Abstract
Abstract
The benefits of community-based adaptation (CBA) both as a means and as an end in itself have been well documented in literature. A key component and outcome of CBA is the understanding of local perceptions and knowledge of climate change, as well as local adaptive strategies. This article seeks to understand local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptive strategies in three coastal communities in Zanzibar, whose economy is heavily dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, with the aim to draw implications for adaptation planning. It argues that a good understanding of local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptive strategies increases effectiveness of adaptation planning. Field observations, semistructured interviews, and focus group discussions with community representatives revealed a plethora of environmental and social changes perceived to be brought about by climate change or anthropogenic activities as a result of climate change. All these changes have significantly affected various livelihoods in agriculture, fisheries, livestock keeping, and tourism. Against the backdrop of these tangible and in some cases severe impacts, the authors found that local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptation strategies can enable adaptation planning to (1) be sensitive to existing and potential conflicts over land and livelihoods; (2) take an integrated approach, by informing mainstreaming and coordination efforts and uncovering incompatibility of options; and (3) strengthen horizontal and vertical social capital to build community resilience.
Introduction
S
Notions of distributive justice and procedural justice, as part of the climate justice and environmental justice debates, can be illustrated using SIDS. Distributive justice relates to the distribution of benefits and burdens in responses to climate change. 2 It recognizes the potential of these responses to exacerbate inequalities in the social, economic, and political domains. 3 Adaptation, which makes adjustment in natural and human systems to reduce harm or reap benefits related to climate change, 4 is an issue of global distributive justice for present and future generations as greenhouse gas emissions and their impacts are neither limited spatially nor temporally. SIDS have released insignificant emissions, but are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. State liability for loss and damage 5 incurred to them is also not addressed through any international mechanisms. Meanwhile, most of them are developing countries with limited adaptive capacity. The vulnerable populations of SIDS also lack access to private insurance to address loss and damage.
Procedural justice concerns the roles and responsibilities of actors in the development of responses to climate change. 6 Adaptation has historically been implemented using a top-down approach. A bottom-up approach, namely community-based adaptation (CBA), is gaining ground. CBA is a “community-led process, based on communities’ priorities, needs, knowledge, and capacities, which should empower people to plan for and cope with the impacts of climate change.” 7 It is based on the premise of communities having “the skills, experience, local knowledge, and networks to undertake locally appropriate activities.” 8 Not a new concept, it is based on community-based practices in natural resources management (CBNRM) and disaster risk management 9 and fits into the participatory development narrative. 10 A report by CARE illustrates how CBA can be applied to vulnerability assessment, project design and implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning, and scenario planning. 11 CBA complements a top-down approach of adaptation planning that may, at best, marginally profit communities, and at worst, negatively affect their well-being or divert resources from needed efforts.
The benefits of CBA have been well documented, both as a means (empowerment and inclusion) and as an end in itself (increasing support for and designing of sound adaptation), with positive outcomes for democracy, accountability, and participatory governance. 12 A key component and outcome of CBA is the understanding of local perceptions and knowledge of climate change, as well as adaptive strategies. Although their value is increasingly recognized, 13 they tend to be sidelined, particularly in CBA where community participation is merely symbolic. Furthermore, the recognition of their value has not been matched with evidence.
This article adds to the body of evidence by focusing on Zanzibar, a semiautonomous polity within Tanzania. Climate change has manifested in Zanzibar by way of increased temperature, rainfall variability, and wind speed. 14 Its economy is dependent on activities sensitive to climate change, including agriculture, tourism, and fisheries. Climate change can incur high economic costs in the medium to long term, which could undermine Zanzibar's efforts to achieve key economic growth, development, and poverty reduction targets. 15
While climate change impacts in Zanzibar have been extensively researched, there is only one study on CBA, which examined coastal communities’ perceptions of environmental change and their preferences for adaptive strategies. 16 Participatory planning has not been the norm or formalized. Nonetheless, there are opportunities and necessities for Zanzibar to conduct CBA.
First, relevant policy frameworks set the scene for CBA. Participation, particularly by vulnerable groups, is included in the guiding principles of the Zanzibar Climate Change Strategy, where building community-based capacity is also identified as a cross-cutting issue. Its National Environmental Action Plan, which aims to improve preparedness for climate-related challenges, similarly contains capacity building and participation components.
