scholarly journals The capacity to adapt?: communities in a changing climate, environment, and economy on the northern Andaman coast of Thailand

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Bennett ◽  
Philip Dearden ◽  
Alin Kadfak

The health and productivity of marine ecosystems, habitats, and fisheries are deteriorating on the Andaman coast of Thailand. Because of their high dependence on natural resources and proximity to the ocean, coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to climate-induced changes in the marine environment. These communities must also adapt to the impacts of management interventions and conservation initiatives, including marine protected areas, which have livelihood implications. Further, communities on the Andaman coast are also experiencing a range of new economic opportunities associated in particular with tourism and agriculture. These complex and ongoing changes require integrated assessment of, and deliberate planning to increase, the adaptive capacity of communities so that they may respond to: (1) environmental degradation and fisheries declines through effective management interventions or conservation initiatives, (2) new economic opportunities to reduce dependence on fisheries, and (3) the increasing impacts of climate change. Our results are from a mixed methods study, which used surveys and interviews to examine multiple dimensions of the adaptive capacity of seven island communities near marine protected areas on the Andaman coast of Thailand. Results show that communities had low adaptive capacity with respect to environmental degradation and fisheries declines, and to management and conservation interventions, as well as uneven levels of adaptive capacity to economic opportunities. Though communities and households were experiencing the impacts of climate change, especially storm events, changing seasons and weather patterns, and erosion, they were reacting to these changes with limited knowledge of climate change per se. We recommend interventions, in the form of policies, programs, and actions, at multiple scales for increasing the adaptive capacity of Thailand’s coastal communities to change. The analytical and methodological approach used for examining adaptive capacity could be easily modified and applied to other contexts and locales.

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurmala K. Panjaitan ◽  
Galuh Adriana ◽  
Ratri Virianita ◽  
Nanda Karlita ◽  
Renita Intan Cahyani

<p>ABSTRACT<br />Climate change provokes various problems on coastal community’s life such as reduction in the quantity and quality of the catch, sea-water flood, storms, tidal waves, and drought. Many impacts of climate change will not lead to the vulnerability of coastal communities when a community has sufficient adaptive capacity. The purpose of this study was to analyze the adaptive capacity of coastal communities to food insecurity as the impacts of climate change. Mix method approach such as survey, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation was applied to collect the data. The unit analysis was community level (n = 100 poor fishery households, beneficiaries of government’s poor rice program). The adaptive capacity of communities to food insecurity is relatively low due to low institutional memory, unable to conduct innovative learning and especially the lack of connectedness with others outside the community. There is no Collective action to cope with food insecurity due to poverty, community’s culture and lack of local leadership.<br />Keywords: Climate change, adaptive capacity, coastal community, food insecurity</p><p>ABSTRAK<br />Perubahan iklim menimbulkan banyak masalah pada kehidupan komunitas pesisir seperti penurunan kualitas dan kuantitas tangkapan, rob, badai, gelombang pasang dan kekeringan. Berbagai dampak perubahan iklim tidak akan menyebabkan kerentanan komunitas pesisir bila komunitas itu mempunya kapasitas adaptasi yang memadai. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menganalisa kapasitas adaptasi komunitas nelayan untuk melihat kesiapan komunitas dalam menghadapi kerawanan pangan akibat perubahan iklim. Pendekatan survei, wawancara mendalam, focus group discussion, dan observasi digunaan untuk mengumpulkan data. Unit analisa adalah pada tingkat masyarakat dengan sumber data 100 rumahtangga nelayan miskin yang merupakan penerima program raskin. Kapasitas adaptasi masyarakat terhadap kerawanan pangan tergolong rendah karena rendahnya institutional memory, tidak mampu melakukan innovative learning dan kurangnya connectedness terutama dengan pihak lain di luar komunitas. Aksi kolektif dari komunitas untuk mengatasi kerawanan pangan tidak ada yang disebabkan oleh kemiskinan,budaya komunitas dan kurang berfungsinya kepemimpinan lokal.<br />Kata kunci: Perubahan iklim, kapasitas adaptasi, pantai komunitas, kerawanan pangan</p>


