Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change

Pacific Island Countries

Jenny Bryant-Tokalau

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319783987
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319783994
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environment & Energy Policy
• Index: Biological Sciences

A timely overview of the applications of indigenous knowledge to climate challenge in the Pacific Islands

Provides existing and historical examples of adaptation strategies throughout the Pacific region

Explores how local knowledge, practice, and beliefs can be mobilized to respond to climate change and disasters

© The Author(s) 2018

Jenny Bryant-TokalauIndigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate ChangePalgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropologyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78399-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Jenny Bryant-Tokalau¹

(1)

Te Tumu, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Abstract

In this introduction Pacific and global concerns around climate change and its impacts are outlined. The need for a deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of local expertise, customary knowledge and practice, and traditional adaptive responses is emphasized with a focus on sea-level rise and flooding. Chapter 1 demonstrates why it is necessary to have a pair of books, one looking specifically at the island Pacific and the other on Aotearoa New Zealand, in order to demonstrate that there are important lessons to be learned from Pacific Islanders. These lessons on how it may be possible to adapt, using traditional ecological knowledge, to the impacts of climate change apply not only to Aotearoa New Zealand but also to the wider world.

Keywords

TEK (traditional ecological knowledge)PICs (Pacific Island countries)AdaptationDiversityResponsesResilience

End Abstract

Most people with an interest in climate change will be familiar with the poem ‘Dear Matafele Peinem’ by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner , from the Marshall Islands, who passionately narrated it in her address to the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit on 23 September 2014. Many were moved to tears imagining (and some had indeed experienced) the personal impacts of climate change on the people of the Pacific and across the globe. Kathy’s line no one’s gonna become a climate change refugee ¹ became a refrain for Pacific climate change movements. Globally people were deeply moved by the determination and the refusal to succumb.

In this book focusing on the island Pacific, knowledge and general acceptance of how climate change issues are affecting the Pacific region are assumed. Almost everywhere it is understood that globally there is an urgent need to limit human-induced temperature rise, slow rising sea levels and increasingly intense flooding, storms and droughts . There are many areas of grave concern. Fresh water accessibility and growing threats of disease are now understood to be immediate security threats to the sustainability of Pacific populations and nowhere is immune. Crop failures and thus food security , limited water supplies and rising temperatures are all now being felt. Significantly however, the peoples of the Pacific Islands are not only aware of changing climate and its impacts, but are constantly working (at all levels) to face the challenges before them. This is happening not only at home but also on the global stage.

Throughout the world, from the Middle East to Asia, the Americas and African and European continents, environmental hazards , major floods and other climate-related disasters are growing in intensity. Globally, they also disproportionally affect the poor and marginal. The island Pacific nations are not alone in this, but what is relevant and may be learned from this book is recognition that traditional and community responses and understandings of climate and disasters are still widely understood and practiced. People across the Pacific are now taking extreme events more seriously, responding through education, sharing and historical knowledge. Recognition of such knowledge in other parts of the world may well be another approach to dealing with disasters. Community cooperation and participation in decision-making as well as recognition and promotion of forms of community resilience are found everywhere and need to be incorporated in disaster response at both institutional and community levels. This book demonstrates that by understanding the interrelatedness of local expertise, customary resource management, knowledge and practice, as well as the roles of leaders and institutions, local ‘knowledge-practice-belief systems’ can be used to inform adaptation to disasters wherever they occur.

Very different to the situation in larger countries, such as Aotearoa New Zealand , in the island Pacific (the Pacific Island countries [PICs]) there is more unity about climate change. Populations do not need to be convinced of what is happening and there are very few sceptics and naysayers. As demonstrated in this book, this is very evident in the respect for and continuing use of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in countries that are largely independent and governed by indigenous communities.

This book on Pacific approaches to climate change provides lessons on what Pacific countries can teach other nations, especially Aotearoa New Zealand . It will show that, far from what is often portrayed in the media, islanders and their countries are not always as vulnerable as they may appear, and had, in the past, the ability to survive in the face of environmental changes without a large amount of assistance from donors . These qualities are once more being given prominence in adapting to the growing impacts of change. Perceptions of vulnerability can increase feelings of disempowerment, and yet these are qualities not widespread in the Pacific at present. As Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner so eloquently said, Pacific islanders are not only fighting back utilizing traditional and contemporary resilience to inundation , flooding and more intense storms, but also responding as they always have to threats of loss of territory and the impacts of devastating winds and flooding by using their local knowledge and innovation as well as modern technology. There is very little possibility that the majority of PICs can afford many of the technologies required to protect the coasts, for example, so they must utilize donor assistance. That assistance will be far more effective if it is locally appropriate and draws upon existing knowledge.²

Climate change is a significant environmental and human security issue. As Pacific countries already demonstrate that they are skilled at adaptation , then the incorporation of both traditional and new practices would enhance people’s ability to adapt. Yet the pace of climate change is now such that even traditional resilience and adaptation utilized by communities and governments are being severely tested. As has been seen with recent storms across the globe, some highly technical fixes such as engineering solutions of seawalls and complex artificial islands can risk failure if not carefully planned.

