A social and ecological imperative for ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in the Pacific Islands

Challenges for mainstreaming Ecosystem-based Adaptation into the international climate agenda

“…National level approaches have been developed for coastal systems in Bangladesh [15], for inland water management in Costa Rica [16 ] and for environmental policies in the United Kingdom [18 ]. Regional examples of EbA include the Caribbean Small Island States [14], the Pacific islands [13], or the Andes mountains across four countries [36]. International cross-scale approaches to different sectors also exist, with examples for EbA practices in mangroves [10 ] or forests [7,37].…”

Comparing perceived effects of climate-related environmental change and adaptation strategies for the Pacific small island states of Tuvalu, Samoa, and Tonga

“…For example, many respondents expect the government and NGOs to support the construction of seawalls. However, seawalls are often ineffective in reducing shoreline erosion, they mostly shift the problem and sometimes even increase it, especially when they are not professionally built or when maintenance funding runs out (Kumar, 2007;Nunn, 2009;Ford, 2012;Yamamoto & Esteban, 2013;Duvat, 2013;Hills et al, 2013;Betzold, 2015). Such differences in perceptions, expectations, and actual efficiency need to be addressed to reach truly sustainable adaptation and development (Moser, 2014;Aswani et al, 2015;Beyerl et al, 2016).…”

Integrating human responses to climate change into conservation vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning

“…Relative to actions that promote resistance and change, we consider dual‐benefit actions to be the most difficult approach to managing indirect climate change impacts because they require broad skills across not only conservation practice but also human development practice. Moreover, a variety of policy and legal barriers can pose significant challenges to operationalizing dual‐benefit actions, as can unstable technical capacity within government departments . There will also be cases where practitioners will be constrained in their ability to implement dual‐benefit actions because of uncooperative stakeholders or uncertainty about who the key stakeholders are.…”

“…Moreover, a variety of policy and legal barriers can pose significant challenges to operationalizing dual-benefit actions, 136 as can unstable technical capacity within government departments. 181 There will also be cases where practitioners will be constrained in their ability to implement dual-benefit actions because of uncooperative stakeholders or uncertainty about who the key stakeholders are. The success of dual-benefit actions ultimately depends on the ability to effectively engage human communities with nature-based solutions to environmental problems, which demands a comprehensive understanding and analysis of human behavior, values, and needs.…”