Abstract
Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable to climate change impacts including sea level rise, invasive species, ocean acidification, changes in rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and changing hazard regimes including hurricanes, floods and drought. Given high dependencies in Caribbean SIDS on natural resources for livelihoods, a focus on ecosystems and their interaction with people is essential for climate change adaptation. Increasingly, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approaches are being highlighted as an approach to address climate change impacts. Specifically, EbA encourages the use of local and external knowledge about ecosystems to identify climate change adaptation approaches. This paper critically reviews EbA in Caribbean SIDS, focusing on the need to integrate local and external knowledge. An analysis of current EbA in the Caribbean is undertaken alongside a review of methodologies used to integrate local and external expertise for EbA. Finally key gaps, lessons learnt and suggested ways forward for EbA in Caribbean SIDS and potentially further afield are identified.
Highlights
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a grouping of tropical island states which have banded together under the United Nations to address common sustainability challenges [1]
This paper critically reviews the use of Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approaches in Caribbean SIDS with particular attention upon methodologies used to integrate local and external knowledge to address climate change impacts
This paper identifies key gaps, lessons learnt and suggested ways forward for integrating local and external knowledge within EbA in Caribbean SIDS
Summary
The vulnerability of SIDS to climate change impacts has been well documented and discussed in recent decades [2,3,4]. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) has been highlighted as one approach to address declines in ecosystem health and enable sustainable adaptation to climate change [7]. This paper critically reviews the use of EbA approaches in Caribbean SIDS with particular attention upon methodologies used to integrate local and external knowledge to address climate change impacts. The importance is because local knowledge tends to be neglected, in particular because it is often viewed by locals and non-locals as being backward or irrelevant in the modern world, compared to external (usually technology-based) knowledge which is seen as being modern and representing the future. This paper identifies key gaps, lessons learnt and suggested ways forward for integrating local and external knowledge within EbA in Caribbean SIDS. That contributes to providing policy and action advice for a region requesting support to implement formally EbA techniques that have long assisted Caribbean peoples with their livelihoods
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