Adaptive capacity, coastal communities, and marine conservation planning in the face of climate change
Date
2019-12-18
Authors
Whitney, Charlotte K.
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Abstract
With the growing threats of climate impacts on social-ecological systems, conservation planning must
be adaptive in order to maintain the wealth of ecological, economic, and social services derived from
functioning ocean systems. Despite the growing application of tools to manage risk and disturbance to
social-ecological systems, little work has integrated the temporally dynamic effects of climate change,
such as shifting species distributions, with either management tools (e.g. spatial planning) nor the
perspectives of the human communities that are affected (e.g. communities, planners). I conducted a
multi-scale research project looking at adaptive capacity to climate change using the case study of
temperate marine system, the coast of British Columbia, Canada. I approached this overarching topic
using: 1) a workshop and review of existing frameworks used to study adaptive capacity for coastal
communities to climate change impacts (Whitney et al. 2017); 2) an applied and collaborative evaluation
of climate change impacts and adaptation responses within a coastal region (Whitney and Conger 2019);
Whitney et al. in review); 3) a comparison of methods to apply projections of marine species range shifts
with marine spatial planning tools (Whitney et al. in prep (a)); 4) an evaluation of the perceived climate
change risks and adaptive strategies across the same region, from the perspective of regional planners
and managers (Whitney and Ban 2019); and 5) a study of the perceptions of adaptation actions for
climate change impacts from the perspective of coastal Indigenous peoples (Whitney et al. in prep (b)).
This work can serve as a guide for other research in this field – such as adaptive capacity assessments, or
marine planning processes that aim to integrate climate change projections in management. Overall, I
highlight the importance of appreciating the complex historical context in social-ecological research,
and the need to raise up Indigenous voices, leadership, and decision-making authority in addressing
climate change in (post-) colonial systems. By integrating these component parts I contribute to our
understanding of how climate change adaptation actions can be realized from the perspectives of
adaptive capacity theory (academia), coastal planning and management in practice (policy), and
Indigenous communities (people). When combined, I hope that this body of work serves as a
contribution to foster adaptive capacity to climate change in coastal communities.
Description
Keywords
Climate change, Adaptive capacity, marine conservation planning, Perspectives, MPAs, Indigenous Knowledge, Planning, Surveys, Interviews, First Nations, Resilience, Adaptation