scholarly journals Exploring Community Engagement in Climate Change Planning: The Case in Samoa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Annie Saofaiga Toailoa

<p>Coastal communities within Pacific Island Countries (PIC) are vulnerable due to the rising and volatile nature of the sea as a result of climate change. Adaptation strategies and community-based approaches have increasingly been advocated for by environmental organisations, policy makers and researchers. Community-based approaches have, in turn, begun to promote the values of meaningful community engagement and integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into adaptation planning. This research explores the extent to which community engagement and TEK is utilised at both the national and local level adaptation planning in Samoa. An assessment of policies and plans assesses the national level context, whilst the community level context was explored through a study of the coastal village of Tafitoala.  A qualitative approach is employed in which semi-structured interviews were used to collect the perspectives of community members, government personnel, and Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) staff to provide a range of viewpoints.  Using Samoa as my case study, the research findings demonstrated that community ideologies and values, and community governance structures determine the efficacy of adaptation programmes. Findings also emphasised that although there is a vast amount of TEK used within local communities, documentation and verification of TEK is required in order for it be integrated more effectively into adaptation planning. Whilst the need for meaningful community engagement had already been identified by government and NGO agencies as a priority for effective adaptation, with agencies currently implementing strategies to encourage its integration, more is required for strategies to be strongly embedded into the practices of local communities.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Annie Saofaiga Toailoa

<p>Coastal communities within Pacific Island Countries (PIC) are vulnerable due to the rising and volatile nature of the sea as a result of climate change. Adaptation strategies and community-based approaches have increasingly been advocated for by environmental organisations, policy makers and researchers. Community-based approaches have, in turn, begun to promote the values of meaningful community engagement and integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into adaptation planning. This research explores the extent to which community engagement and TEK is utilised at both the national and local level adaptation planning in Samoa. An assessment of policies and plans assesses the national level context, whilst the community level context was explored through a study of the coastal village of Tafitoala.  A qualitative approach is employed in which semi-structured interviews were used to collect the perspectives of community members, government personnel, and Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) staff to provide a range of viewpoints.  Using Samoa as my case study, the research findings demonstrated that community ideologies and values, and community governance structures determine the efficacy of adaptation programmes. Findings also emphasised that although there is a vast amount of TEK used within local communities, documentation and verification of TEK is required in order for it be integrated more effectively into adaptation planning. Whilst the need for meaningful community engagement had already been identified by government and NGO agencies as a priority for effective adaptation, with agencies currently implementing strategies to encourage its integration, more is required for strategies to be strongly embedded into the practices of local communities.</p>


Scientifica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Laiza Kupika ◽  
Edson Gandiwa ◽  
Godwell Nhamo ◽  
Shakkie Kativu

Understanding local community perceptions on impacts, causes, and responses to climate change is vital for promotion of community resilience towards climate change. This study explored local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by local communities on climate change trends and impacts in the Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve (MZBR), Zimbabwe. The objectives of the study were to (i) investigate local community perceptions on trends and causes of climate change, (ii) identify biophysical impacts of climate change at the local level, and (iii) explore the ecosystem-based adaptation strategies towards climate change. The study used a mixed methods approach where a household questionnaire survey (n=320), key informant interviews (n=12), and focus group discussions (n=8) were used to collect data between April 2015 and October 2016. Results from the study show that local communities have observed decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures as key indicators of climate change. Local communities observed water scarcity, changes in vegetation phenology, livestock and wildlife mortalities, and food shortages due to drought as the major impacts on their livelihoods. LEK can contribute to adaptive management strategies that enhance resilience of socioecological systems (SES) in the face of climate change by providing information on the status and use of biophysical components of the environment and by highlighting potential local adaptation strategies that can sustain key livelihood practices.


