Community collaboration and climate change research in the Canadian Arctic

Research on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, particularly projects aiming to contribute to practical adaptation initiatives, requires active involvement and collaboration with community members and local, regional and national organizations that use this research for policy-making. Arctic communities are already experiencing and adapting to environmental and socio-cultural changes, and researchers have a practical and ethical responsibility to engage with communities that are the focus of the research. This paper draws on the experiences of researchers working with communities across the Canadian Arctic, together with the expertise of Inuit organizations, Northern research institutes and community partners, to outline key considerations for effectively engaging Arctic communities in collaborative research. These considerations include: initiating early and ongoing communication with communities, and regional and national contacts; involving communities in research design and development; facilitating opportunities for local employment; and disseminating research findings. Examples of each consideration are drawn from climate change research conducted with communities in the Canadian Arctic.     

真菌在尼泊尔喜马拉雅地区基于生态系统的适应（EbA）实践中的作用评估（英文）

为了实现可持续发展目标（SDG）,从而实现2020年后全球生物多样性目标并提高人类社会对气候变化的抵御能力,建议将基于生态系统的适应（EbA）等基于自然的方法作为一种有前途的综合适应战略。EbA包括重视生态系统在降低社会对气候变化的脆弱性方面的作用的适应战略。在地球上不同的生物群中,真菌不仅在维持生态系统中的生物地球化学循环/养分循环（支持和调节服务）方面发挥着重要作用,而且还为人类的社会经济和文化利益（供应和文化服务）做出了贡献。本文根据对冬虫夏草（Ophiocordyceps sinensis）和其他野生真菌的实地考察、相关文献回顾以及作者的相关专业知识,对这些生物多样性真菌群体如何对基于生态系统的适应（EbA）方法的知识的科学理解进行了介绍。在尼泊尔,很多当地社区将几种真菌用作食品、药品,真菌同时也是尼泊尔山区社区的重要家庭收入来源,可在灾难期间提供缓冲,并对粮食安全、医疗保健、教育等具有积极作用。对于综合EbA方法,应加强地方机构的管理以及本土（地方）知识的教育,以对生态、社会和经济有用的真菌物种的识别、保护和可持续管理进行适当的政策干预。     

History and necessity: the evolution of soil conservation technology in a Jamaican farming system

The soil conservation campaigns that have been a prominent feature of Jamaican agricultural policy since the 1950s are frequently presented as having failed to ameliorate the problem of soil erosion in hillside agriculture. A case study of a small farming community in the Blue Mountains explores the development of the soil conservation practices currently employed by farmers. The use of trash barriers in carrot farming is described and the origins of this technology and its subsequent adaptation are considered. The study concludes that extension interventions and government policy have influenced the development of current soil conservation practices; practices which have their roots in indigenous techniques. Other factors such as the adaptation of trash barriers to suit local conditions and their importance in soil fertility management also play a role in their widespread use in the study area. The study demonstrates that to understand the process of technical change in farming communities, it is necessary to consider a range of factors, external and internal, technical and social, that have over time influenced farmers' decision making.     

Are We There Yet? NSW local governments’ progress on climate change

Local governments are responding to top-down policy initiatives from both federal and State governments to reduce emissions, and adapt to any potential impacts of climate change. Although climate change is clearly a global problem, many of the solutions will be implemented at the local level. To explore this issue, the aim of this research was to examine regional variation in climate change response across New South Wales (NSW). To this end, between September 2010 and September 2011, we reviewed publicly available council and regional documentations for all NSW councils. The indicators of response examined were based on the NSW Greenhouse Plan (2005). These were awareness-raising, emissions reduction and adaptation planning. It was found that councils were undertaking many practical projects to fulfil the goals of this plan. As a result, they are abating significant quantities of emissions. Adaptation is progressing through the development of risk-based climate change adaptation plans. Councils are addressing particular areas of management, such as water management, assisted by guidelines which incorporate consideration for climate change as part of best practice. While overall responses to this threat are progressing, a distinct urban bias in action has been observed, due to biases in policy and funding arrangements.     

The Role of Local Knowledge in the Risk Management of Extreme Climates in Local Communities: A Case Study in a Nomadic NIAHS Site

In the context of climate change, research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation. Local communities, which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life, have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management. Therefore, this research aims to link Local knowledge (LK) to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model. It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework. The main research objectives of this study are: (1) To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events, risk management, LK, and farmers' adaptation strategies; (2) To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component; (3) To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation, and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation. The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management, local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK, because as a knowledge system, LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.     

Now I See: Photovisualization to Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation

To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects as well as tradeoffs associated with climate adaptation practices. To have the greatest impact, photovisualizations should be used when producers are considering implementing high-cost or high-risk projects, when practices are likely to dramatically change the visual landscape, or when a practice is unfamiliar to a producer.     

