Journal article
Beyond the core: Community governance for climate-change adaptation in peripheral parts of Pacific Island Countries
Regional Environmental Change, Vol.14(1), pp.221-235
2014
Abstract
Pacific Island Countries are highly exposed to climate change. Most impact studies have focused on the most densely populated core areas where top-down governance is most effective. In contrast, this research looks at peripheral (rural/outer-island) communities where long-established systems of environmental governance exist that contrast markedly with those which governments and their donor partners in this region favour. Peripheral communities in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, and Vanuatu were studied. Traditional systems of environmental governance are described, and three common barriers to effective and sustainable climate-change adaptation identified. The first is lack of awareness among key community decision makers about climate change and associated environmental sustainability that could be lessened by targeted awareness raising. The second is the inappropriateness of traditional decision-making structures for dealing with both the complexity and pace of climate-driven environmental changes. The third is the short-term views of resource management and sustainability held by many community decision makers. Despite 30 years of assistance, there has been negligible effective and sustainable adaptation for climate change in peripheral parts of Pacific Island Countries, something that is explicable by both the ineffectiveness of top-down approaches in such places as well as a lack of attention to the nature and the context of adaptation communications. It is timely for interventions to be made at community level where the greatest disconnect lies between the science and stakeholder awareness of climate change. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Details
- Title
- Beyond the core: Community governance for climate-change adaptation in peripheral parts of Pacific Island Countries
- Authors
- Patrick Nunn (Author) - University of New EnglandW Aalbersberg (Author) - University of the South PacificS Lata (Author) - University of New EnglandM Gwilliam (Author) - Ramsar (Switzerland)
- Publication details
- Regional Environmental Change, Vol.14(1), pp.221-235
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date published
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10113-013-0486-7
- ISSN
- 1436-3798
- Copyright note
- Copyright © Springer-Verlag 2014. The author's accepted version is reproduced here in accordance with the publisher's copyright policy. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com
- Organisation Unit
- Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99448869702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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