One Risk Replaces Another

Abstract

It has long been recognised that poor, marginalised groups are the most vulnerable to hazards related to climate change. Several recent studies have suggested that such communities may be doubly vulnerable when interventions are carried out to make climate-change-related adaptations. Climate-change interventions may be “maladaptive” and may further “injure” vulnerable communities. Although such findings are troubling, little empirical research has been conducted to explore how and where climate change interventions and discourses are shaping and being shaped by social stratification, inclusion and exclusion. This article therefore aims to contribute to our understanding of the negative (side-)effects of climate change interventions for vulnerable social groups. We investigate this issue in the context of climate change and increased flood risk in Jakarta, Indonesia. Our analysis of two cases of intervention shows how these are “maladaptations”. Flood policies in Jakarta are clearly failing to mitigate risk for the city’s poorest populations and are instead compounding the risks they face with those of eviction and increased poverty. The data on which this paper is based were collected during a total of one-and-a-half years of anthropological fieldwork conducted by the authors between 2010 and 2015.

Displacement Induced by Climate Change Adaptation: The Case of ‘Climate Buffer’ Infrastructure

“…If insecurities are redistributed disproportionally or offloaded elsewhere in time or space, '(c)limate-change interventions may be "maladaptive" (to some) and may further "injure" vulnerable communities' [14], p. 786. Maladaptation refers to an adaptation action 'taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce vulnerability to climate change', which impacts 'adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or social groups' [10,32].…”

“…Even if unintended, the external effects, or 'externalities', of such interventions may be evaluated as increasing the vulnerability of some actors. In summary, if 'one risk replaces another' [14], p. 786, the cure might be worse than the ailment; the climate change intervention might be perceived as more harmful than the risk of climate change effects for some stakeholders. Such cases risk creating a spurious win-sum that, in a wider perspective, becomes a zero-sum or even a negative-sum intervention.…”

“…Thus, while different forms of public and public-private adaptation interventions are commonly legitimized by highlighting their importance in flood protection, they can also bring considerable trade-offs [14]: while expected to reduce future environmental vulnerabilities for all over time, climate adaptation interventions can significantly increase existing vulnerabilities for some, shift or outsource these vulnerabilities or create new vulnerabilities [11]. Essentially, the imperative of climate interventions tends to call on some citizens to sacrifice the local for the greater good of 'urgent' and 'necessary' climate adaptation.…”

Role of Spatial Analysis in Avoiding Climate Change Maladaptation: A Systematic Review

“…Jones et al [42] "maladaptation happens when short-term strategies increase vulnerability in the long term" [43] Barnett and O'Neill [3,8,44] "action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or social groups" [7,15,16,26,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] Table 1. Cont.…”

Exploring the Factors in Visitors’ Behavioral Intentions – Mediation Effects on Perceived Environmental Involvement and Ecotourism Support

“…Biljana et al (2002) proposed to measure ecotourists' interests with natural areas, rainforests and native jungles, national parks, lakes and rivers, seaside, world heritage which were not being cultivated and interfered, nature learning, and photography of landscape and wild animals in order to understand visitors' interests in the uniqueness of the nature and to predict and confirm potential ecotourists. Perceived environmental involvement reveals close relations with interests, and interests are the content of perceived environmental involvement (Kapferer and Laurent, 1986;van Voorst and Hellman, 2015). Individual interests in certain affairs rely on individual characteristics.…”