Climate micro-mobilities as adaptation practice in the Pacific: the case of Samoa

Abstract

Recent debates on climate mobilities have largely ignored the dynamics of mobility patterns including short-distance and short-duration circular movements to enhance adaptative capacity and resilience of households and individuals, enabling them to remain in place despite facing increasingly severe climatic risks. This paper explores Pacific Islanders' climate-related mobilities with reference to cases from Samoa. It first conceptualizes Samoan mobility, which is rooted in Samoan culture, norms and worldviews, and then uses this as a framework to examine ways in which people shift and diversify their residential locations for climate-associated reasons. The study employs a comparative case study approach using conversational (the Pacific-originated talanoa -style) interviews with 40 participants in two villages in Samoa—one urban and the other rural. Findings suggest that shifting spatially and temporarily between two residences (a practice called fa'a-’āigalua ) occurs not only within the village but across villages. Thereby, villagers reduce the risk of incurring physical harm from climate-related disasters, while minimizing the risk of cultural harm from place detachment. Our study challenges the discourse of ‘vulnerable Pacific Islanders' by demonstrating the adaptability of Samoans to changing socio-ecological and climatic circumstances and their ability to develop a variety of climate resilience strategies, including micro-mobilities and circular migration. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’.

Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture

“…Indeed, Indigenous and Local Knowledge affects both internal states, like values and IARMT; further, while Indigenous and Local Knowledge is largely absent from earlier, Western research on climate change adaptation, work involving Indigenous methodologies, knowledge co-production, and participatory action frameworks is increasingly common in the adaptation literature [33][34][35]. For example, in their adaptation research in Samoa, Latai-Niusulu et al [16] used talanoa methodsunstructured interviews in which stories are freely shared, inspired by Pacific Island communities. Historians and archaeologists sometimes track changes in environment and culture longitudinally, over centuries or millennia, by reconstructing paleoclimates and aggregate data from multiple archaeological sites (e.g.…”

“…[41][42][43]). Several articles in this theme issue provide detailed qualitative and quantitative data on the relationship between cultural practices and contemporary climate, which can be compared and contrasted across contexts [16,[44][45][46] and can be compared to environmental data, such as carbon emissions data [14]. Agent-based models draw from both past and contemporary data to simulate future outcomes (e.g.…”

“…Micro-level approaches to climate change adaptation reveal how IARMT unfold, while also allowing researchers to identify hurdles to grassroots climate change adaptation [5,15]. To understand the extent to which communities are impacted by climate change, and what other concerns may be more immediate to them, researchers can use research design and methods sensitive to local context and in collaboration with community partners when appropriate [16,52,53]. Data collection methods may involve community members in research and can identify constraints on locally led adaptation, yet data collection need not be time intensive: for busy researchers, Buffa et al [54] outline how a small team can obtain community-centred data on constraints to adaptation in as few as two weeks.…”

“…For example, in response to contemporary climate risks, cultural practices promote food security-such as mobility in Samoa or sharing country foods in Canada (e.g. fish, seal, caribou) [16,[57][58][59]. When communities can innovate, modify and transmit candidate adaptations without outside interference, their adaptive capacity may be higher (e.g.…”

“…Humans past and present have often used migration to respond to climate-related risks—although, thanks to borders and other restrictions, climate-related migration can be difficult today. Migration can be short-term, especially for groups reliant on mobile resources like fish or animal herds [ 16 ], or permanent, when climate shocks are large and/or recurrent (e.g. [ 17 ]).…”