From Vulnerability to Resilience: Helping People and Communities Cope with Crisis

PI: Sara E. Alexander, Baylor University
coPI: Susan Stonich, UC-Santa Barbara

Progress Report:
2008 (pdf)

Abstract:
Introduction: Focusing on a sample of three communities in Belize, each located within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), this project uses a Livelihood Security / Vulnerability (LS/V) framework to determine the dynamic, differential, and spatial patterns of household and community level vulnerability and to identify associated coping and adaptive strategies (resilience) to climate-related crises. The project is based on the conceptual framework developed by Stonich (1993) that predicted the nature and extent of the human and environmental devastation from Hurricane Mitch in Honduras five years before the event occurred, and the analytical approach developed by Alexander and Gibson (2001, 2006) in their comparative study of livelihood security and vulnerability relative to the human and environmental impacts of ecotourism development in Belize and Costa Rica. Alexander and Whitehouse (2004, 2006) have since applied both frameworks in their analysis of household and community responses to Hurricane Iris which hit the Belizean coastline in October, 2001.

The proposed project builds on several related trends in research and policy on climate change: the expansion beyond approaches focused on the impacts of climate change to the focus on various vulnerability and adaptation/adaptive capacity/resilience approaches (Stonich 2005); the growing interest in complex, adaptive systems focused on the crucial, systemic links between human societies and ecosystems and the recognition that these linkages can either amplify or reduce vulnerability and/or resilience in hazard prone areas (e.g., Berkes et al. 2002); and the increased concern that both human populations and coastal ecosystems are especially at risk (Adger et al. 2005). These trends converge with recent transformations in understanding and dealing with disasters (Bankoff et al. 2004; Wisner et al. 2004) which are also central to the project.

Evidence suggests that chronic, climate-related threats to livelihoods are a greater concern to poor communities than "one-off" disasters and that local cooperation is as important in protecting communities if not more so than material aids. A critical ingredient for reducing vulnerability to disasters is increased resource access and empowerment of marginal groups. These are means to a more secure environment, but they are also the means to more secure livelihoods.

Goals and Objectives: The main goal of the project is to determine what happens when dynamic environmental systems converge with equally dynamic social systems. The research addresses the following questions:

• How do predicted climate change and variability interact with other economic, social, demographic and environmental changes?
• What are the coping and adaptive strategies of secure and vulnerable households and groups?
• How might climate-related stresses and vulnerability be affected by these coping strategies?
• What are the relationships between local and scientific knowledge and how might these be augmented in order to ameliorate vulnerability and enhance resilience?

Specific project objectives include the following:

To identify the nature and extent of vulnerability of households and coastal communities to climate-related stresses and shocks

To determine differential coping and adaptive strategies of households, and degree of resiliency, in responding to chronic and crisis climatic events

To develop household and community appropriate indicators for vulnerability and resilience and to create a Vulnerability Index and a Resilience Index to examine relative responses to climate-related stresses and shocks.

To identify (social, economic, institutional) linkages within and among communities that could be enhanced to increase resilience at household and community levels.

The project will be implemented over a two-year period beginning August 1, 2007. The PI and co-PI have worked in the region for more than 20 years. Data will be collected using a combination of empirical and quantitative research methods. We will compare households in three communities all of which are located within the MBRS and are dependent on a variety of livelihood strategies (Mill and Morrison 1985; van der Borg et al. 1991, 1996). Anthropometric measures will be taken in dry and rainy seasons, and a two part Household Survey will be administered in conjunction with these measurements. Data will be integrated using participatory techniques to map local level vulnerabilities and will integrate human socioeconomic as well as biophysical and environmental data. .

Rationale: While there are many presumed theories of how households and communities adapt to climate change in coastal areas, there are few studies that offer a comprehensive assessment of the interaction between new strategies for economic development and the capacity to adapt over time. This project offers a reliable, comparative, and spatially sensitive research protocol to assess vulnerability that can be applied cross-nationally and cross-culturally in the hope of ameliorating future catastrophes by understanding the root causes and spatial distribution of differential vulnerability and the short- and long-term effectiveness of various coping strategies.

The major objectives of this project correspond exactly to those of the NOAA SARP Climate and Coastal Resource Management project, that is, to "bring about more effective adaptation methods and resilient socio-economic systems." This will be done in an area designated as part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System Project, a region affected by the entire suite of interrelated concerns affected by climate change and variability specified by NOAA: "sea level rise, shoreline erosion, population growth and development, hazard mitigation and the health and well-being of estuarine, coastal wetland, and coral reef systems." At the same time, however, the MBRS Project may provide an opportunity to facilitate resilience throughout the region.

The project also contributes to the scientific community and to the general public. Scientifically, the project will advance the theoretical understanding of cross-scale linkages in vulnerability and resilience and the extent to which it is possible to develop sets of quantitative indicators across various social, temporal, geopolitical, spatial, and ecological scales. The creation of household and community resilience indices will make an important practical and methodological contribution to assessment approaches and to the public in general - especially publics in the disaster prone areas of the MBRS. The vulnerability and resilience indices will enable communities to assess and improve their resilience to extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes) as well as to longer term climatic changes. The project will provide methods and tools to decision makers that can be applied in other communities in the region in order to evaluate current vulnerabilities and resilience and to measure progress.