Climate change adaptation planning in remote contexts: insights from community-based natural resource management and rural development initiatives in the Pacific Islands

Abstract

Planned climate change adaptation initiatives are being developed with both external and endogenous resources at an increasing rate, especially in developing countries. As climate change continues to pose risks to vulnerable communities, there is a growing need to identify lessons learned in the process of planning and implementing climate change adaptation strategies. This is even more pressing for communities in remote contexts where access to resources and support services is limited. This study used thematic analysis to identify key insights from a 20-year old community-based resource management and development initiative on a remote island in Fiji. Four themes emerged relating to: perceptions of environmental change, links between conservation initiatives and people's livelihoods, balance between external support and community-driven efforts, and the continuity of initiatives. Whilst acknowledging that every community in the Pacific has unique capacities for dealing with climate change, the four identified themes are considered applicable to other subsistence-dominated peripheral communities within Fiji, the Pacific Islands region and beyond. This has the potential to improve planning processes and ensure both continuity and efficacy of efforts towards supporting sustainable livelihoods in communities already experiencing the impacts of climate change.

Creating the Conditions for Climate Resilience: A Community-Based Approach in Canumay East, Philippines

“…The belief that citizen-led, community-based approaches to community development will result in positive, sustainable development continues to dominate commu-nity planning literature (Dale et al, 2020;Hidalgo et al, 2021;Lang et al, 2020;Westoby et al, 2020). There is a very long history of support for this type of participatory method of development-starting in the 1960s with individuals such as Jacobs (1992) and Arnstein (1969) who argued that communities benefit when they have control over outcomes.…”

“…Slum-upgrading is not the sole focus of participatory urban development. Ideas such as climate resilience and the green economy also are anchored in community-based approaches (Hidalgo et al, 2021). Put differently, the need to address climate change has created space for local communities to build resilience at a variety of geographical scales.…”

Natural resource extraction and ethnic inequality in Dak Lak, Vietnam

“…Natural resource extraction remains an important livelihood strategy for poor rural households in developing countries (Angelsen et al ., 2014; Medina Hidalgo et al ., 2021; Do et al ., 2022). Poverty and inequality in these countries are still major problems, exacerbated by multiple global crises (World Bank, 2022).…”