Trust in Public Environmental Agencies and Farmers’ Willingness to Adapt to Climate Change: Evidence from Central Chile

Climate change poses increasing challenges to agricultural systems in vulnerable territories, where climate variability, ecosystem degradation, and governance constraints interact to shape farmers’ management decisions. Understanding how institutional and social factors influence adaptive responses is therefore critical. This study examines how trust in public environmental agencies shapes small farmers’ willingness to adopt climate change adaptation practices in the highly vulnerable district of Alhué, central Chile. A structured questionnaire was administered to small farmers to assess willingness to adopt adaptive practices and levels of trust in public environmental agencies. Multivariate models revealed a non-linear, U-shaped relationship between trust in agencies and willingness to adopt adaptive practices: willingness was lowest at intermediate levels of trust and higher among farmers reporting either low or high trust in environmental agencies. This pattern remains robust after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics and climate change perceptions. The results highlight how heterogeneous trust dynamics condition adaptive behavior, suggesting that both barriers and strong institutional confidence may influence adaptation through different mechanisms. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of socially legitimate and context-sensitive governance arrangements for fostering climate change adaptation in vulnerable rural territories.