Author(s):  
Inga J. Sauer ◽  
Elisabet Roca ◽  
Míriam Villares

AbstractCoastal cities are exposed to high risks due to climate change, as they are potentially affected by both rising sea levels and increasingly intense and frequent coastal storms. Socio-economic drivers also increase exposure to natural hazards, accelerate environmental degradation, and require adaptive governance structures to moderate negative impacts. Here, we use a social network analysis (SNA) combined with further qualitative information to identify barriers and enablers of adaptive governance in the Barcelona metropolitan area. By analyzing how climate change adaptation is mainstreamed between different administrative scales as well as different societal actors, we can determine the governance structures and external conditions that hamper or foster strategical adaptation plans from being used as operational adaptation tools. We identify a diverse set of stakeholders acting at different administrative levels (local to national), in public administration, science, civil society, and the tourism economy. The metropolitan administration acts as an important bridging organization by promoting climate change adaptation to different interest groups and by passing knowledge between actors. Nonetheless, national adaptation planning fails to take into account local experiences in coastal protection, which leads to an ineffective science policy interaction and limits adaptive management and learning opportunities. Overcoming this is difficult, however, as the effectiveness of local adaptation strategies in the Barcelona metropolitan area is very limited due to a strong centralization of power at the national level and a lack of polycentricity. Due to the high touristic pressure, the legal framework is currently oriented to primarily meet the demands of recreational use and tourism, prioritizing these aspects in daily management practice. Therefore, touristic and economic activities need to be aligned to adaptation efforts, to convert them from barriers into drivers for adaptation action. Our work strongly suggests that more effectively embedding adaptation planning and action into existing legal structures of coastal management would allow strategic adaptation plans to be an effective operational tool for local coastal governance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Roma KRIAUČIŪNIENĖ ◽  
VILIJA TARGAMADZĖ

Aim. The concept of Good School was formed in 2015, however, the implementation of it has been rather slow. Therefore, the research aim of this article is to identify the educational experts’ viewpoints on the concept. The following questions have been raised to specify the aim: if the concept of the school of general education, presented as Good School, is adequately understood, what features should a teacher have in order to implement the concept of Good School? Methods. To answer the research questions a qualitative research by using structured interviews was carried out, i.e. experts’ written surveys were analyzed. The study revealed three positions that are discussed in this article: the concept of Good School, the mission and teachers’ features, which are interpreted in the context of the concept of Good School, albeit in a particular way. Results. The analysis of the empirical research data revealed that insufficient emphasis is placed on the value aspect, modelling of community-based school activities and their reflection. The research findings also showed that there has been a considerable lack of attention paid to some of the teacher's competences – there has been a lack of experts’ focus on the personalization of the educational content, its construction in the interaction with the elements of the pedagogical system, the reflection of pedagogical activities, and others. Conclusions. The concept of Good School is understood by the experts as a map, a conceptual idea, a guideline unfolding the schools’ specificity. The implementation of the concept of Good School should be based on the ideas of constructionism  that open the pathways of common  development,  realization, and improvement of Good School.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 921-935
Author(s):  
Oluwatosin Zacheus Aregbesola ◽  
Veronica N Uzokwe ◽  
Kolawole A Adeloye ◽  
Carmelo Rapisarda ◽  
Ole Søgaard Lund ◽  
...  

Cassava is Africa’s most important food security crop and sustains about 700 million people globally. Survey interviews of 320 farmers in three regions of Tanzania to identify their production characteristics, and interviews with 20 international whitefly/virus experts were conductedto identify adaptation strategies to lessen the impacts of cassava whiteflies and viruses due to climate change in Tanzania. Structured and pre-tested interview schedules were conducted using a multistage sampling technique. Most of the farmers (66.8%) produced cassava primarily for food, and relied mainly on their friends (43.8%) and their farms (41.9%) for cassava planting materials. Farmers significantly differed in their socio-economic and production characteristics except for gender and access to extension support (P < 0.01). A significant association was found between extension support, sources of planting materials, and reasons for growing cassava with both the control of cassava viruses and the control of whiteflies by the farmers. A significantly higher number of farmers controlled cassava viruses (38.1%) than cassava whiteflies (19.7%). The adaptation strategies most recommended by experts were: integrating pest and disease management programs, phytosanitation, and applying novel vector management techniques.The experts also recommended capacity building through the training of stakeholders, establishing monitoring networks to get updates on cassava pests and disease statuses, incorporating pest and disease adaptation planning into the general agricultural management plans, and developing climate change-pest/disease models for accessing the local and national level impacts that can facilitate more specific adaptation planning in order to enhance the farmers’ adaptive capacities.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Aijaz Ahmed Sohag ◽  
Faraz Ahmed Wajidi

Keenjhar Lake, Pakistan is facing a potentially devastating ecological collapse, threatening the livelihood security of local communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate that how a more sustainable management plan can be forged through the integration of the local experiential knowledge and technocratic conservation values. The analysis gives particular emphasis to gender issues, given the unacknowledged but increasing responsibilities of community based organizations on women issues. Semi-structured interviews with local communities, communitybased organizations and government officials were undertaken to assess the various perceptions of resource use at Keenjhar Lake. The findings illustrate that conflicting understandings of ownership have a detrimental impact on the local perception on environment and prevalence of resource for their livelihood. However, there is an opportunity to foster new vistas of understanding which could be helpful in sustainability of management of resources.


