The demand for agricultural production to supply food for a rapidly increasing population in the Central Highlands of Eritrea is placing pressure on land, forest and water resources through: i) expansion of agricultural land into natural habitats and ecosystems; ii) overgrazing and degradation of rangelands; and iii) unsustainable abstraction/pumping of groundwater. Furthermore, insecurity of tenure – as a result of the traditional diessa land tenure system – is a disincentive for farmers to implement long-term measures for soil and water conservation. Consequently, ecosystems continue to be degraded and therefore being compromised in their provision of the ecosystem goods and services that underpin community livelihoods. This results in reduced agricultural productivity, threatening the food security of local communities.Climate change poses additional threats to the functional integrity of ecosystems, local hydrology, agricultural productive systems and community livelihoods, particularly in the Tsilima region where the population pressures are particularly pronounced. More specifically, increased variations in rainfall, elevated temperatures and greater rates of evapotranspiration are likely to have direct impacts on run-off formation and groundwater recharge capacities of the ecosystems. The preferred solution is to reduce the climate change vulnerability of local communities in the Tsilima Region by: i) enhancing the capacity of government institutions and local communities to mainstream climate risks into research, policies and land-use planning; ii) implementing climate change adaptation interventions that increase the adaptive capacity of local communities; iii) promoting the implementation of on-farm and off-farm soil and water conservation measures; and iv) establishing a system for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of various approaches to climate change adaptation to inform a process of adaptive management. However, there are multiple institutional, technical and financial barriers to achieving the preferred solution, including: i) limited technical capacity and information available for the analysis of climate risks; ii) few incentives for investing in long-term, climate-smart measures; and iii) weak governance systems for the mainstreaming of climate risks into land-use planning and development.