Bridging Traditional and Scientific Knowledge of Climate Change: Understanding Change Through the Lives of Small Island
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Bridging Traditional and Scientific Knowledge of Climate Change: Understanding Change Through the Lives of Small Island Communities Jaime Matera 1 Accepted: 11 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract I investigate how small-scale fishing communities in the Northern and Southern Group of the Cook Islands understand global climate change through lived experiences rather than through Western scientific knowledge, which often exists at a global rather than local level and infrequently reaches local communities. Responses to qualitative interviews illustrate how local communities and scientists communicate differently about environmental phenomena that are often viewed at different scales. My results also show that while all interviewees have experienced first-hand the effects of climate change, understanding of climate change at the local level is not homogenous. I discuss the importance of bridging the gap between traditional and scientific ways of knowing by ensuring scientific knowledge reaches local communities in accessible and useful form, and by incorporating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) as well as scientific knowledge into climate change related policy making at both local and national levels. Keywords Traditional ecological knowledge . Climate change . Cook Islands . Small Island developing states (SIDS) . Artisanal fishing
Introduction Thousands of years of human-ocean interaction have created rich oceanic cultures the world over (Finney 1991; Hviding 2018) that rely on oceans to provide food and employment to ensure their nutritional and economic security. With approximately 40% of the world’s population living within 100 km from coasts (United Nations 2017), marine based protein is a key component of food security (HLPE 2014), prompting some communities to develop resource management systems that help ensure long-term access to resources (Berkes et al. 2000; Berkes and Turner 2006). However, recent decades have seen increasing global climate change related events including sea level rise averaging 3.41 ± 1.4 mm per year since 1993, which is projected to accelerate (Dangendorf et al. 2017; Narem et al. 2018), and a warming ocean fostering coral bleaching events throughout the world’s most important reef systems (Graham et al. 2015; Hughes et al. 2017). These phenomena have affected fisheries and placed coastal * Jaime Matera [email protected] 1
Anthropology Program, California State University Channel Islands, 1 Universtiy Dr, Camarillo, CA 93012, USA
communities at particular risk. In addition, many coastal communities also rely on agricultural production to supplement their diets and to provide resiliency when fish catch decreases (Allison and Ellis 2001; Hanazaki et al. 2013; Matera 2016). Changes in once-reliable weather patterns create an additional challenge as agricultural seasons become less dependable. Small scale fishing communities thus face dual sources of vulnerability due to climate change. Small Island Developing States (SID
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