Climate change and community resilience in Samoa

Being resilient in the face of climate change seems especially important for island societies, which face the effects of rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, changing wind patterns and sea level rise. To date, most studies of adaptation and resilience among Pacific island communities have used indicators and methods rooted in Western science and neo-classical economics. These have been criticized as being locally irrelevant and inadequate to appreciate the dynamic nature and social structures of island communities and their capacity to adapt. This paper challenges the paradigm that defines resilience as a return to equilibrium, by using a non-equilibrium, cultural ecological lens. The non-equilibrium view of resilience sees the social systems of island nations as highly dynamic and undergoing persistent adaptation in the face of changing environmental factors. Field-based research undertaken in eight villages in Samoa found that, through constant exposure to environmental change over extended periods of time, communities have become resilient and are in a position to adapt to future changes. In developing future policy in relation to climate change, Pacific island governments need to develop a more nuanced understanding of islanders’ perceptions and historical actions in the context of both their physical locations and their dynamic socio-cultural systems.     

Adaptive Strategies to Displacement and Environmental Change Among the Kaiabi Indigenous People of the Brazilian Amazon

Environmental change, geographical displacement, and disputes over land and resources have increased around the world. This article focuses on strategies developed by the Kaiabi indigenous people to cope and adapt to environmental change after development-forced displacement and resettlement in the Brazilian Amazon. A mixed methods approach was adopted, combining ethnographic and quantitative methods. Semistructured interviews were performed among 214 individuals in a study on the dynamics of indigenous knowledge (IK) and natural resource management across three Kaiabi lands. We identified seven main coping and adaptive strategies developed by the displaced group: leadership and reciprocity networks, mobility, maintenance and innovation of native language, knowledge articulation, substitution of strategic resources, transmission across genders, and revitalizing diversity. These strategies have helped to enhance social–ecological resilience at different scales. Policies for resettlement and adaptation to environmental change must be developed with indigenous communities based on local knowledge and institutions.     

Effects of Policy Measures and Moderating Factors on Climate Change Adaptation Among Private Forest Owners in Sweden

Threats associated with climate change may damage forests. To encourage adaptation in countries with a lot of privately owned forest, policy measures directed at private forest owners may be implemented. By means of policy scenarios, the present study examined the effects of two hypothetical policies: an advice and an economic incentive, on climate change adaptation among private forest owners in Sweden (n?=?753 and n?=?729). Both policies strengthened the intention to adapt although results also revealed that individual variables (i.e., forest values) and a contextual variable (i.e., being in an encouraging social risk management context) were important for the owners’ response. Production forest values and social risk management context furthermore moderated the effect of policy on intention to adapt, suggesting that the economic incentive was mainly more effective than the advice among owners with strong production values and among owners in less encouraging social risk management contexts.     

Climate change in the Arctic: current and future vulnerability in two Inuit communities in Canada

Climate change is already occurring in the Arctic and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment recently concluded that future climate change could be devastating for Inuit. This paper characterises vulnerability to climate change in two Inuit communities in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, focusing on the resource harvesting sector. In both communities, Inuit have demonstrated significant adaptability in the face of current changes in climatic conditions. This adaptability is facilitated by traditional Inuit knowledge, strong social networks, flexibility in resource use, and institutional support. Changing Inuit livelihoods, however, have undermined certain aspects of adaptive capacity and have resulted in emerging vulnerabilities. Global and regional climate projections indicate that climatic conditions which currently pose risks are expected to be negatively affected by future climate change. These projections are not without precedent and analysis of current vulnerability and identification of adaptation constraints by Inuit in the two communities indicate the continued importance of traditional coping mechanisms. The ability to draw on these coping mechanisms in light of future climate change, however, will be unequal and the research indicates that young Inuit and those without access to economic resources, in particular, are vulnerable.     

Climate‐induced migration: Exploring local perspectives in Kiribati

A number of studies have indicated that the long term habitability of Kiribati, a low‐lying country in the central tropical Pacific Ocean, is tenuous given the impacts of climate change, particularly sea level rise. In an effort to plan for the resultant challenges ahead, a number of national policies and programs have surfaced to reduce the impact of localized changes on people's livelihoods. This study explores how local community members (n = 60) have taken it upon themselves to respond to the impacts of climate change by utilizing a number of different strategies. The results highlight that: first, respondents consider climate change to be the most concerning issue for sustaining their livelihoods; second, respondents have built physical defences, relocated temporarily or permanently, and sought government assistance to adapt to localized climate‐related impacts; and third, the majority of respondents indicated that they would migrate as a long term strategy to respond to the future impacts of climate change.     