Second, nonstate actors (NSAs), including informal civil society networks, are said to have traditionally been crucial in sensitization and mobilization of people. 17 At the local level, NSAs undertake awareness raising of key policies to facilitate their implementation. Climate change is designated as a cross-cutting theme for all ministries, which are required to mainstream it into their policies and planning. This provides momentum for community engagement facilitated by NSAs.
Third, the current top-down approach has limitations. A common challenge faced by developing country or SIDS governments, such as the one in Zanzibar, is the struggle to cover the costs of basic services and development priorities, making it difficult to incorporate adaptation into their budgets. 18 CBA can strengthen the capacity of governments and communities in data collection, monitoring, and evaluation, thereby minimizing additional costs. Moreover, when planning community projects, local governments in Zanzibar lack clear mandate, accountability, and therefore the corresponding resources. 19 CBA could bridge the distance between communities, local government, and national government.
Finally, there have been ad hoc CBA/CBNRM initiatives in Zanzibar. 20 There are opportunities to build on existing governance structures.
Given the above, it is important to ensure that CBA is properly carried out in Zanzibar. We pose the question “What implications can be drawn from local perceptions and knowledge of, as well as adaptation strategies to, climate change, for adaptation planning in coastal communities of Zanzibar?” We define adaptation planning as a process that uses “information about present and future climate change to review the suitability of current and planned practices, policies, and infrastructure,” which makes recommendations about “who should do what more, less, or differently, and with what resources.” 21 We argue that a good understanding of the local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptation strategies can increase the effectiveness of adaptation planning. We base “effectiveness” on the prerequisites suggested by Füssel and Klein, which include awareness of the problem, availability of effective adaptation measures, information about these measures, availability of resources and incentives for implementation, and cultural acceptability. 22
Methodology
This article draws upon case studies of three coastal communities. The communities were selected based on the criteria of (1) livelihood diversity; (2) willingness to adapt; (3) problem representativeness and impacts; and (4) interaction between climate- and human-related factors. Table 1 shows the key characteristics of the communities.
The key livelihoods surveyed are also representative of the key livelihoods in the communities at large. Most households practice more than one activity and switch livelihoods depending on the season. All agricultural activities are subsistence except for Nungwi, where cash crops are also cultivated.
Data were collected through field observations, semistructured interviews, and focus group discussions between March and June 2015. Participants were selected through the local sheha 23 and key informants. Data covered demographics, observation of climate-related changes and their impacts on livelihoods, and existing and perceived solutions and their effects.
Results and Discussion
With a few exceptions, the communities converged on the types of problems they attribute to climate change, including changing weather patterns, diminishing water quality and quantity, sea level rise, coastal erosion, seawater inundation, warmer temperatures, health problems, periodic and permanent relocation, unemployment, and breakdown of social cohesion, and community integrity. These are said to be caused by natural processes and anthropogenic activities. Some of the latter are also consequences of climate change. Examples of the latter include deforestation, overexploitation of groundwater, destruction of water catchment areas, overfishing, and uncoordinated construction of seawalls.
The abovementioned problems are perceived to significantly affect livelihoods. Seaweed farmers mentioned a decrease in production as a result of changing sea surface temperature, salinity, unpredictable rainfall, and problematic drying practices. Fishers have a shorter time frame to go out to sea than a decade ago due to unpredictable rainfall and stronger winds. They also yield lower catches due to deteriorating coral reefs and destruction of mangroves. In agriculture, harvest is affected by increasing prevalence and emergence of pests and diseases, seawater intrusion, erratic rainfall, drought, drying up of streams and irrigation systems, and altering soil fertility. Herders experience lower productivity, malnutrition and dehydration of livestock as available water and fodder diminish, diseases and resistant bacteria prevail due to changing environmental conditions, and grazing areas being replaced by other land uses. In Nungwi, the tourism sector has been affected by beach erosion, which was attributed to changing sea dynamics, construction of seawall, and sand mining. Worries for declining tourist numbers due to coral bleaching, reduced biodiversity, and higher prevalence of malaria were also expressed.
Given these tangible impacts, the following sections present the findings on local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptive strategies and distinguish three ways in which CBA makes adaptation planning more effective.
Conflict-sensitive adaptation planning
More than half of the participants thought that there were conflicts as a result of climate change. The rest did not think so or were uncertain whether conflicts were due to climate change. Further discussion with some of them nevertheless revealed escalating tension between different livelihoods.
