Traditional village roles and gender shape Samoan perceptions of climate change

Abstract

Climate change poses a significant threat to indigenous societies and cultures in the South Pacific. Within these societies, women and indigenous cultures need increased representation in climate change assessment and adaptation strategy development. To capture the diversity of effects and maximize creative approaches to address climate change we studied how gender influences perceptions of climate change in response to climate-related environmental change, adaptation strategies, and the perception of adaptation strategies that are currently in place. To explore diverse perceptions, we conducted semi-structured interviews in four villages in Savaii, Samoa. The interviews were analyzed and quantified around three main themes: climate-related environmental changes, adaptation strategies, and perceptions of existing adaptation approaches. Each participant's response was quantified based on perceived priority ranging from 0—no priority/no mention, to 3—highest priority/frequent mention. We found that each participant was aware of climate-related environmental changes and gender and village roles bring variation in perceptions of climate change. We found that men felt high temperatures and marine management were of greatest concern while women cared about storms and related danger and pollution control. Our results indicate that females and female village roles had significantly lower understanding and enthusiasm for in-place adaptation strategies due to a lack of involvement in the implementation and upkeep of adaptation strategies. This study argues that climate-related adaptation strategies should put village role and gender-based perceptions into consideration and increase representation in policymaking for sustainable climate change adaptation.