The role of governance in community adaptation to climate change

The capacity to adapt to challenges such as climate change can be seen as largely determined by socioeconomic context or social vulnerability. This article examines the adaptive capacity of local actors in response to globalization and climate change, asking: how much of the desirable adaptation can be undertaken at a local level, and how much is determined by actors at other levels, for instance, when resource conflicts occur? Drawing on case studies of fishing in northern Norway and north-west Russia, the paper shows that adaptive capacity beyond the immediate economic adaptations available to local actors is, to a considerable extent, politically determined within larger governance networks.     

欧盟气候变化适应政策行动及其启示

在简要介绍气候变化对欧洲的影响、欧盟的气候变化适应举措的基础上,分析了欧盟水资源管理、海洋与渔业、沿海地区、农业、林业、生物多样性、金融与保险、减灾防灾、人类健康等9个重点领域的气候变化适应政策行动;总结了欧盟气候变化适应政策行动的特征：以“自上而下”的政府层面举措与“自下而上”的脆弱经济部门应对策略相结合,采取分阶段的推进方式,并重视相关平台工具的开发应用;最后,结合我国国情和气候变化适应行动现状,提出了我国加强气候变化适应政策行动的建议：及时制定气候变化适应国家战略;加强气候变化适应的科技基础设施与条件平台建设;加快完善气候变化适应的体制机制建设;强化气候变化适应的能力建设。     

社区尺度社会—生态系统适应途径述评

全球变化背景下,社区作为社会—生态系统的基础单元,既面临着可能或已经出现的冲击性干扰,也发生着系统结构和功能的趋势性变化。以社区为基础的适应(community-based adaptation, CBA)便为社区缓解变化甚至抓住时机转型提供了一种有效的应对方式。为了把握当前社区社会—生态系统适应途径的机理,论文梳理了近20 a来关于社区社会—生态系统适应的研究。在CBA过程中,资助机构、权力机构、研究机构和执行者是参与行动的主体。适应主体所要适应的对象有冲击性的一阶影响,也有伴生的二阶影响。适应途径具有层次,对应的步骤包括明晰适应对象、清算适应资产、评估适应能力、摸清适应需求、确立适应目的、划分适应阶段、制定适应措施和采取适应措施8个步骤。物质障碍、资源障碍和社会障碍的负向作用则会诱发适应不良。基于此,论文提出优化以社区为基础的适应途径的研究方向展望,包括完善监测和评估体系以搭建长期社区适应的指标框架、以社会—生态网络为抓手强化多主体决策和促进基于自然的解决方案整体提升社会—生态系统适应能力。     

Between Environmental Change and Neoliberalism: The Effects of Oil Palm Production on Livelihood Resilience

Rural communities worldwide are increasingly confronted with the simultaneous impacts of environmental change dynamics and processes of economic restructuring that diminish traditional sources of state support while shifting investments toward large-scale intensive production models. A key question in this context is how livelihoods are affected by these interacting forces of change and whether new production models can contribute to resilience at the household and community scales. Here we examine the impacts of oil palm production on marginal rural communities in Mexico that have experienced both the economic changes associated with neoliberal policy reforms and the dynamics of environmental change. We find that oil palm production can contribute to livelihood resilience when community members participate in its management and governance and when production is associated with state support, but that the kinds of neoliberal policies promoting oil palm expansion may exacerbate existing community vulnerabilities in the face of environmental change.     

Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights

Although climate change is expected to increase vulnerabilities, marginalization, and sufferings of many in the Global South, impacts will be unevenly felt across social strata. Intersectionalities of social difference, especially along gender and class lines, differentiate the ways in which impacts of climate change are experienced and responded to. Feminist political ecology and feminist geography insights can explain how different groups of people understand, respond to, and cope with variability and uncertainties in nuanced and critical ways, thereby elucidating the gendered implications of climate change. With a regional focus on South Asia, the article underscores the key issues that can be applied geographically elsewhere. Gendered implications of climate change in South Asia are particularly poignant as patriarchal norms, inequities, and inequalities often place women and men in differentiated positions in their abilities to respond to and cope with dramatic changes in socioecological relations but also foreground the complex ways in which social power relations operate in communal responses to adaptation strategies. This is particularly evident in water-related productive and reproductive tasks in agrarian societies that constitute the majority of South Asia. As climate change is expected to exacerbate both ecological degradation (e.g., water shortages) and water-related natural hazards (e.g., floods, cyclones), thereby transforming gender–water geographies, it becomes imperative to undertake careful multiscalar and critical analyses to better inform policymaking. This article elucidates the complex ways that climate change will affect gender and social relations, thereby highlighting the ways that existing policy narratives and adaptation programs might be better informed by geographical insights. To this end, the article encourages feminist and critical geographers to more forcefully and fruitfully engage with global debates on climate change.     

