Small islands, valuable insights: systems of customary resource use and resilience to climate change in the Pacific

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Understanding how social-ecological systems are and can be resilient to climate change is one of the world's most crucial problems today. It requires knowledge at local and global scales, the integration of natural and social sciences, and a focus on biocultural diversity. Small Pacific Islands and the knowledge-practice-belief systems of their peoples have a long history of resilience to environmental variability and unpredictability, including in areas with marginal habitats and with periodic, severe disturbance (e.g., drought, flood, storms, and tsunami). We review the state of research on these knowledge systems as it pertains to resilience and adaptation, and we highlight critical research needs to address the interrelated areas of: (1) local-scale expertise and observations of change with regard to weather, life-history cycles, and ecological processes; (2) customary resource management institutions and practices (i.e., with agroforests and the nearshore marine environment); and (3) the roles of leaders, social institutions, and social networks in the context of disturbance and change. We conclude that these knowledge systems can contribute high-resolution observations, benchmark data, and insights into practices that enhance resilience and adaptive capacity in integrated terrestrial and marine systems. Community-based and participatory approaches can complement and ground-truth climate models and direct culturally appropriate resource management, research, and adaptation measures. Although most islands in the Pacific are small, their knowledge systems include valuable insights on seasonal cycles, ecological processes, and the management of biocultural diversity that are relevant at a broad scale for understanding resilience and adaptability to the social-ecological effects of climate change.

Value of traditional oral narratives in building climate-change resilience: insights from rural communities in Fiji

“…This approach works best in those communities that retain a comprehensive body of traditional knowledge and less so in those where traditions have been eroded by the forces of globalization, particularly by the spread of nonindigenous languages that may create communication barriers between children and their elders, the usual custodians of traditional knowledge. However, such knowledge defines communities and may pervade many aspects of their cultural practice, ranging from simple oral narrative to song and dance, and can provide suitable inputs to the participatory development of environmental conservation and http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss2/art7/ resilience-building (Johannes 1978, 2002, Veitayaki et al 2003, McMillen et al 2014.…”

Recognizing Stewardship Practices as Indicators of Social Resilience: In Living Memorials and in a Community Garden

“…Social networks enable the practice of pooling and exchanging material (e.g., food, building materials) including human resources (e.g., knowledge and labor), especially following disturbances [44]. In the wake of economic declines, storms, and tsunami, the pooling of resources remains critical to place-based communities for maintaining social networks and institutions, e.g., [45].…”

The codevelopment of coastal fisheries monitoring methods to support local management

“…Moon calendars predicted seasonal, monthly, and daily ecological cycles of harvested species, and this information was used to dictate proper (pono) harvest seasons and strategies and identify kapu or no-take periods during critical periods of development and reproduction of these species (Titcomb 1972, Poepoe et al 2007). This knowledge came from an intimate connection of the practitioners to the resource and intergenerational knowledge transmission (Poepoe et al 2007), as has been observed in other customary management systems (Berkes et al 2000, McMillen et al 2014.…”

“…This peak was not observed in our spawning season assessments for manini or kole in 2014. It is expected that further changes in spawn timing and other natural cycles will vary in response to environmental fluctuations and ongoing climate change (McMillen et al 2014).…”

“…Moon calendars provide the structure for learning and adapting to natural cycles in local resources and are one way to revitalize traditional tenure (Poepoe et al 2007, Gombos et al 2013, McMillen et al 2014; Kalei Nuʻuhiwa http://www.kaleinuuhiwa.com). We show that moon calendars can also provide the framework for combining local knowledge and scientific monitoring for improving our understanding of local fisheries.…”