Adaptation can create new or exacerbate tensions between and within communities, as well as between government, businesses, and communities, by restricting access to resources, introducing new or additional economic burdens or risks, and result in unequal distribution of benefits. 24 Two types of conflicts emerged in the survey that have resulted from climate change and adaptation. The first is land based. As agricultural and residential areas succumb to rapid and slow-onset events, some households migrate inland, causing disputes over land whose ownership is unclear. Land use conflicts are also common. With a shortage of pastureland, livestock graze on farmland, causing conflicts between herders and farmers. Land in Mkokotoni has increasingly been subject to completion between farming and fish drying. The second is conflict over livelihoods that served as alternatives when previous options become nonviable. Villagers of Mjini Kiuyu have disputes with neighboring villagers over salt making and aquaculture activities by the latter, which resulted in sand removal and allegedly exacerbated seawater inundation. There are conflicts between villagers of Mkokotoni and nearby Tumbatu due to sand mining in the former's location by the latter. The tourism sector in Nungwi has also seen conflicts due to the perceived unequal employment opportunities, competition over freshwater, and seawall construction by hoteliers.
Existing conflicts require adaptation planning to prevent (further) conflicts by taking into account the causes, actors, and impacts of (potential) conflicts or have built-in conflict resolution mechanisms, should conflicts be inevitable. Understanding the conflict dynamics enables the safeguarding of all groups’ interests. It informs adaptation planners of the underlying reason for potential disagreement, which, rather than unfounded and irrational, may represent legitimate concern. For example, the uncoordinated, nontechnically supervised seawall construction has indeed accelerated beach erosion, 25 which threatens space availability for seaweed drying and fish landing. Where conflict resolution is needed, it should follow existing routes, such as traditional mediation by sheha's, diwani's, 26 elders, or imams, particularly as according to participants formal conflict resolution mechanisms are inaccessible by rural communities. These can be complemented by local official channels such as environmental committees and village committees.
An integrated approach to adaptation
It became clear that climate change impacts on different sectors closely intertwine at the community level. To adapt, participants engage in diverse livelihoods to minimize risk and secure income. For example, when weather conditions do not permit fishing, fishers fall back on agriculture and seaweed farming. As climate changes impacts affect all resource-dependent livelihoods, however, their flexibility decreases.
An integrated approach to adaptation can help communities retain flexibility by avoiding maladaptation. It does so by ensuring that adaptation options are not contradictory. The government has called for mainstreaming climate change into sectoral planning, 27 but at present departments do not coordinate their adaptation efforts and sometimes contradict in priorities. 28 Adaptation tends to be ad hoc, with no long-term vision and planning. 29 This fragmented approach is reflected at the community level. The above section has already illustrated how (mal) adaptation in one sector can increase the vulnerability in another sector.
Concurrently, our survey showed evidence of an integrated approach at the community level. In Mkokotoni, mangrove restoration has been carried out in conjunction with nontimber forest product projects such as beekeeping, which has achieved a win-win situation. These insights could inform the mainstreaming and coordination efforts at the higher levels. Simultaneously, evaluation of local adaptive strategies that have not been successful, such as waste dumping to combat coastal erosion and the building of levees and seawalls that have breached as mentioned by the participants, can offer lessons for policy coherence.
Building adaptive capacity
CBA can strengthen horizontal (within communities) and vertical social capital (between communities and the state). Social capital, defined as “features of social life—networks, norms, and trust—that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives,” 30 is instrumental in increasing societal resilience and, therefore, in building adaptive capacity. 31 We found evidence of social capital in the context of adaptation as participants have undertaken joint initiatives such as tree planting and levee building. Concurrently, the abovementioned conflicts negatively impact on social capital. There is a danger that as social capital is destroyed, people are unable or unwilling to collaborate on any initiatives. 32
Vertical social capital can reinforce and grant legitimacy to adaptive capacity built at community level. However, our survey revealed distrust toward the government. Participants mentioned political competitions in Nungwi and Mkokotoni that led to local leaders prioritizing political over community interests. Perceived corruption was viewed to undermine adaptation policies in preventing illegal sand mining and fishing, deforestation, and building on coastal land. CBA may foster a culture of trust by opening up communication channels and strengthen government-community links. 33
With trust established, other capacity building activities becomes possible, such as increasing data availability and knowledge building. Currently formal institutions lack the capacity to administrate long-term and efficient monitoring systems. 34 We noted that participants are actively observing environmental change. Participants from Nungwi mentioned decreasing beach width. Seaweed farmers observed increasing seawater temperature during kaskazi. 35 CBA enables these observations to be collected, which, if properly stored and shared, can augment data availability and produce ground truth to be overlaid with instrumental measurements by stationary centralized monitoring stations. 36
Adaptive capacity can also grow through knowledge building. The participants’ knowledge of climate change appeared limited. They attributed more environmental changes and socioeconomic hardship directly to climate change than it can account for. Many were also unaware of the consequences of their actions on resource scarcity. While CBA can and should address local development concerns that underlie vulnerability, 37 they are not the main goal of adaptation planning. In contrast, while climate change may not be among communities’ key concerns, the grounded response of people to their immediate needs and risks is perfectly legitimate and can provide basis for developing adaptation measures that are integrated into broader livelihood strategies. 38
For adaptation planners, CBA can disclose beliefs that need consideration in adaptation planning, for example, the belief expressed by participants that food tastes better when cooked on wood and charcoal than on gas or electricity and that rainwater or desalinated water is not suitable for domestic use. CBA may also help them understand reasons behind illegal practices and therefore obstacles to success. For example, illegal logging of mangroves, according to participants, is often done by fishers and farmers that no longer generate sufficient income from their usual work to support their families.
