Across the Global South, community-based adaptation (CBA) projects are increasingly being implemented in an effort to respond effectively and sustainably to the impacts of climate change, with a ...particular focus on people's livelihoods. Despite an increase in the number of CBA projects being implemented, detailed analysis and evaluation of their efficacy and the barriers faced in achieving successful outcomes is lacking. This study draws on an analysis of grey literature (i.e. project and donor reports) to explore the barriers faced in achieving effective CBA. An extensive global search of online project evaluations yielded 25 documents comprising 69 projects from which this analysis is based. This paper first presents an overview of the 69 projects and highlights any trends. Second, this paper describes the barriers to CBA according to three broad themes: socio-political, resource, and physical systems and processes. Following this is a discussion of the most prevalent barriers: cognitive and behavioural, financial, and human resources. Third, this paper discusses the key findings elucidated from this review. This includes the need for greater sharing of project reports and findings so lessons can be learned across spatial and temporal scales, and the disparity between critical academic literature on CBA and what is implemented in practice.
Stories about a submerged land named Lyonesse abound in culture traditions of Southwest Britain and plausibly derive from memories of land loss within the Scilly Isles. We review Lyonesse stories, ...their links to Arthurian romances and Greek/Roman accounts of the Cassiterides, and trace their divergent evolution. From this region’s history of land-sea movements and human occupation, we propose Lyonesse stories originated more than 4000 years ago when rising sea level divided a single inhabited island in the Scilly group. The comparable antiquity of similar stories is a compelling reason for supposing Lyonesse stories originated from observations of submergence encoded in cultural memories through oral traditions that endured in intelligible form for several millennia to reach us today.
Sea-Level Rise by 2100 CHURCH, JOHN A.; CLARK, PETER U.; CAZENAVE, ANNY ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
12/2013, Volume:
342, Issue:
6165
Journal Article
Islands—as well as entire continents—are reputed to have disappeared in many parts of the world. Yet there is little information on this subject concerning its largest ocean, the Pacific. Over the ...years, geologists have amassed data that point to the undeniable fact of islands having disappeared in the Pacific, a phenomenon that the oral traditions of many groups of Pacific Islanders also highlight. There are even a few instances where fragments of Pacific continents have disappeared, becoming hidden from view rather than being submerged. In this scientifically rigorous yet readily comprehensible account of the fascinating subject of vanished islands and hidden continents in the Pacific, the author ranges far and wide, from explanations of the region’s ancient history to the meanings of island myths. Using both original and up-to-date information, he shows that there is real value in bringing together myths and the geological understanding of land movements. A description of the Pacific Basin and the "ups and downs" of the land within its vast ocean is followed by chapters explaining how—long before humans arrived in this part of the world—islands and continents that no longer exist were once present. A succinct account is given of human settlement of the region and the establishment of cultural contexts for the observation of occasional catastrophic earth-surface changes and their encryption in folklore. The author also addresses the persistent myths of a "sunken continent" in the Pacific, which became widespread after European arrival and were subsequently incorporated into new age and pseudoscience explanations of our planet and its inhabitants. Finally, he presents original data and research on island disappearances witnessed by humans, recorded in oral and written traditions, and judged by geoscience to be authentic. Examples are drawn from throughout the Pacific, showing that not only have islands collapsed, and even vanished, within the past few hundred years, but that they are also liable to do so in the future.
Those parts of the northwest Pacific Ocean where sea level has been rising fastest over the past few decades include islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. To understand the possible effects ...of rapid sea-level rise, coastal surveys were undertaken within Pohnpei State in October 2014. The high volcanic island of Pohnpei was targeted along with 10 reef-edge island groups on its surrounding barrier reef as well as islands on Ant Atoll, 15 km southwest. Evidence of shoreline erosion attributable to sea-level rise is found only in a few places along the main island's northeast (windward) coast. High rainfall has led to the accumulation of terrestrial sediment along the coast that is covered with mangrove forest 2—3 km broad in places shielding the island's coast from wave erosion. A different picture is found on reef-edge islands around which erosion over the last few decades can mostly be explained by recent sealevel rise. Islands have disappeared within living memory, others drastically reduced in size in the past decade, while others–their sand cover washed away–are being reduced to a skeletal (boulders anchored by mangrove) state. The coasts of Ant Atoll appear little affected by erosion ascribable to sea-level rise. In summary, fewer effects than might be expected from recent sealevel rise were seen in Pohnpei, largely for reasons of natural coastal resilience or a lack of record, especially for reef-edge islands. The importance of mangrove conservation and an understanding of sediment dynamics on the broad reef-lagoon shelf surrounding the main island is manifest.