Author(s):  
Thi Huong Tra Nguyen ◽  
Helen Boon ◽  
David King

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly in poor coastal communities. While external climate change projects have been conducted in some coastal provinces, including Ha Tinh, there is a lack of local education programs to enhance communities’ awareness and adaptive capacity to cope with climate change. Therefore, a community education program is proposed to help Ha Tinh locals adapt to climate change. The aim of this paper is to present a brief literature review, including: identifying key concepts, overviewing global climate change, analysing climate change and climate change adaptation in Vietnam, as well as theoretical frameworks.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 751-751
Author(s):  
John F. Bruno ◽  
Amanda E. Bates ◽  
Chris Cacciapaglia ◽  
Elizabeth P. Pike ◽  
Steven C. Amstrup ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 105230
Author(s):  
Michael Weinert ◽  
Moritz Mathis ◽  
Ingrid Kröncke ◽  
Thomas Pohlmann ◽  
Henning Reiss

Author(s):  
Pema Rinzin ◽  
Thubten Sonam ◽  
Sangay Tshering ◽  
Purna Prasad Chapagai

Climate change carries immense threat to the livelihood and food security of smallholder farmers in Bhutan and it is therefore crucial to enhance their adaptive capacity.  However, building resiliency to climate impact require information on vulnerability of the system of interest. Therefore, this study assessed smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to impacts of climate change and variability in central regions (Bumthang and Trongsa) of Bhutan. Data was collected from 247 randomly selected households by administering a pre-tested survey questionnaire. Data was analyzed using composite index approach (LVI) and IPCC framework approach (LVI-IPCC). The LVI analysis revealed that Bumthang was more vulnerable in terms of Socio-demographic profile (0.55), social networks (0.45), health (0.31) and natural disasters and climate variability (0.47) compared to Trongsa. Whereas, Trongsa was more vulnerable in terms of livelihood strategies (0.31) and water (0.13). Vulnerability score on the food component was same for both the districts (0.27). Overall, Bumthang was more vulnerable compared to Trongsa on both LVI (Bumthang: 0.36, Trongsa: 0.34) and LVI-IPCC (Bumthang: 0.24, Trongsa: 0.13) analysis. The findings could be used for designing micro-level context specific interventions to enhance smallholder farmers’ adaptive capacity to impacts of climate change in central Bhutan.


Author(s):  
Iñigo J. Losada ◽  
Paula Camus ◽  
Alexandra Toimil ◽  
Antonio Espejo ◽  
Cristina Izaguirre

Coastal engineers play a leading role in assessing climate change impacts in coastal and low-lying areas and in the design and implementation of adaptation solutions to build resilient coastal systems. Given the continuous growth of coastal communities and assets along the world coastlines, the need to protect and preserve natural and socioeconomic coastal systems and the escalating impacts of climate change (Wong et al. 2014), there is an urgent demand by decision makers for coastal engineering practice dealing with risk assessment and adaptation under high levels of uncertainty.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 625-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Gaüzère ◽  
Frédéric Jiguet ◽  
Vincent Devictor

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine A. Marshall

This paper presents an overview of research that has recently been conducted on the northern Australian rangelands. The research has focussed on conceptualising and measuring the current capacity of cattle producers to adopt new strategies so as to better adapt to the impacts of climate change. The capacity to adapt is defined as comprising four essential elements: (i) managing risk and uncertainty, (ii) possessing strategic skill sets such as planning, experimenting, refining and learning, (iii) psychological and financial buffers, and (iv) an interest in change. However, there appears to be a lack of sufficient capacity currently existing within the industry to meet the challenges of the future: only 16% of producers are regarded to be sufficiently adaptive. Research also highlights that adaptive capacity can be enhanced, and here we highlight those factors that are known to influence adaptive capacity either positively or negatively. Producers with strong networks and trust in informal and formal connections, a strong locus of control, larger properties, a focus on profitability, and use technology, are more likely to persist within the industry through time. We propose that investing in the capacity of producers to better cope and adapt to change is a most logical approach to ensuring both the sustainability of the industry and of the rangelands. A range of strategies are proposed that may enhance adaptive capacity.


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