Addressing the challenges of climate-driven community-led resettlement and site expansion: knowledge sharing, storytelling, healing, and collaborative coalition building

Julie Maldonado (), Itzel Flores Castillo Wang, Fred Eningowuk, Lesley Iaukea, Aranzazu Lascurain, Heather Lazrus, Chief Albert Naquin, Naquin Jr, Kukuya Margarita Nogueras-Vidal, Kristina Peterson, Isabel Rivera-Collazo, M. Kalani Souza, Mark Stege and Bill Thomas
Additional contact information
Julie Maldonado: Environmental Studies Program
Itzel Flores Castillo Wang: Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network
Fred Eningowuk: Shishmaref
Lesley Iaukea: University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Aranzazu Lascurain: Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center
Heather Lazrus: National Center for Atmospheric Research
Chief Albert Naquin: Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians of Louisiana
Naquin Jr: Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians of Louisiana
Kukuya Margarita Nogueras-Vidal: Comunidad Tribu Yuke de Jayuya
Kristina Peterson: Lowlander Center
Isabel Rivera-Collazo: University of California-San Diego
M. Kalani Souza: University of Hawai‘i
Mark Stege: Maloelap Atol Local Government
Bill Thomas: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2021, vol. 11, issue 3, No 2, 294-304

Abstract: Abstract Presently coastal areas globally are becoming unviable, with people no longer able to maintain livelihoods and settlements due to, for example, increasing floods, storm surges, coastal erosion, and sea level rise, yet there exist significant policy obstacles and practical and regulatory challenges to community-led and community-wide responses. For many receiving support only at the individual level for relocation or other adaptive responses, individual and community harm is perpetuated through the loss of culture and identity incurred through forced assimilation policies. Often, challenges dealt to frontline communities are founded on centuries of injustices. Can these challenges of both norms and policies be addressed? Can we develop socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically just sustainable adaptation processes that supports community responses, maintenance and evolution of traditions, and rejuvenates regenerative life-supporting ecosystems? This article brings together Indigenous community leaders, knowledge-holders, and allied collaborators from Louisiana, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Borikén/Puerto Rico, and the Marshall Islands, to share their stories and lived experiences of the relocation and other adaptive challenges in their homelands and territories, the obstacles posed by the state or regional governments in community adaptation efforts, ideas for transforming the research paradigm from expecting communities to answer scientific questions to having scientists address community priorities, and the healing processes that communities are employing. The contributors are connected through the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, which brings together Indigenous, tribal, and community leaders, atmospheric, social, biological, and ecological scientists, students, educators, and other experts, and facilitates intercultural, relational-based approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate events, climate variability, and climate change.

Keywords: Community-led resettlement; Site expansion; Indigenous knowledge; Climate adaptation; Coalition building; Knowledge sharing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s13412-021-00695-0

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