Petrographic analyses of sand tempers in Pacific Island potsherds reveal information about ancient human interactions within archipelagic contexts. By comparison with bedrock mineralogy, analyses of ...45 sherds from the Lapita settlement at Naitabale on Moturiki Island (central Fiji) show that most sherds were manufactured locally but that a minority is exotic. Using ternary plots of LF-QF-FM (LF—lithic fragments; QF—quartz + feldspar; FM—ferromagnesian), it is shown that exotic material (either pots or temper sands) most likely came from elsewhere in Fiji, probably southeast Viti Levu Island, central Lau, Lomaiviti and Kadavu. Geoscientific analyses of archaeological samples therefore gives us insights into how people likely interacted within the Fiji Archipelago three millennia ago.
The characterization of Pacific Islands as especially vulnerable to climate change often undervalues the cultural resilience of their inhabitants. On many Micronesian islands, coastal stone-built ...structures are the most visible type of tangible cultural resilience and have endured for perhaps 1000 years or more. A distinction is recognized between older structures, likely built in response to sea-level rise during the Medieval Warm Period (AD 750–1250), and more recent structures that likely took advantage of the lowered sea level during the Little Ice Age (AD 1350–1800). Detailed studies of Micronesian responses to recent coastal change were undertaken in the islands of Yap (Proper). The positioning and maintenance of coastal men’s houses (
faluw
) reflect either pragmatic responses to unmanageable coastal change or a cultural determination to resist this. The long history of traditional responses to climate variability and coastal change for terrestrial food production on Yap is also discussed. Future adaptation pathways on Yap and other higher islands in Micronesia need to combine scientific knowledge of climate change with traditional responses to historical change, including the stonework tradition and the cultural determination to resist undesired coastal change.
Coastal erosion occurs along many of the world’s shorelines, but is of particular concern to small islands. In response, island shorelines are often armoured through engineered structures such as ...seawalls, rip-raps, dikes or similar. Such hard protection is rarely successful in island contexts; rather than stop erosion, hard protection often simply redistributes and sometimes exacerbates shoreline erosion, and fails to protect property, land and food production. Such hard-protection structures frequently collapse shortly after construction. Why then does hard protection remain widespread? We argue that diffusion, specifically learning and emulation, helps explain the spread of hard protection. Island communities
learn
from the apparent effectiveness of hard protection in some contexts, and consider it an appropriate and accepted response to coastal erosion, regardless of its actual consequences (
emulation
). Case studies from the Pacific (Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia) and Indian Ocean (Maldives, Mauritius) show that both mechanisms are at work in small island states (SIDS) and may be mutually reinforcing. The case studies underline the role of the specific context in the understanding of not only why a specific adaptation measure is introduced, but also how it may change and evolve over time—and accordingly, when and how communities can move to more effective and sustainable alternatives to hard protection.
Community-based adaptation has gained significant international attention as a way for communities to respond to the increasing threats and complex pressures posed by climate change. This bottom-up ...strategy represents an alternative to the prolonged reliance on, and widespread ineffectiveness of, mitigation methods to halt climate change, in addition to the exacerbation of vulnerability resulting from top-down adaptation approaches. Yet despite the promises of this alternative approach, the efficacy of community-based adaptation remains unknown. Its potential to reduce vulnerability within communities remains a significant gap in knowledge, largely due to limited participatory evaluations with those directly affected by these initiatives, to determine the success and failure of project design, implementation, outcomes and long-term impact. This paper seeks to close this gap by undertaking an in-depth evaluation of multiple community-based adaptation projects in Tanna Island, Vanuatu and exploring community attitudes and behavioural changes. This study found that future community-based adaptation should integrate contextual specificities and gender equality frameworks into community-based adaptation design and implementation, as well as recognise and complement characteristics of local resilience and innovation. In doing this, the critical importance of looking beyond assumptions of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as homogenous, primarily vulnerable to climate change and lacking resilience, was also recognised.
A reassessment is made of the model of Dickinson (2003, Journal of
Coastal Research), which proposed that many Pacific island coasts were
settled only after the palaeoreef flats or shore platforms ...that formed
during the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand emerged above high-tide
level: a point in time known as the crossover date. Focusing on reef
(atoll) islands, the analysis suggests that this model has potential
when applied to islands east of 178°E, with some, such as Funafuti
(Tuvalu) and Atafu (Tokelau), being settled around the time of their
crossover dates and others to the east and north-east a few centuries
later. The model fails to explain the settlement of atolls in the
north-west Pacific (Marshall Islands and eastern Kiribati), where
islands formed well before crossover dates, something that can be
attributed to the larger tidal range and complex interplay between sea
level and reef upgrowth. The enduring legacy of Dickinson to Pacific
archaeology is the demonstration that people were operating in a dynamic
environment that presented them with new challenges and opportunities
rather than in an environment that was static.
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