their families are particularly vulnerable because they have few assets to fall back on and limited ability to recover from climate extremes. Exposure to such shocks can trap small-scale farmers in poverty and undermine their efforts to escape it.