The impacts of environmental and socio-economic stressors on small scale fisheries and livelihoods of fishers in Ghana

Small-scale coastal fisheries are exposed to many stressors, such as poor governance, lack of alternative employment, overfishing and diseases. Stressors, in this context, constitute environmental and socio-economic changes or events at local, national or global levels making the fisheries sector or fishers vulnerable. Climate change is expected to compound the consequences of these stressors on fisheries and livelihoods. Identifying and understanding the effects of important stressors are imperative for building and organising appropriate capacity to adapt and, ultimately, for successful adaptation. However, how climate-related and non-climate stressors jointly affect small-scale fisheries is still to be fully explored. In this paper, we use case studies of three coastal communities in the Western Region of Ghana to gain insights into how multiple stressors combine to affect small-scale fisheries. The findings show that multiple stressors combine in complex ways, affecting fisheries-based livelihoods and the coastal landscape, vegetation and infrastructure. This suggests that any single stressor is just a part of a set of stressors that jointly affect small-scale coastal fisheries. This study proposes that the effects of climate-related stressors are better comprehended when analysed in light of the synergetic effect of multiple stressors. It has the potential to guide policy-makers and managers in designing and implementing improved strategies to enhance adaptive capacity in response to climate change. Moreover, this knowledge can present an opportunity and justification for solving other inherent developmental problems through climate change adaptation policies and actions.     

科尔沁沙地植物功能性状的尺度变异及关联

调查了科尔沁沙地流动沙丘、半固定沙丘和固定沙丘18个样地的物种组成,测定了28种植物的叶面积(LA)、比叶面积(SLA)和叶干物质含量(LDMC)等3个植物功能性状,并用性状梯度分析法对3个功能性状在群落水平上的变化进行了分解,研究了沙丘固定过程中的植物功能性状的尺度变异及其与生境变化的关系。结果表明:(1)随着沙丘的固定,群落平均LA逐渐增大,群落平均SLA及LDMC在半固定沙丘上最小;(2)群落平均SLA的生态位宽度随着沙丘固定程度依次减小,流动、半固定沙丘植物群落的适应能力较固定沙丘更强;(3)沙丘固定过程中物种性状值的变化与群落内共生植物种性状间变异的关联相比于群落间性状的变异更密切。沙丘固定导致了物种LA与LDMC较强的正相关关系,两性状在群落间的依赖性比群落内的强。物种在群落内和群落间采取不同的策略来适应沙丘固定过程生境的变化。     

Tibetan Lake Expansion from a Pastoral Perspective: Local Observations and Coping Strategies for a Changing Environment

Global climate change is causing the majority of large lakes on the Tibetan Plateau to expand. While these rising lake levels and their causes have been investigated by hydrologists and glaciologists, their impacts on local pastoral communities have mostly been ignored. Our interviews with pastoralists in central Tibet reveal their observations and beliefs about Lake Serling’s expansion, as well as how its effects are interacting with current rangeland management policies. Interviewees reported that the most negative effects on their livelihoods have been reduced livestock populations and productivity due to the inundation of high-quality pastures by saline lake water. However, pastoralists’ collective efforts based on traditional values and norms of sharing, assistance, and reciprocity have helped them cope with these climate change impacts. These local, traditional coping strategies are particularly worthy of attention now, given that the transformation of traditional pastoralism is a goal of current government development initiatives.     

Resettlement and Climate Impact: addressing migration intention of resettled people in west China

ABSTRACT

The relationship between climate change and human displacement is an important topic of global concern. China is a special case due to a high level of government control enforcing the ecological migration of millions of people since the mid-1980s. Little research has addressed how resettled people adapt to climate impacts in ecologically vulnerable resettlement areas and what factors influence their intentions to relocate again or adapt locally. Employing a social-ecological system approach, this study builds a conceptual econometric framework which differentiates two steps that drive migration intention at the household level. The study uses this approach to examine the role of both contextual and household factors in motivating the migration intentions of resettled people in the largest environmental resettlement area of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, where household survey data were collected in 2012. This framework enabled an analysis, first, of how local contextual factors and household factors shape the severity of climate impacts on households and, second, how these factors interact with the experience of climate impacts to further influence a household’s migration intention as a response to climate impacts. The results show that some contextual factors (such as limited use of water-saving techniques, little practice of cultivating aridity-resistant crops, and lack of government support), strong local social networks and being in receipt of low rates of financial remittances have significant associations with adverse climate impacts experienced by resettled households, and also with their anticipated further relocation to respond to these impacts.