Conclusions
The survey showed remarkable commonalities between the problems participants ascribed to climate change in different communities and between official impact studies and what participants have felt through practicing livelihoods. Similarly, the proposed solutions, except for a few specific to local circumstances, also have much in common. This indicates the potential to conduct and replicate CBA across Zanzibar. This article discovered potential of local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptation strategies to improve the effectiveness of adaptation planning through a conflict-sensitive and integrated approach that also builds adaptive capacity. Engaging with communities can raise awareness of climate change. It can increase the availability and compatibility of locally relevant adaptation measures. Resources for implementation can also be augmented, particularly if adaptation directly responds to local needs and if horizontal and vertical social capital is present. Through CBA, perceptions can be incorporated in designing adaptation to increase their cultural acceptability. Similarly, the process will uncover potential obstacles for implementation and enable joint identification of solutions, thereby creating incentives for implementing adaptation.
Zanzibar's communities face similar challenges as those in SIDS. There has been increasing recognition of the importance of incorporating local knowledge in adaptation planning, with such knowledge comprising the dynamic and complex understanding, skills, and philosophies that are generated by people's interaction with their social and natural environment. 39 The historic isolation of SIDS has allowed such knowledge to flourish and take deep roots for them to stay self-sufficient and self-resilient. 40 Despite the recognition, CBA is not always adequately integrated in adaptation planning, particularly in peripheral communities. 41 In practice, an increasing number of CBA projects led by donors and regional organizations are implemented in SIDS with varying results. 42
For SIDS, the desire to achieve international climate justice needs to be balanced against the urgency to act, 43 as climate change impacts are acutely felt by their communities. From a distributive justice perspective, CBA enables an integrated approach that can fairly allocate adaptation-related benefits and burdens domestically. Attention to conflict sensitivity can also avoid the exacerbation of existing inequalities and the escalation of conflicts between different sectors or livelihoods. From a procedural justice perspective, CBA provides a framework for communities to meaningfully participate in adaptation planning and to adopt on corresponding implementation responsibilities.
CBA has its limitations. 44 The surveyed communities were demographically relatively homogeneous. Due to migration and tourism development, the potential increase in heterogeneity calls for heightened awareness of conflict sensitivity. Structural issues such as corruption and poverty influence adaptation 45 and although they should not be at the forefront of CBA, broader governance transformations need to take place. Finally, local perceptions, knowledge, and adaptive strategies related to past changes alone are not a robust basis for developing future plans. 46 They should be combined with climate predictions and an understanding of the multilevel feedback loops. The purpose is not to verify or refute their local counterparts, but to identify convergence and difference and discern reasons for the latter.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This article is based on the project “Governance of Climate Change Adaptation in Small Island Developing States: Pilot Zanzibar,” which is funded by The Hague Institute for Global Justice. The views in this article, however, are of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their respective institutions. The authors thank Patrick Huntjens, Rens de Man, the staff at the Department of Environment of Zanzibar, as well as Peter Letitre and Sieske Valk, for their involvement in the project that helped shape this article. The authors are also grateful for the constructive feedback provided by the two anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft. Finally, the authors express their gratitude for community representatives that participated in the research. Any error remains the authors’ responsibility.
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.