It is important to listen to local communities and to respect the knowledge that exists. It is argued here that Pacific islanders have been adapting to and mitigating against environmental change for much longer than is currently understood. Travel over vast distances to reach their now homelands, regular movements back and forth between islands, dealing with disasters, sudden environmental change and also incremental change over decades, all beyond the control of small communities, do eventually lead to adaptation .

It is not easy however, and some of the ‘super storms’ such as Cyclone Winston in Fiji in 2016 have almost overwhelmed the ability of people to cope. While cyclones are an anticipated part of seasonal life in the Pacific, storms of growing intensity in recent years have meant that even traditional ways of coping are being challenged, but the models of these methods such as adaptation through relocating, or the construction of artificial islands , and building upon traditional relationships, can provide good lessons for coping with climate and indeed other forms of environmental change. Pacific Island countries are thus continuing to contribute to global research and policy to ‘turn the tide’. It may be too late for some low-lying islands, but active engagement in seeking actions aimed at ‘safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems; ensuring food, water and energy security; and supporting future socio-economic development by becoming climate resilient’ is ongoing.

This is a companion book to Lyn Carter’s Indigenous Approaches to Climate Change: Aotearoa New Zealand that aims to demonstrate how Aotearoa New Zealand can benefit from the many Pacific adaptation strategies already in place. The focus in both books is on how TEK informs adaptation strategies and practices and can be shared with Aotearoa New Zealand , and other countries, by using TEK frameworks in dealing with climate change.

The many existing and historic adaptation examples from the island Pacific demonstrate that such frameworks are not only remembered and daily replicated, but also still have great significance in dealing with the current global focus on climatic change and all its implications. The capacity of the world to adapt may prove to be great, yet will also be a challenge. The greatest impact is likely to be for indigenous communities, the growing poor and impoverished, and for groups whose lives are closely linked to their local environments. Indigenous peoples who are part of their local ecosystems will experience substantial challenges to their lives, involving not only loss of habitat but also declining food security . In the PICs where people accept the fact that the climate is changing, and are attempting to find ways of dealing with such changes, there are many lessons to be shared including with larger Pacific neighbours such as Aotearoa New Zealand (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

Map of Pacific including Aotearoa New Zealand. Source: https://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​File:​South-pacific-map.​jpg

In Lyn Carter’s companion book, she provides a detailed account of TEK and practices throughout the Pacific that have been developed over time to ward off historic environmental challenges and disasters. She notes how, from the times of early voyages across our Oceanic highways, PICs have been adapting to and mitigating against many forms of environmental change and stresses the influence of culture and cultural landscapes that have endured across time and can provide a basis for communities facing the challenges of climate change. The understanding that Pacific peoples have of the integration of their human, physical and spiritual worlds informs their knowledge frameworks, even when increasing urbanization, higher technology and industrial agriculture (in some countries) are not always discussed or actively considered. For many in Pacific countries TEK simply is; it is almost an unconscious part of everyday life, increasingly remembered as environmental challenges become great. As Carter says, ‘the knowledge frameworks and processes that are being utilized are TEK based and Pacific worldviews have been shaped over time through people’s interaction with their environment’.

In this book, located entirely within the island Pacific, TEK need not be described again, but is understood to be what informs ‘locally referenced, experiential knowledge, practices and solutions … [to] demonstrate the adaptive capability for indigenous peoples to ensure long-term sustainable use and habitation within their cultural landscapes’ (Carter).

In these books on Indigenous Approaches to Climate Change, we have elected to focus on two areas of climate change induced challenges, sea-level rise and flooding, highlighting examples of adaptation measures currently in place or planned in the Pacific, including New Zealand. Because of the focus on these areas in the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ) report, we have chosen not to specifically discuss energy projects designed to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. We do acknowledge however the importance of this adaptation strategy for the wider Pacific region where there is a great deal happening around energy alternatives. There is a vast amount of literature and research around climate change and fossil fuel reduction, whereas positive stories about adaptation measures that focus on the Pacific challenges from sea-level rise and flooding are less prolific. Taking the lead from the IPCC , the case studies we have chosen to include here will be detailed studies on existing adaptation measures that contribute to minimizing the effects of sea-level rise and flooding. We shall not be discussing scientific evidence for climate change but have chosen to accept it.³

The Pacific Book

In this book on the Pacific Islands, case studies from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Kiribati , along with the work and approaches of several...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Pacific Responses to and Knowledge of Climate Change
• 3. Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands: Theory, Dreams, Practice and Reality
• 4. Handling Weather Disasters: The Resilience and Adaptive Capacity of Pacific Island Communities
• 5. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Urbanization: Relocation, Planning and Modern Disasters
• 6. Conclusion: What Can Pacific Island Countries Teach Others About Climate Change?
• Back Matter