New Zealand, at present led by Christopher Luxon (pictured), can learn from Pacific climate resilience practices. Photo / Jake O'Flaherty
New Zealand, at present led by Christopher Luxon (pictured), can learn from Pacific climate resilience practices. Photo / Jake O'Flaherty
THE FACTS
Climate adaptation is crucial as intense hazards and ageing infrastructure put communities at risk.
Pacific nations lead in resilience, using community-led actions and indigenous knowledge to reduce risks.
Working with nature enhances resilience; lessons from the Pacific can guide proactive adaptation efforts.
Here in New Zealand, climate adaptation is an increasing priority as more intense climate hazards and stressors, combined with ageing infrastructure, place many of our communities at risk.
We don’t need to look far for inspiration. Climate challenges are a daily reality for our Pacific neighbours, who areliving with rising seas, depleting freshwater supplies and more frequent extreme weather.
My role in climate adaptation and resilience planning at Beca has given me the privilege of working alongside Pacific communities over the past 20 years. I’ve seen how Pacific nations are leading the way in climate resilience, and we can learn a lot from their experience.
We shouldn’t underestimate the reduction in risk that can be achieved at low effort and low cost. I’ve seen firsthand how practical community initiatives in the Pacific are improving lives today and laying the groundwork for future adaptation.
In the Federated States of Micronesia, for example, there is active sharing of local water resources through water-use agreements that enable greater self-management and resilience to shortages.
Sometimes, small investments like water meters can help advance these locally led initiatives. Empowering communities to lead low-cost, low-complexity projects not only reduces risks at a local level but also provides increased awareness and motivation for individuals and groups to act.
Dancers perform to an audience at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland.
Many of our own local and regional councils have small grants funding for these types of locally led adaptation initiatives.
Embrace indigenous knowledge
Pasifika peoples, and tangata whenua here in Aotearoa, have thrived in dynamic environments for centuries, using traditional knowledge and experience to adapt.
For example, in Samoa, the people can forecast when a cyclone is approaching by the way birds are flying and the changing currents in coastal areas. Historically, they have used this traditional knowledge to migrate temporarily inland to the shelter of caves, and to stockpile food to minimise impacts.
Pasifika experience can guide Aotearoa’s adaptation to climate change. Photo / Getty Images
Integrating that knowledge and experience leads to better solutions that better reflect communities. In the case of Samoa, that knowledge enabled investment to help emergency inland migration planning, like formal cell phone evacuation warnings, and improving evacuation roads.
In New Zealand, engaging with iwi early and often will help us to identify areas where traditional knowledge can bolster the resilience of our communities and be woven into the development of adaptation initiatives.
Work with nature
Natural environments are incredibly resilient, so we should work with nature rather than against it when adapting to changing environmental conditions. Pacific Island people have been working with nature for generations, as their livelihoods, culture and wellbeing are inextricably tied.
Fiji’s protected mangroves show how nature-based solutions can defend coasts. Photo / Getty Images
Nature-based solutions enhance resilience and also have the dual benefit of increasing biodiversity. Mangroves are a great example of this concept in action. Fiji has afforded mangroves special protection, as these “rainforests of the sea” can protect land from coastal erosion, capture and lock away carbon, and filter water to support near-shore marine ecosystems like coral reefs.
Natural systems also support cultural practices, too, like mangrove use in making dyes for traditional printing. Restoring wetlands, planting native vegetation as coastal or inland waterway buffers, and designing infrastructure that allows for natural processes are just some of the ways we can work with nature rather than against it here in Aotearoa.
Pacific nations' community-led initiatives offer valuable lessons in building climate resilience.
The actions of our Pacific whānau are already making a difference in communities facing some of the world’s most severe climate threats.
By learning from their experience, we can build a future for Aotearoa where adaptation is proactive – where communities are empowered, ecosystems are protected, and resilience is woven into the fabric of our society and the infrastructure that supports it.
Guest author Cushla Loomb is climate risk and resilience business director at Beca, one of the Asia Pacific’s largest independent advisory, design and engineering consultancies. She has more than 23 years’ experience in climate risk assessment and adaptation planning across many sectors in the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.
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