Author(s):  
Giuseppe Franco Ferrari

- The energy markets are very complex, because, on the one hand, they imply several different activities and, on the other hand, they involve various levels of govern- 183 ment. The energy market is divided indeed in different segments: supply (generation or purchasing), transmission, distribution and sale, which are allocated at different levels of government, from the international and European level (with reference to the security of energy supply), to the local level (with specific regard to the distribution and sale). This complexity makes the energy sector particularly critical, under the pressure of political interests and economical needs. Another sensitive point is linked with the environmental protection, since the consumption of energy is one of the most polluting human activities, and the demand of energy is growing up together with the economical growth of the developing Countries. This problem is increasingly discussed at the international level, with reference to the climate change issue, in order to plan a sustainable development for the whole globe: because of it, the Kyoto Protocol was issued within the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change. It establishes legally binding commitments for the reduction of four greenhouse gases for all the 183 ratifying Countries, according the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and provides for the promotion of renewable energy. The European Union ratified the Protocol implementing the relative obligations through, for instance, the creation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The European Union most of all addressed the competitive issue, since the 70s, in order to achieve the result to create a free energy market in Europe. The last results of the European energy policy were the directives on electricity and natural gas in 2004, that imposed the complete opening of the energy markets in almost all the European Countries (with few exceptions). The implementation of the European directives requires the intervention of the national level, since each Country has to modify its own regulatory framework, in order to comply with the directives. Everywhere in Europe, this process faces with several difficulties, but it is particularly hard in Italy, since the energy sector is traditionally public owned. Indeed, in our Country, the privatization and liberalization processes are strictly linked to another trend: the decentralization of legislative and administrative powers from the State to the Regions and Local Communities. Thus it is evident that the global governance of the energy sector, for its complexity and its sensibility, can only derive from a network of interventions by several levels of government, and different international, national and local actors, which realize a typical case of multilevel governance.Key words: Energy markets, competition, sustainable development, multilevel governance.JEL classifications: K21, K23.Parole chiave: Mercato energetico, concorrenza, sviluppo sostenibile, multilevel Governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 7923
Author(s):  
Sydney Stenekes ◽  
Brenda Parlee ◽  
Cristiana Seixas

There is growing concern about the sustainability of freshwater ecosystems in northern Canada that are under significant stress from climate change, resource development, and hydroelectric development, among others. Community-based monitoring (CBM) based on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has the potential to contribute to understanding impacts on the environment and community livelihoods. This paper shares insights about culturally driven monitoring, through collaborative research with Kátł’odeeche First Nation (KFN) in the Northwest Territories. This research was initiated in 2018 to improve understanding of the changes occurring in the Hay River and Buffalo River sub-basins, which extend primarily across the Alberta and Northwest Territories borders. Drawing on 15 semi-structured interviews conducted with KFN elders, fish harvesters, and youth, this paper illustrates the kinds of social–ecological indicators used by KFN to track changes in the health of aquatic systems as well as the fishing livelihoods of local people. Utilizing indicators, fishers observe declines in fish health, water quality, water quantity, and ice thickness in their lifetime. Community members perceive these changes to be a result of the cumulative effects of environmental stressors. The indicators as well as trends and patterns being observed and experienced can contribute to both social learning in the community as well as the governance of the larger Mackenzie River Basin.


Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Titz ◽  
Terry Cannon ◽  
Fred Krüger

In all areas of academic or practical work related to disaster risk, climate change and development more generally, community and its adjunct community-based have become the default terminology when referring to the local level or working ‘with the people’. The terms are applied extensively to highlight what is believed to be a people-centred, participatory, or grassroot-level approach. Today, despite, or because of, its inherent ambiguity, ‘community’ tends to be used almost inflationarily. This paper aims to analyse the way the concept of ‘community’ has come into fashion, and to critically reflect on the problems that come with it. We are raising significant doubts about the usefulness of ‘community’ in development- and disaster-related work. Our approach is to first consider how ‘community’ has become popular in research and with humanitarian agencies and other organisations based on what can be considered a ‘moral licence’ that supposedly guarantees that the actions being taken are genuinely people-centred and ethically justified. We then explore several theoretical approaches to ‘community’, highlight the vast scope of different (and contested) views on what ‘community’ entails, and explain how ‘community’ is framing practical attempts to mitigate vulnerability and inequity. We demonstrate how these attempts are usually futile, and sometimes harmful, due to the blurriness of ‘community’ concepts and their inherent failure to address the root causes of vulnerability. From two antagonistic positions, we finally advocate more meaningful ways to acknowledge vulnerable people’s views and needs appropriately.


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