Building social and ecological resilience to climate change in Roviana, Solomon Islands

Description of Intervention

As part of the Australian Government’s International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Programme aims to enhance the capacity of partner countries to assess key vulnerabilities and risks, formulate adaptation strategies and plans, and mainstream adaptation into decision-making, and inform robust long-term national planning and decision-making in partner countries.

Country activities have been designed with partner countries to respond to a specific adaptation assessment need and align with the partner country climate change priorities. Solomon Island delegates to the planning workshop in March 2009 identified the need for baseline information that will lead to effective monitoring and detection of changes in coastal processes and ecosystems. The project concept was developed in consultation with the Solomon Islands Government and local stakeholders, which took the form of two country visits by DCCEE staff in 2009 and 2010.

The project is linked to priorities identified under the Solomon Islands NAPA, which highlighted adverse impacts on agriculture and food security as a major concern for many communities and/or villages. The NAPA suggests these vulnerabilities are being exacerbated by lack of understanding, awareness and information regarding the adverse impacts of climate change. Communities will be able to address negative effects of climate change if they understand the linkages between their experiential evidence and the effects of climate change on the key sectors they depend on. This information will support informed adaptation.

Problems to be Addressed

How climate change affects the lives of a subsistence community dependent on natural marine and terrestrial ecosystems for their economic and social livelihoods, and how they can respond to the changes

Aims

The project will pilot an approach bringing together the twin elements of traditional and scientific understandings to assess the vulnerability of remote traditional communities to the impact of climate change on the marine and terrestrial natural resources they rely on for food and other key requirements.

Objectives

• To raise awareness of climate change science and adaptation options at the community level;
• To increase awareness of community perceptions of changes associated with climate change and of perceived options for action to increase resilience to changes;
• To assess the vulnerability of the area to climate change impacts in the context of other threats posed to the coastal terrestrial and marine habitats and ecosystems, based on the customary resource owners’ assessment and on scientific evidence;
• To provide the information base drawing on community experience and scientific assessments for evidence-based adaptation planning;
• To increase SIG capacity to undertake similar community level-capacity building activities; and
• To make information gathered available to partners and participants in appropriate formats.

How it fits into the EbA concept

Building social and ecological resilience and reducing community vulnerability to climate change impacts; building on traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities and sustainable resource management and conservation marine protected areas.

Relevant Publications

WorldFish Center. Planning for climate change using traditional and scientific knowledge: http://www.worldfishcenter.org/our-research/ongoing-projects/planning-climate-change-using-traditional-scientific-knowledge