Bangladesh is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and adaptation is emerging as a key policy response. Place based programs that build adaptive capacity are needed. This paper explores ...the effectiveness of formal institutions in climate change adaptation for agriculture from the perspectives of farmers and institutional communities of practice within two drought-prone areas in Bangladesh. Our findings show that formal institutions via their communities of practice play an important role in building place based capacity for mitigation and adaptation strategies in agriculture. Over-emphasis on technology, lack of acknowledgement of cultural factors and a failure of institutional communities of practice to mediate and create linkages with informal institutional communities of practice remain barriers. We argue that in order for formal institutions to play an ongoing and crucial role in building adaptive agriculture in Bangladesh, they must incorporate cultural mechanisms and build partnerships with more community based informal institutions.
•Key adaptations in agriculture include changes in land use and crop cultivation.•An over-emphasis on technology overlooks cultural values.•Lack of coordination between different actors hinders agricultural adaptation.•Formal institutions do not facilitate linkages with the informal institutions.•Adaptation strategies must include building appropriate place based communications.
•Effective coastal management requires integration of science into policy, but at present there is an implementation gap in this area.•We investigate the role knowledge plays in addressing this gap ...to enable the facilitation of science into policy.•Using historical and discourse analysis we find two discourses about knowledge in coastal management exist: (i) science as knowledge and (ii) community knowledge.•This creates barriers to incorporation of all kinds of knowledge into coastal management.•We argue for a shift in thinking about the science-policy nexus into a knowledge-policy interface thus facilitating integration of all kinds of knowledge and hence the opportunity for diverse and responsive coastal management.
The world's coastal resources are under pressure, even more so under climate change with 90% of the world's population living near or along our coastal zone. Ecologically, this zone is also the most productive, and the mainstay of economic livelihoods on a global scale. Managing the coast effectively is crucial, but as an area it remains contested. Despite multiple efforts to manage the coast, it remains a contested space. This paper offers a reflection into the ways in which different discourses influence and impact on one specific dimension of coastal zone management—the transmission of science into the policy domain. Using historical and discourse analysis, we find that the science-policy interface is largely constructed within two knowledge discourses: (i) scientific knowledge and (ii) local knowledge. This arbitrary separation into a binary discursive landscape mitigates against science-policy integration in practice especially given each discourse in itself, encompasses multiple forms of knowledge. We argue that in order to better understand how to build scientific research outputs into policy, decision makers and researchers need to understand how knowledge works in practice, overcome this dichotomous construction of knowledge and specifically, re-construct or transition the notion of ‘science as knowledge’ into ‘all knowledge types’ into policy.
This paper discusses how climatic and non-climatic factors, either separately or together, shape the adaptation responses of smallholder farmers in the Raya Azebo district of Ethiopia. Their ...adaptation responses included adjusting planting periods, crop diversification, changing crop types, adopting improved seeds, using irrigation, conducting migration, participation in wage employment, selling local food and drinks, and owning small shops. These adaptation responses were motivated by various climatic (e.g., drought and rainfall variability) as well as non-climatic factors (e.g., market conditions, yield-related factors, land scarcity, labor shortages, soil fertility issues, crop diseases, and limited local employment options). We therefore argue (i) that successful adaptation requires a broader understanding not just of climatic factors but also of the various social-ecological factors that shape smallholder farmers’ adaptations; and (ii) that the successful design and implementation of locally appropriate planned adaptation interventions require the inclusion of both climatic and non-climatic factors.
Climate change is an issue that is causing a wide range of impacts along Australian coastlines including sea level rise, density of development and infrastructure, exposure to extreme weather, algal ...blooms, oil spills, availability of affordable property insurance, governmental policies, and regulations. Solutions will require the navigation of complex inter-relationships to facilitate the building of effective policy. Development of effective communications is essential to deployment of effective adaptations. This paper reports the results of a narrative review on how to communicate climate change impacts to marine and coastal communities. Results show communications must be tailored to the right audience at the right time and delivered by trustworthy messengers. A best practice communications strategy is suggested.
•Communicating climate change in coastal and marine contexts has specific challenges.•Two-way communications must be tailored to the right audience.•Climate communications need to deliver the right messages.•Climate change communications need delivery by trusted messengers.
Climate change presents an enormous development challenge to urban slums or informal settlements in the developing world. While the social vulnerability of rural communities to climate change has ...been extensively studied in the Global South, little is known about their counterparts living in urban slums and informal settlements. Using Accra, Ghana as a case study, this paper examines the social, economic and institutional drivers of vulnerability to climate change in three slums or informal settlements. The study draws on a mixed method research project that integrates theories from social vulnerability and political ecology. Results demonstrate a low awareness about climate change with the drivers of vulnerability in slums being poor quality housing, poor infrastructure and service provision, low participation in adaptation decision-making, as well as weak institutional capacity. Our results underscore the need for genuine participatory adaptation planning which will assist in mapping the specific vulnerabilities of slums and help identify what appropriate interventions are needed to protect assets and rebuild the adaptive capacities of slum residents.
Indigenous peoples are going to be disproportionately affected by climate change. Developing tailored, place based, and culturally appropriate solutions will be necessary. Yet finding cultural and ...institutional ‘fit’ within and between competing values-based climate and environmental management governance regimes remains an ongoing challenge. This paper reports on a collaborative research project with the Arabana people of central Australia, that resulted in the production of the first Indigenous community-based climate change adaptation strategy in Australia. We aimed to try and understand what conditions are needed to support Indigenous driven adaptation initiatives, if there are any cultural differences that need accounting for and how, once developed they be integrated into existing governance arrangements. Our analysis found that climate change adaptation is based on the centrality of the connection to ‘country’ (traditional land), it needs to be aligned with cultural values, and focus on the building of adaptive capacity. We find that the development of climate change adaptation initiatives cannot be divorced from the historical context of how the Arabana experienced and collectively remember colonisation. We argue that in developing culturally responsive climate governance for and with Indigenous peoples, that that the history of colonisation and the ongoing dominance of entrenched Western governance regimes needs acknowledging and redressing into contemporary environmental/climate management.
There are structural and individual factors that contribute to and compound the current and continuing under-representation of women in leadership and senior management positions. We explore these ...factors by investigating the beliefs and intentions of male and female senior managers with respect to applying for promotion to executive level in local government organisations in South Australia. Survey data from 148 senior managers indicated that men and women have similar belief structures when it comes to their intentions to apply for promotion in South Australian local government. The imbalance in the proportion of women and men in CEO positions in South Australian local government, we suggest, reflects earlier findings of the inherent bias towards men in the selection process for these positions. Our analysis supports a number of structural and managerial recommendations, which we believe will address this imbalance overtime.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) raised public awareness of the need to consider climate change in coastal management and gained international ...recognition when it received a joint award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The raised awareness of climate change surrounding the work of the IPCC was in large part responsible for the focus of the recent Australian national inquiry into coastal management in the context of potential climate change impacts on the coast, conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts. In the same year the then Minister of Climate Change, Senator Penny Wong, and the Department of Climate Change released a major government report Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast and set up a national Coasts and Climate Change Council to provide advice to the government. This paper provides a review and analysis of the extent to which climate change issues, within the context of the broader global change debate, have influenced Australian coastal management through its legislation, policies and practice. In particular, the paper focuses on the impact of recent national reports and state government legislative and policy changes and draws conclusions on future directions for Australian coastal management.
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