Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-15 (section)

=== FAQ 15.2 | How have some small island communities already adapted to climate change? ===

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''Faced with rising sea levels and storm surges along their coastal areas which have significantly threatened people’s safety, buildings, infrastructure and livelihoods, small island communities have already embarked on the use of different adaptation strategies. These include reactive adaptation, which deals with short-term measures, and anticipatory adaptation, which takes action in advance to lessen climate change impacts in the long run. Reactive measures have not always proven to be effective. By contrast, anticipatory measures hold much promise for future adaptation.''

The majority of people living on small islands occupy coasts, and thus the most widespread threats to people’s livelihoods are those from SLR, shoreline erosion, increased lowland flooding, and salinisation of groundwater and soil. Humans can either adapt reactively or anticipate coming changes and prepare for them. Given the diversity of small islands across the world, and their capacities to adapt, there is no single solution that fits all contexts.

Coastal livelihoods in particular are already affected by climate impacts. Coastal fishers have adapted to these changes in environmental conditions by diversifying livelihoods, expanding aquaculture production, considering weather insurance, building social networks to cope with reduced catches and availability during extreme storms, switching fishing grounds, and changing target species. Similarly, farmers have diversified livelihoods to more cash- and service-based activities such as tourism, changed plant species that thrive better in altered conditions, and shifted planting seasons according to changes in climate.

A typical reactive adaptation along small island coasts involves the construction of hard impermeable structures such as seawalls to stop the encroachment of the sea. Yet such structures, especially along rural island coasts, often fail to prevent flooding during extreme sea levels or extreme-wave impacts, and can inadvertently damage nearshore ecosystems such as mangroves and beaches. In the Caribbean, Indian Ocean islands and some Pacific islands, there are numerous examples of coastal engineering structures that have been destroyed already or are in grave danger from the encroaching sea. In many instances, citizens and governments are unable to access external advice or funding, communities have built such structures without assistance or knowledge of expected future SLR.

By contrast, anticipatory adaptation, which anticipates expected future impacts and acts in advance, requires a longer-term view as well as some understanding of future climate-change impacts in particular contexts. Along small island coasts, anticipatory adaptation typically involves recognising that sea level will continue rising and that problems currently experienced will be amplified in the future. One strategy for anticipatory adaptation in response to SLR and flooding is relocation, which is the movement of coastal communities away from vulnerable (coastal-fringe) locations to sites that are further inland. Coastal setback policies have been applied to hotels in some islands such as Barbados. In coastal locations where the risks of rising sea level, flooding and erosion are very high and cannot effectively be reduced, ‘retreat’ from the shoreline is the only way to eliminate or reduce such risks.

Where relocation is successful, it is most commonly driven and funded by governments and non-government organisations, often within a specially designed policy framework. The Government of Fiji, for example, has introduced a relocation framework that specifically develops guidance on relocation processes, with several villages already having relocated. Evaluations to date recommend thorough cost–-benefit analyses of relocation be undertaken before this strategy is pursued. Relocation is often viewed as a ‘last resort’ adaptation option because of high cost and because some sociocultural aspects of life cannot be maintained in locations separated from customary land. The Bahamas relocated a community on Family Island from the shoreline to an inland location and the community of Boca de Cachón in the Dominican Republic was relocated to higher ground. The Navunievu community (Bua, Fiji) has mandated that every young adult building their family home in the village should do so upslope rather than on the regularly flooded coastal flat where the existing village is located. Over the next few decades, this will result in the gradual upslope migration of the community, an example of autonomous adaptation. Such creative community-grounded solutions hold great promise for future adaptation on small islands, where they are undertaken inclusively.

Anticipatory adaptation has been aligned with DRR in some small islands. For example, Jamaica adopted such an approach in relocating three communities. Recognising that a proactive approach is needed, Jamaica developed a Resettlement Policy Framework aligned with the National Development Plan and based on vulnerability assessments of communities at risk of climate change and disaster risk. A resettlement action plan was developed for the Harbour Heights community using community engagement to design successful planned relocation. In some islands revised building codes are implemented as an anticipatory adaptation measure. As part of the build-back-better strategy hurricane resistant roofs are being built to cope with strong winds associated with tropical cyclones.

Ecosystem-based adaptation can be a low-cost anticipatory adaptation measure that is often used in small islands. It is referred to as a ‘no-regret’ or ‘low-regret’ strategy because it is low-costing, brings co-benefits and requires less maintenance in contrast to hard engineering structures. Ecosystem-based adaptation is used at different scales and in different sectors such as to protect fisheries, farming and tourism assets, and integrates various stakeholders from national to local governments and non-governmental agencies. Many islands have implemented ecosystem-based adaptation such as watershed management, mangrove replanting and other nature-based solutions to strengthen coastal foreshore areas that are subjected to coastal erosion and flooding caused by SLR and changing rainfall patterns. For example, mangroves have been planted on several cays in Belize and pandanus trees have been planted near the coastlines of the Marshall Islands. Agroforestry is another example of ecosystem-based adaptation. Planting trees and shrubs in combination with crops has been used to increase resilience of crops to droughts or excessive rainfall run-off. Case studies show that people living on islands benefit even further from using ecosystem-based adaptation. Their health improves as well as their food and water supply, while risks of disasters caused by extreme events are reduced.

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'''Figure FAQ15.2.1 |''' '''Adaptation options for rural coastal communities in small islands.'''

'''a:''' '''In many places today, coastal communities which have been established for hundreds of years are being more regularly inundated than ever before as a result of rising sea level.'''

'''b:''' '''By the end of this century, sea level in such places may have risen 1 m or more, making many such settlements (largely) uninhabitable, underscoring the need for effective (anticipatory) adaptation.'''

'''c:''' '''One option is in situ adaptation, popular because it is cheaper and less disruptive than other options; it is typically characterised by mangrove replanting, seawall construction and raising of dwellings.'''

'''d:''' '''A second option is for communities to incrementally relocate upslope by building all new houses further inland.'''

'''e:''' '''A third option is complete relocation of a vulnerable coastal community with external support upslope and inland.'''

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