Seasonal Calendars Enhance Climate Communication in the Pacific

Abstract

Traditional calendars document seasonal cycles and the communities' relationships to their biophysical environment and are often used by communities, particularly subsistence farmers, to synchronise their livelihood activities with the timing of ecological processes. As the timing of these ecological processes is not always consistent from year to year, the use of traditional seasonal calendars can help communities cope with climate variability, particularly when biophysical phenomena become less predictable in relation to the Gregorian calendar, as has been observed in relation to climate change. Although the structure and content of seasonal calendars varies across the Pacific, for many indigenous communities, knowledge of seasonal calendars can increase their capacity to cope with climate variability and change. To increase the effectiveness of their products and enhance their relevance to and uptake by the community, several Pacific meteorological services are now using traditional seasonal calendars in their climate communication and education, including in forecasts and warnings. The use of a participatory approach resulted in strong relationships and improved dialogues. Local communities appreciated assistance in enabling their knowledge to become available to future generations and its inclusion in meteorological service products makes these products more accessible and relevant to community members.

Climate Change Impacts Can Be Differentially Perceived Across Time Scales: A Study Among the Tuareg of the Algerian Sahara

“…leading to temporal shifts in the beginning and end of locally defined seasons (IPCC, 2022). As ecological calendars are used to keep track of time-based seasonal changes in the habitat, it is not surprising that changes in the succession of cyclical events are quickly identified, particularly for people who depend on these calendars for their livelihood activities (Ahmed & Atiqul Haq, 2019;Chambers et al, 2021;Keyston Foundation, 2020;Savo et al, 2016). For the Tuareg, changes in the ecological calendar seem to be already impacting agricultural activities, specifically shortening the wheat growth season.…”

“…Communities use both ecological and celestial calendars in tracking events that happen with different periodicity (from daily to inter‐annual). When adequately used, community timelines and ecological calendars can provide a baseline for understanding local perceptions of climate change impacts and support local planning to adapt to environmental changes (Chambers et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2019 ).…”

Climate Autobiography Timeline: Adapting Timeline Research Methods to the Study of Climate Perceptions

“…For researchers, there may be potential to use a similar timeline approach to assess climate vulnerabilities and adaptation needs in collaboration with communities; for example, a CAT exercise could be used to ground and inform application of collaborative vulnerability assessment tools (e.g., Irvine et al 2016). For climate adaptation practitioners, the use of CATs may prove useful in identifying community values and adaptation priorities, which can facilitate the development of culturally and socially relevant climate communication tools and strategies, such as seasonal calendars (Chambers et al 2021), landscape photograph visualizations (Schattman et al 2020), or decadal climate information (Mehta et al 2013).…”

Linking gender, climate change and security in the Pacific Islands Region: A systematic review

“…A number of studies highlighted the role of social capital as a security network, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and care work as a means of creating social security (Rey et al 2017 ; Balaei et al 2019 ; Crichton et al 2020 ; Clissold et al 2020 ; Malherbe 2020 ; Senimoli et al 2020 ; Chambers et al 2021 ; Sahai et al 2021 ; Singh et al 2022 ). However, this should not be romanticised, nor the experience of living in the Pacific homogenised: while social capital and traditional ecological knowledge are important strengths for indigenous communities living on customary land, not all citizens or communities live in this situation (Chandra and Gaganis 2016 ; Nakamura and Kanemasu 2022 ).…”