Climate change is manifesting in Latin America in a different but vigorous way. Thus, the chapter on Central and South America of the Fifth Asessment Report of the IPCC (Magrin, GO et al., 2014) indicates that annual rainfall averages in southeastern South America have been increasing, while in Central America and southcentral Chile they have tended to decrease. Meanwhile, temperatures have increased throughout the region since the mid-1970s.

The purpose of this document is to answer questions such as: How is adaptation operationalized within public policies? How to integrate adaptation in sectors that have not traditionally taken it into account? How to integrate adaptation at the local level? To operationalize adaptation within public policies -and within a sectorial and intersectoral planning framework-, the strategies proposed in the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to reduce vulnerability to the negative effects of climate change, strengthen climate resilience and increase adaptive capacity, should contribute to orient the economic goals of countries towards sustainability.