Community-based adaptation aims to empower local people to cope with and plan for the impacts of climate change. Conventional approaches to planning adaptation rely on ‘expert’ advice and credible ‘science’ from authoritative information providers such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In this publication, Saleemul Huq suggests that to truly support the needs of local communities, this information needs to be more site-specific, more user-friendly and more inclusive of traditional knowledge and existing coping practices.