What we have lost and cannot become: societal outcomes of coastal erosion in southern Belize

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Countries in the Caribbean region, including Belize, are vulnerable to coastal erosion. Experts and scholars have assessed the effects of coastal erosion in the region in physical and economic terms, most often from a sectoral perspective. However, less attention has been directed to the localized and nonquantifiable effects of coastal erosion in the region. We address this research gap by presenting an empirical study of a village in southern Belize that has experienced significant coastal erosion since the mid-1980s. Drawing on interviews, a mapping exercise, and a literature review, we analyze how villagers are experiencing the impacts of coastal change, and what the resulting risks and losses mean for the socioeconomic stability of the village. We identify five categories of local values affected by coastal erosion, ranging from alteration of social activities to the loss of properties. We demonstrate that the totality of impacts bear consequences to the village's continued viability, which adds uncertainty to the lives of local residents.

Climate change and loss, as if people mattered: values, places, and experiences

“…It also reveals that value trade‐offs rarely occur in a power vacuum; rather, decisions over whose values count and are worth acting upon are embedded in complex and contested webs of authoritative ruling . Moreover, this relational approach bridges the gap between important insights on people–place relations in adaptation studies and an urgent scholarly and policy need for assessing what may count as loss …”

“…For example, to make 'invisible' losses from environmental changes among First Nations more transparent, deliberate processes ought to be taken into account 27,88 ; these include focusing on what matters to the people affected, describing what matters in meaningful ways, making a place for these concerns in decision making, evaluating future losses and gains from a historical baseline, recognizing culturally derived values as relevant, and creating better alternatives for decision making so that invisible losses will be diminished or eliminated in the future. 27 There is now a growing number of applications of a values-based approach in the context of climate change adaptation, including several in the global South, [89][90][91][92] with indigenous communities, 49,93 and in affluent nations like Canada and Australia. 26,84,94 The large majority of these studies rely on qualitative methods that generate rich descriptive data, while only a few have started to incorporate surveys and other methods that generate quantitative data and examine the diversity of values and value priorities between different population strata.…”

‘That this too, too solid flesh would melt…’

“…Elsewhere, Fitzpatrick and his coauthors have been able to measure the rate of coastal disappearance on the Caribbean island of Carriacou by reference to a small graveyard now sadly falling into the sea because of human-induced beach erosion (Fitzpatrick, 2013: 181; Fitzpatrick et al, 2006: 56). Such hazards are perhaps to be expected, as in the case of Belize where sea-level rise attributable to global warming is reported to threaten the cemetery at Monkey River Village (Karlsson et al, 2015), but are also known from the Appalachians and South Africa where mining has eradicated a number of historic family cemeteries (Maples and East, 2013: 7; Saccaggi and Esterhuysen, 2014: 174–175, 178) – see Esterhuysen et al (2018) in this special issue.…”

(En)visioning place‐based adaptation to sea‐level rise

“…Geoghegan and Leyshon ; Karlsson et al . ), there is little understanding about how adaptation plays out in more geographically diverse regions at risk, such as in smaller semi‐rural settlements.…”