Abstract
Bennett, N. J., P. Dearden, G. Murray, and A. Kadfak. 2014. The capacity to adapt?: communities in a changing climate, environment, and economy on the northern Andaman coast of Thailand. Ecology and Society 19(2): 5. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06315-190205
Highlights
Globally, coastal communities are experiencing a broad array of socioeconomic and biophysical changes ranging from shifting economic situations and political settings to environmental degradation, fisheries declines, and climatic changes (Bennett et al 2014a)
These complex and ongoing changes require integrated assessment of, and deliberate planning to increase, the adaptive capacity of communities so that they may respond to: (1) environmental degradation and fisheries declines through effective management interventions or conservation initiatives, (2) new economic opportunities to reduce dependence on fisheries, and (3) the increasing impacts of climate change
Drawing on a multiscalar analysis, we examined whether or not these communities were willing and able to adapt to (1) environmental degradation or fisheries declines through the accommodation of outside management or conservation initiatives or through the development of local management or conservation responses; (2) nonfisheries economic or livelihood opportunities to reduce pressure on marine systems; and (3) climate related changes
Summary
Introduction and overview Globally, coastal communities are experiencing a broad array of socioeconomic and biophysical changes ranging from shifting economic situations and political settings to environmental degradation, fisheries declines, and climatic changes (Bennett et al 2014a). On the Andaman coast of Thailand, the health and productivity of marine ecosystems, habitats, and fisheries are deteriorating (Juntaroshte 2005, World Bank 2006, Panjarat 2008), as a result of overfishing, destructive fishing, coastal development, and pollution (Cheung, Botengan and Cruz 2002, BOBLME 2012). Coastal communities are vulnerable to climate-related changes, including rising ocean temperatures, extreme weather events, and changing seasons, as well as to increasing ocean acidification. All of these have both direct impacts on communities, e.g., infrastructure damage, erosion, and the ecosystems on which they depend, e.g., coral bleaching, mangroves retreating, as well as indirect impacts associated with resource dependent livelihoods (Marshall et al 2010). There have been a number of significant coral bleaching events in 1991, 1995, 1998, and again in 2010, along the Andaman coast (Phongsuwan 2011)
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