Coupled human-environment timelines of SWP small island societies: event driven adaptation of human coping strategies

TY - ABST

T1 - Coupled human-environment timelines of SWP small island societies

T2 - Sustainable Livelihoods and Resource Management in Small Islands

AU - Reenberg, Anette

AU - Birch-Thomsen, Torben

AU - Fog, Bjarne

N1 - poster ved LaSyS workshop 2007 og GLIP conference. Aug 2007

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - The paper focuses on assessing the wider perspectives of adaptive resource management strategies in former subsistence agriculture societies in the SW Pacific. Firstly, we will briefly introduce a number of key theoretical concepts related to vulnerability research and adaptation to climate change. Secondly, with point of departure in a baseline characterization of Bellona Island derived from a comprehensive survey in the late 1960s and resent fieldwork in late 2006, we will propose a simple analytical framework which will be used to describe coupled human-environmental time lines and explore the temporal co-evolution of driving forces and resource management strategies. The case of Bellona Island will be characterized using a selected number of parameters of specific relevance in the present context. The key issues addressed concern climatic events, population dynamics, agricultural strategies, agro-environmental conditions, non-agricultural activities, transport & infrastructure, migration, education, political conditions etc. A range of methods are used to bring about the empirical basis for the analysis. Satellite imagery and aerial photos show relative stability in agricultural land despite an increase in de facto population (47% from 1966-2006). A questionnaire survey of 48 households provide data on the entire household livelihood portfolio and reveal that the natural resources remains a widespread activity, yet increasingly supplemented by other income generating activities( ex. shop keeping, private business, government employment). Group interviews have been employed to reveal how local farmers perceive cause-effect relationships between societal and ecological events and their individual and collective management of resources. The coupled human-environment timelines are used to discuss ways in which the local communities’ adaptive resource management strategies have been employed in the face of climatic changes in the recent past. Finally, we will discuss the perspectives for a sustainable future for the populations and civilizations of the Southwest (SW) Pacific islands.  

AB - The paper focuses on assessing the wider perspectives of adaptive resource management strategies in former subsistence agriculture societies in the SW Pacific. Firstly, we will briefly introduce a number of key theoretical concepts related to vulnerability research and adaptation to climate change. Secondly, with point of departure in a baseline characterization of Bellona Island derived from a comprehensive survey in the late 1960s and resent fieldwork in late 2006, we will propose a simple analytical framework which will be used to describe coupled human-environmental time lines and explore the temporal co-evolution of driving forces and resource management strategies. The case of Bellona Island will be characterized using a selected number of parameters of specific relevance in the present context. The key issues addressed concern climatic events, population dynamics, agricultural strategies, agro-environmental conditions, non-agricultural activities, transport & infrastructure, migration, education, political conditions etc. A range of methods are used to bring about the empirical basis for the analysis. Satellite imagery and aerial photos show relative stability in agricultural land despite an increase in de facto population (47% from 1966-2006). A questionnaire survey of 48 households provide data on the entire household livelihood portfolio and reveal that the natural resources remains a widespread activity, yet increasingly supplemented by other income generating activities( ex. shop keeping, private business, government employment). Group interviews have been employed to reveal how local farmers perceive cause-effect relationships between societal and ecological events and their individual and collective management of resources. The coupled human-environment timelines are used to discuss ways in which the local communities’ adaptive resource management strategies have been employed in the face of climatic changes in the recent past. Finally, we will discuss the perspectives for a sustainable future for the populations and civilizations of the Southwest (SW) Pacific islands.  

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Salomon øerne

KW - levebrød

KW - kontinuitet og forandring

KW - land use

KW - Solomon Islands

KW - SW Pacific

KW - MIRAB

KW - livelihood

KW - coping strategies

KW - continuity and change

KW - shifting cultivation

M3 - Conference abstract in proceedings

SP - 4

EP - 5

BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Livelihoods and Resource Management  in Small Islands

PB - Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen

Y2 - 22 August 2007 through 23 August 2007

ER -