Rebuilding Relocated Tribal Communities Better via Culture: Livelihood and Social Resilience for Disaster Risk Reduction

Pei-Shan Lin,Wei-Cheng Lin

doi:10.3390/su12114538

Pei-Shan Lin, Wei-Cheng Lin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114538

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Abstract

Building back better is the goal of post-disaster recovery. However, most of the extant literature focuses on hardware reconstruction and there is a lack of attention on the social aspect of recovery. This study aims to understand the role of culture in the recovery process of relocating indigenous communities through tourism livelihood. A Tsou indigenous settlement, relocated after the 2009 Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan, was used as a case study. Field data were collected through participant observations in tourism and community activities as well as semi-structured interviews over a period of 15 months. The study found that appealing to a relocated tribe’s culture, not their land, as their community’s foundation could reduce conflicts within the community and increase social resilience. Indigenous culture-based tourism could serve as an important source of livelihood for such tribes, supporting long-term development. This study highlights community-based cultural tourism as a post-disaster livelihood revival approach which is beneficial for a resilient recovery. Culture could reduce disaster risk through a transformation to a livelihood source and further become the base of community resilience. Instead of promoting detached culture preservation, this study argues that a livelihood-relevant culturally innovative transformation could create a win–win situation for both post-disaster community recovery and culture inheritance.

Highlights

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 emphasizes that advanced preparation in the recovery phase is an opportunity for a community to build back better (BBB) [1]
Recovery and reconstruction research has increased [2], and most of the literature points out that BBB is a final goal to be realized for reducing disaster risk worldwide
The interview guide was developed based on concepts excerpt from the literature on social resilience, cultural tourism, and post-disaster recovery

Summary

Introduction

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 emphasizes that advanced preparation in the recovery phase is an opportunity for a community to build back better (BBB) [1]. Recovery and reconstruction research has increased [2], and most of the literature points out that BBB is a final goal to be realized for reducing disaster risk worldwide. Most extant post-disaster recovery literature focuses on the hardware of reconstruction—such as housing, site selection, and land use planning— lack focus on the social dimensions of a recovering community, such as livelihood and culture revival [3,4,5]. A relocation strategy made in such a short time could change society in terms of human–land relations and cause further cultural conflicts and livelihood problems [7,8]

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Conclusion