PI-CASC REGIONAL CONTEXT
Pacific Islanders have demonstrated extraordinary ingenuity, resilience, and adaptability over thousands of years, navigating, settling, and thriving across the diverse atolls and volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean. In contemporary times, Hawaiʻi and the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) confront distinct challenges in adapting to climate change due to factors such as geographic isolation, coastal hazards, strong cultural and economic ties to oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems, underserved and underrepresented populations, and reliance on imported food and energy resources. Changes in coastlines, water resources, native forests, and food production threaten the cultural identity and economic well-being of Indigenous Pacific Islanders and local communities.
Across the Pacific basin (Fig. 1), rising air and sea surface temperatures, increasing sea levels, more frequent and prolonged droughts, threatened freshwater lenses due to seawater inundation, shifting habitats and species distributions, and changing ocean chemistry have been well-documented (Nicholls & Cazenave, 2010; Keener et al., 2012; Wong et al., 2014) and are expected to be increasingly impaired by climate change (Frazier et al., 2023). These changes pose significant concerns for human communities and natural ecosystems, including water and food shortages affecting thousands across the region (Frazier et al., 2017), with remote atoll communities being particularly vulnerable (Ludert et al., 2018). Additionally, there is an increased risk of coastal flooding and erosion (Fletcher et al., 2012; Romine et al., 2013; Anderson et al., 2015; Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, 2017; Storlazzi et al., 2018), migration and loss of forest ecosystems (Crausbay et al., 2014), heightened extinction risks (Urban, 2015), more frequent coral bleaching events (Brainard et al., 2018), and escalating impacts on marine ecosystems (for examples see Herring et al., 2018 and for an overview see World Meteorological Organization).
Superimposed on these global changes in climate, inter-annul modes of natural climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña events and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation cause dramatic variations in rainfall, drought, trade wind patterns, air and sea surface temperatures, sea levels, and cyclone activity, with impacts differing significantly across the Central and Western Pacific Islands (Fletcher et al., 2012; Keener et al., 2012; Romine et al., 2013; Crausbay et al., 2014; Frazier et al., 2017; Brainard et al., 2018; Herring et al., 2018). These deviations from typical climate patterns have compound impacts on physical, natural, social, cultural, and economic environments, including coral reefs, marine and terrestrial wildlife and their habitats, along with the ecosystem services these habitats provide. Coupled with economic, social, political, physical, and or legal barriers to adequate adaptation responses, it is critical that island communities, resource managers, and decision-makers are equipped with information derived from robust, actionable scientific research to address the potential and current impacts of both natural climate variability and climate change (Adger et al., 2005). This understanding is essential for developing and implementing effective and equitable adaptation policies for managing valued assets, including land, water, fish and wildlife, nearshore, coastal, and cultural heritage resources, and the ecosystem services upon which human communities depend (Woodworth-Jefcoats et al., 2023).
The cultural heritage of many Pacific peoples is deeply rooted in practices of resilience, adaptation, and sustainability. Experiential connectivity to resources has facilitated adaptation to ever-changing lands, freshwater systems, ocean systems, and skies for millennia, as communities have lived sustainably without reliance on external goods and services (Berkes, 2012; Berkes & Ross, 2013; Kealiikanakaoleohaililani & Giardina, 2016). This local knowledge is a valuable societal asset that should be reinforced and utilized to understand community values, needs, and strategies for adapting to change. There is much to learn from these generations of resilience, and it is imperative to continue collaborating with Indigenous and local stewards of cultural and natural resources to co-develop tools and knowledge for adapting to a changing climate (McMillen et al., 2014).
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