Partnership for Canada-Caribbean Community Climate Change Adaptation (ParCA)

The methodology at the core of the ParCA is the CBVA, as developed and tested by Smit and Wandel (2006) and refined by others. The ParCA research programme further modifies the CBVA approach in order to integrate governance dimensions, explicitly consider maladaptation and, in the case of developing countries, the contribution of adaptation to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The project sought to advance the CBVA approach by: integrating the critical role of institutions and governance networks; expanding the field of adaptation to climate change in coastal areas by training graduate students and researchers; creating a Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice (CarA-Cop); and disseminating findings through a number of channels, including academic journals, conferences, and multi-media. Empirical results focused on advancing knowledge on specific climate change risks and adaptive capacity.

In short, the CBVA provides a process by which suggestions and evaluation of near-term incremental actions that are of foremost interest to community stakeholders can transition to a dialogue of longer-term transformational strategies that might be necessary for building local resilience. The approach keeps local institutional contexts in perspective, promotes a multifaceted understanding of the nature of vulnerability, and recognises the contested nature of different groups' relationships with ecosystems and resources. According to the research team, community-based adaptation cannot begin from a discussion of transformative adaptation, but needs to be a progressive dialogue that builds trust and social license to consider transformative adaptation. The ParCA team was told by multiple stakeholders that this is an important role for academia, as neither government nor business can initiate and lead dialogue on transformative adaptations.

One part of the CBVA process was the CLIVE (CoastaL Impacts Visualization Environment) visualisation tool, designed as a public engagement tool to allow citizens to view scientific data and explore first-person, on-the-ground perspectives of climate change impacts at the scale in their own neighbourhood, with the aim to help them understand these often abstract phenomena at local, human scales. Feedback at several public presentations of the tool and with a range of stakeholders (from local real-estate and insurance brokers, to public educators and local planners) demonstrated the impact of this tool on awareness and presumably professional practice and consumer behaviour. The CBVA team concluded that after exposure to the GeoWeb and CLIVE tools, stakeholders in Lennox Island, PEI, and Lockeport, Nova Scotia had greater awareness of and an enhanced need to prioritise critical infrastructure and regions that are vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change (specifically, storm surge and coastal erosion), to consider the impact of climate change on future generations (i.e., intergenerational equity), and to attain further information regarding climate change responses. Exposure to the visualisation tools did have an influence on local decision-maker and stakeholder priorities and perceived areas of potential action. A similar survey based analysis of the value of visualisations with internationals tourists in the Negril, Jamaica site found they facilitated a clear understanding of climate risks and the community and ecosystem benefits of proposed adaptation responses. Making adaptation tangible and changing the narrative of climate change from "doom and gloom" to a positive aspect of a broader sustainability transition was a central message of both community stakeholders and international visitors.

With over 600 stakeholder and key informant interviews, very diverse perspectives on climate change risks and adaptation strategies were revealed in each of the 4 study sites. While the interviews found the spectrum of understanding of climate risks ranged from highly sophisticated to ill-informed, all insights were informative for the social dialogue on adaptation visioning that created credibility in the research and legitimacy when evaluating potential adaptation strategies. For example, the lack of community engagement (both the public and tourism sector) in pre-ParCA climate change assessments was found to be the central source of opposition to centrally planned adaptation strategies to resolve the ongoing erosion of the economically crucial beach resource in the Negril, Jamaica site. Conflicts between the official and local perspectives were observed. By making climate change information more accessible, the CBVA and adaptation visioning processes were able to foster knowledge exchange, allowing local officials to gain insight into local adaptation awareness and a renewed dialogue on usefulness and relevance of this crucial adaptation strategy by re-evaluating the engineering (cost and effectiveness) of the proposed break water and providing new onshore adaptation designs (developed during community design charettes - collaborative sessions in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem through a process integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people). The need for trans-disciplinary collaboration between and amongst government agencies to avoid maladaptation on infrastructural development and land use planning was strongly emphasised throughout all 4 CBVA sites.

In all study areas, partner organisations raised awareness about ParCA research in their communities and among professional and cultural networks. Partners were instrumental in identifying key informants for the CBVA research process and providing introductions (formal/informal as best suited) to community stakeholders, elders, and government/business officials at the municipal, Parish, Provincial, or National levels. They provided major assistance with planning and logistics of CBVA engagement and fieldwork in all 4 sites. They similarly assisted in the organsation of local expert and community member recruitment for participation in the multiple adaptation design charette workshops in each location (3 to 5 workshops of up to 20 people each). The CBVA has stakeholder feedback built into the research process (termed "member checks"), and community partners were involved in each of these community feedback opportunities. They also reviewed and provided direct feedback on CBVA and other theme area findings. Feedback from partners in some cases drove subsequent research questions and activities (e.g., the need to compare willingness and ability to pay for newly available overland flood insurance for its equity implications for lower income households and possible maladaptive impact of increasing risk to already vulnerable families).

ParCA trained undergraduates, graduates, and post-doctoral fellows and engaged them with community partners through the 3 adaptation design charettes (Tobago, Jamaica, PEI) and 2 field courses. ParCA students also provided peer-to-peer training and mentoring, offering presentations to high school and college students at ParCA sites as well as supporting large climate change outreach events with high school students at their universities. ParCA has worked with its partner organisations to offer capacity building training that strengthen the networks established within ParCA and with allied projects and other academic and professional networks. Early on, CBVA training was provided to community partners from all sites as well as to partners from other projects. According to organisers, each of these organisations became capable of implementing a similarly robust participatory process with other communities in their region/country. This is an essential capacity to support other smaller communities that similarly do not have the internal capacity to undertake a self-assessment of climate change vulnerability. Community partners have also being trained in a range of research techniques and technologies.

