Social benefit cost analysis of ecosystem-based climate change adaptations: a community-level case study in Tanna Island, Vanuatu

ABSTRACT

Small island developing states are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including more intense and frequent extreme weather, warming temperatures, coastal erosion, inundation, and coral bleaching. Locally-specific natural resource threats, associated with population growth and tourism, exacerbate these systemic risks, which are particularly acute where community well-being is subsistence-based and directly reliant on ecosystem services. Garden productivity is falling as the cropping/fallow cycle intensifies and culturally and there is loss of observance of traditional resource taboos, eroding the effectiveness of customary management. Ecosystem based adaptations (EbA) provide a fruitful range of interventions and are beginning to attract development funding. We undertook a social benefit cost analysis for a suite of interconnecting EbAs for Tanna in Vanuatu. We found that funds targeted at increasing the productivity of the gardens returns significant social benefit. This also reduces pressure on natural resource threats and can potentially be adopted by all households on Tanna. In addition, increasing the community’s capacity to balance formal forest and reef conservation with customary management can provide small, but nevertheless important complimentary benefits. Our programme design included interlinking activities, including a series of demonstration garden plots, extension officers, community radio, a community ranger programme and a tree nursery.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem-based adaptation
• climate change adaptation
• Vanuatu
• food security
• farming extension

Acknowledgements

We are also grateful for the on-the-ground assistance of ‘Uncle Allan’ (Allan Dan), as the Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) Tanna Island project officer, the Tafea Provincial Government for support and cooperation, the Tanna community for their hospitality, support, collaboration and sharing of local knowledge, and the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Andrew Buckwell is a Senior Research Assistant at Griffith Business School. He is an applied environmental economist with research interests in non-market valuation of ecosystem services, ecosystem-based adaptation and in developing research techniques for examining natural resource management issues, particularly for small island developing states and forest communities.

Dan Ware is a Research Fellow at Griffith University, Centre for Coastal Management and Climate Change Response Program. He is a geographer by training, with experience in coastal planning and climate change risk assessment and management. His current research interests are in design of ecosystem-based adaptations for small island developing sates. He currently undertaking a PhD.

Christopher Fleming is a Professor and MBA Director at Griffith Business School and a founding member of the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise. Chris is an applied micro-economist with research interests that include, social and economic project/program evaluation, natural resource and environmental economics, sustainable development, the economic determinants of subjective wellbeing and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Jim C. R. Smart is an Associate Professor in the Griffith School of Environment and the Australian Rivers Institute. His research expertise includes resource economics, environmental valuation, and examining stakeholder interactions and conflicting objectives in resource management.

Brendan Mackey is a Professor at the Griffith University School of Environment and serves as Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, which leads the university’s research into climate change adaptation and mitigation problems. He has a long-standing interest in the nexus between science, policy, social ethics, law, and sustainability. His current research is focused on climate change adaptation challenges in Pacific islands and the challenge of protecting the world’s remaining primary forests. He is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, Chapter 11.

Johanna Nalau is an adaptation scientist with a PhD in climate change adaptation from Griffith University. Johanna’s research is focused on understanding how, why, and when people and institutions make decisions to adapt to climate change, and what role science can and should play in that process. Johanna is a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment report in Working Group II Chapter 15 Small Islands.

Allan Dan is a Strategic Policy and Technical Programmes Officer for Island and Ocean Ecosystems and Ecosystem-Based Adaptation for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. Allan is based in Vanuatu and has interests in community well-being and community management of natural resources.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by programme funding through the Pacific Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) project, a five-year initiative implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in partnership with the Governments of Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and the funding support of the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety. The research was also supported by a grant to Griffith University from a private charitable trust that wishes to remain anonymous.