How small communities respond to environmental change: patterns from tropical to polar ecosystems

Local communities throughout the world are experiencing extensive social, cultural, economic, environmental, and climatic changes. Rather than passively accepting the effects of such changes, many communities are responding in various ways to take advantage of opportunities and to minimize negative...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and society 2017-09, Vol.22 (3), p.9, Article art9
Main Authors: Huntington, Henry P., Begossi, Alpina, Gearheard, Shari Fox, Kersey, Beth, Loring, Philip A., Mustonen, Tero, Paudel, Prakash K., Silvano, Renato A. M., Vave, Ron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Climate change
Climate change adaptation
Climate change policy
Communities
Community
Ecological sustainability
Ecosystems
environmental change
Environmental changes
Fishers
Freshwater fishes
Human ecology
management
Marine ecology
New technology
policy
response space
social-ecological systems
Sustainability
Synthesis
Whaling
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Local communities throughout the world are experiencing extensive social, cultural, economic, environmental, and climatic changes. Rather than passively accepting the effects of such changes, many communities are responding in various ways to take advantage of opportunities and to minimize negative impacts. We review examples from 13 cases around the world to identify patterns in how communities have been able to respond to change. Communities are able to respond by making changes in the time and location of activities, by using different species, by developing or using new technologies, and by organizing themselves internally or in networks. The possible responses a community can make on its own constitute the autonomous response space. When communities work with others to respond, they are in the collaborative response space. These findings suggest that assessments concerning climate and other forms of change should include local responses as a foundation for policy recommendations, recognizing that both autonomous and collaborative responses can contribute to adaptation. Policies designed to achieve adaptation or sustainability should consider ways to expand the autonomous response space, thus freeing local initiative, while also making the collaborative response space more cooperative, thus providing support to communities rather than imposing limitations.
ISSN:1708-3087
1708-3087
DOI:10.5751/ES-09171-220309