Environment, Governance

The 4 learning sites were strategically selected to take advantage of existing research networks, as well as common economic characteristics (e.g., high value tourism-fishery economy and significance of nearby protected areas to community livelihoods) and potential vulnerabilities (e.g., coastal infrastructure and potential need for managed retreat from the coastline). These characteristics are shared with many other smaller coastal communities, increasing the potential transferability of knowledge and best practice to the hundreds of communities that will face common challenges in the Caribbean, Atlantic Canada, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) worldwide.

The Caribbean is considered among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change. Despite this recognised vulnerability, large knowledge gaps remain with respect to the climate change risks faced by the people and economies of the Caribbean, and how adaptation should proceed. The coastal communities of Atlantic Canada are also reporting the effects of climate change, and governments have identified the need to "climate proof" development decisions.

Regional members of ParCA research team and Caribbean key informants alike emphasised the limited incorporation of climate information in the long-term development plans and policies of the region. It was stressed that this was in part due to the continuing knowledge deficit about region specific climatic change: its potential manifestations and the possible impact on Carib societies. All aspects of the ParCA research programme in the Caribbean sites contributed to addressing these knowledge gaps; the governance research programme examined other potential barriers to mainstreaming climate change into resource policy and planning. In the context of transboundary water governance, but with potential application in other resource management contexts (such as fisheries), the ParCA team identified 5 key conditions to support effective science-policy interaction: (i) recognising that science is a crucial but bounded input into decision-making; (ii) establishing conditions for collaboration and shared commitment among actors; (iii) understanding that group-learning processes are enhanced through greater collaboration; (iv) accepting that the collaborative production of knowledge is essential to build legitimate decision-making processes; and (v) engaging boundary organisations and informal networks.

Comparative analysis of coastal-marine governance in multiple Caribbean islands found that governance to address climate change is contingent upon developing holistic, integrated management systems, improving flexibility in existing collaborative decision making processes, augmenting the capacity of local management authorities with support from higher-level government, exploring opportunities for private-social partnerships, and developing adequate social-environmental monitoring programmes. Particular insights were gained in terms of governance challenges related to determining appropriate boundaries for action, addressing cross-scale effects, and accessing different types and sources of knowledge to augment adaptation efforts, especially those at the land-sea interface. Efforts have been directed at developing a more comprehensive conceptual framework of governance to improve the ability to navigate rapid social-ecological change occurring in the learning sites. Greater attention to the role of social networks in adaptation governance, including actor roles, social attributes, and processes (e.g., trust, knowledge exchange) is also an identified need in multiple learning sites. Likewise, a wider range of governance approaches and strategies will be needed to buffer the effects of global change that manifest at local scales, such as the development of coastal zoning strategies and marine protected areas (eg., as reflected in ParCA analysis of multiple new and established Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Jamaica). Governance research across the learning sites offered place-based insights into the "enabling environments" that contribute to scaling up local adaptation strategies. Identifying opportunities where collective action contributes to the ability of actors to achieve a range of goals (conservation, protection, adaptation, transformation). Governance analyses purposively compared multiple management areas or jurisdictions (not just within ParCA study areas) in order to improve the transferability of findings to other communities and islands (scaling up).

According to organisers, among the central lessons from the CBVA approach was that it advances knowledge both as a product (evidence base for decision-making) and an enabling process that democratises adaptation by building capacity and fostering knowledge exchange among diverse stakeholders, improving potential for implementation. CBVA was found to be particularly effective at uncovering non-market impacts (demonstrating that losses and damages are not restricted to developing countries) and a valuable process to build social license for transformative adaptation, a topic of growing salience in the adaptation literature. Adaptation visualisations were a vital component of the socialisation of adaptation, advancing citizen and decision-maker understanding of abstract phenomena and shifting the narrative of climate change to positive sustainability transitions.

ParCA research has been published in diverse journals. In addition, to ensure open access to project findings, plain language summary reports are being prepared for each of the 4 ParCA communities. The research programme has translated into multiple student scholarships and international thesis awards and an international award for climate change risk communication. ParCA sought to develop techniques that are affordable and scalable for smaller communities, and this is happened with the application of the CBVA in other SIDS and CLIVE tool in other parts of Canada and the United States (US). ParCA-initiated CBVA, flood, and tourism research will continue to be funded by several agencies, including 2 Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence and United Nations (UN) and international development agencies. ParCA research has been incorporated into number of adaptation plans at the local/community scale, the provincial scale, the regional to national scales, and the international scale. For example, ParCA research has been incorporated into 6 municipal/park/First Nation adaptation plans. (The ParCA website provides details.) ParCA has made a concerted effort to mobilise knowledge across jurisdictions through over 100 non-academic presentations to date, including a Provincial Legislative Standing Committee, Big Thinking on (Parliament) Hill lecture series, and many international invitations to speak at events. At the individual scale, over 1,000 people have been directly involved in ParCA research, adaptation visioning, and training. For example, 55 professional planners were trained in the planning design charette approach and related data collection strategies; an additional 25 were trained in CBVA techniques. Through these multiple professional exchanges and the Community of Practice platform, organisers feel they have succeeded in the aim to establish networks that will outlast the lifetime of ParCA and leave a legacy of increased adaptive capacity in the study areas and beyond.