Building community resilience is a mechanism of climate adaptation. But what does that mean? How do we build adaptive capacity in a community- and hope it increases resilience for when climate change impacts occur?
The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment define resilience as “the capacity of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to adapt by resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure”(CCME, 2021). This definition relates well to the built environment and infrastructure that we rely on. However I am partial to the way Christine Nieves recounts her personal experience of resilience, and shares the importance of the underlying community bonds that are not as easily recognized, but prevailed in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. In her TED talk she describes the resentment she had had for Puerto Rico after growing up experiencing the limitations that its colonial heritage had left the island void of opportunity for her (Why Community Is Our Best Chance for Survival—a Lesson Post-Hurricane Maria, 2019). However after the storm, her community rose to the occasion and created opportunities and purpose which were not evident before. Similarly, many Indigenous peoples have substantial adaptive capacity based on intergenerational lived place based experience (Whitney et al., 2020). There is importance in tying in cultural heritage and generational knowledge to community groups and networks in the effort to strengthen social adaptation. Especially knowledge or practices that may be divergent from colonial practices that have inherently reduced social bonds.
Moser (2019) in a meta-analysis of interpretations of resilience poses the question of if it is necessary to experience adversity prior to fostering resilience, or if it can be initiated proactively? Articulating how to create meaningful, captivating and motivating discussions on climate change action in Alberta has been compelling. Our groups prototype has evolved to include multiple components to facilitate connection, with the goal of having local, and achievable proactive climate adaptation outcomes. We have created a framework for a facilitation package to be used in workshops or at community events to help identify links between local climate hazards and the places people care deeply about. Place attachment can be a beneficial tool in building community adaptive capacity (Beery et al., 2021). This idea branched from many conversations, including the interviews our group conducted but one overarching theme was that the prototype should at its core remain hopeful. This was emphasized as our group was extremely cognizant of the risk of accidentally fostering apathy within participants.
The predominant risk I associate with the design thinking challenge and prototype development, is that it simply will not be effective enough in its outcomes- and that there may not yet be enough space for people to understand the risks of climate change for them before they experience them first hand. There are inherent limitations in our approach in terms of our positionally as a group, the resources we have to put towards the project, and who we are able to account for to provide diversity and representation as “[t]ackling resilience challenges like climate change will require collaboration from a wide range of disciplines and practitioners”(Moser, 2019). Collaboration and sharing of knowledge, and stories in particular is integral to our approach as storytelling is an effective way to engage people, and connect them to one another (Bayer & Hettinger, 2019). As Christine Nieves exemplified, stepping up and reiterating hope in the face of a disaster can set a ripple effect and encourage others to contribute however they can to their community.
“Adaptations are manifestations of adaptive capacity.” (Smit & Wandel, 2006)
References
Bayer, S., & Hettinger, A. (2019). Storytelling: A Natural Tool to Weave the Threads of Science and Community Together. The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 100(2), e01542. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.1542
Beery, T. et al (2021). Community Climate Conversations: Engaging and Empowering Local Action in a Changing World. Retrieved from: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol57/iss6/24/
Moser, S. C., Meerow, S., Arnott, J., & Jack-Scott, E. (2019). The turbulent world of resilience: Interpretations and themes for transdisciplinary dialog. Climatic Change, 153, 21-40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2358-0.
Smit, B., & Wandel, J. (2006). Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16, 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.03.008.
Whitney, C. K., Frid, A., Edgar, B. K., Walkus, J., Siwallace, P., Siwallace, I. L., & Ban, N. C. (2020). “Like the plains people losing the buffalo”: Perceptions of climate change impacts, fisheries management, and adaptation actions by Indigenous peoples in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Ecology and Society, 25(4), 1–17.
Why community is our best chance for survival—a lesson post-Hurricane Maria. (2019, October 8). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBddgaPzHIQ