Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community
Human adaptation remains an insufficiently studied part of the subject of climate change. This paper examines the questions of adaptation and change in terms of social-ecological resilience using lessons from a place-specific case study. The Inuvialuit people of the small community of Sachs Harbour...
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2001
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ftjecolog:oai:.www.ecologyandsociety.org:article/342 2023-05-15T14:55:53+02:00 Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community Berkes, Fikret Jolly, Dyanna 2001-12-20 text/html application/pdf http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art18/ en eng Resilience Alliance Ecology and Society; Vol. 5, No. 2 (2002) social-ecological systems sustainability science Arctic Canadian North Inuit Inuvialuit adaptive strategies climate change community-based research coping mechanisms human ecology participatory research resilience Peer-Reviewed Reports 2001 ftjecolog 2019-04-09T11:22:20Z Human adaptation remains an insufficiently studied part of the subject of climate change. This paper examines the questions of adaptation and change in terms of social-ecological resilience using lessons from a place-specific case study. The Inuvialuit people of the small community of Sachs Harbour in Canada's western Arctic have been tracking climate change throughout the 1990s. We analyze the adaptive capacity of this community to deal with climate change. Short-term responses to changes in land-based activities, which are identified as coping mechanisms, are one component of this adaptive capacity. The second component is related to cultural and ecological adaptations of the Inuvialuit for life in a highly variable and uncertain environment; these represent long-term adaptive strategies. These two types of strategies are, in fact, on a continuum in space and time. This study suggests new ways in which theory and practice can be combined by showing how societies may adapt to climate change at multiple scales. Switching species and adjusting the "where, when, and how" of hunting are examples of shorter-term responses. On the other hand, adaptations such as flexibility in seasonal hunting patterns, traditional knowledge that allows the community to diversity hunting activities, networks for sharing food and other resources, and intercommunity trade are longer-term, culturally ingrained mechanisms. Individuals, households, and the community as a whole also provide feedback on their responses to change. Newly developing co-management institutions create additional linkages for feedback across different levels, enhancing the capacity for learning and self-organization of the local inhabitants and making it possible for them to transmit community concerns to regional, national, and international levels. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Climate change inuit Inuvialuit Sachs Harbour Unknown Arctic Sachs Harbour ENVELOPE(-125.280,-125.280,71.975,71.975) |
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English |
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social-ecological systems sustainability science Arctic Canadian North Inuit Inuvialuit adaptive strategies climate change community-based research coping mechanisms human ecology participatory research resilience |
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social-ecological systems sustainability science Arctic Canadian North Inuit Inuvialuit adaptive strategies climate change community-based research coping mechanisms human ecology participatory research resilience Berkes, Fikret Jolly, Dyanna Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
topic_facet |
social-ecological systems sustainability science Arctic Canadian North Inuit Inuvialuit adaptive strategies climate change community-based research coping mechanisms human ecology participatory research resilience |
description |
Human adaptation remains an insufficiently studied part of the subject of climate change. This paper examines the questions of adaptation and change in terms of social-ecological resilience using lessons from a place-specific case study. The Inuvialuit people of the small community of Sachs Harbour in Canada's western Arctic have been tracking climate change throughout the 1990s. We analyze the adaptive capacity of this community to deal with climate change. Short-term responses to changes in land-based activities, which are identified as coping mechanisms, are one component of this adaptive capacity. The second component is related to cultural and ecological adaptations of the Inuvialuit for life in a highly variable and uncertain environment; these represent long-term adaptive strategies. These two types of strategies are, in fact, on a continuum in space and time. This study suggests new ways in which theory and practice can be combined by showing how societies may adapt to climate change at multiple scales. Switching species and adjusting the "where, when, and how" of hunting are examples of shorter-term responses. On the other hand, adaptations such as flexibility in seasonal hunting patterns, traditional knowledge that allows the community to diversity hunting activities, networks for sharing food and other resources, and intercommunity trade are longer-term, culturally ingrained mechanisms. Individuals, households, and the community as a whole also provide feedback on their responses to change. Newly developing co-management institutions create additional linkages for feedback across different levels, enhancing the capacity for learning and self-organization of the local inhabitants and making it possible for them to transmit community concerns to regional, national, and international levels. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Berkes, Fikret Jolly, Dyanna |
author_facet |
Berkes, Fikret Jolly, Dyanna |
author_sort |
Berkes, Fikret |
title |
Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
title_short |
Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
title_full |
Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
title_fullStr |
Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
title_full_unstemmed |
Adapting to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community |
title_sort |
adapting to climate change: social-ecological resilience in a canadian western arctic community |
publisher |
Resilience Alliance |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art18/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.280,-125.280,71.975,71.975) |
geographic |
Arctic Sachs Harbour |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Sachs Harbour |
genre |
Arctic Climate change inuit Inuvialuit Sachs Harbour |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change inuit Inuvialuit Sachs Harbour |
op_source |
Ecology and Society; Vol. 5, No. 2 (2002) |
_version_ |
1766327895845765120 |