Project Leaders and Host
Organisation
Associate Professor Kevin Parnell and Dr Karen McNamara, James
Cook University
Project Description and Objectives
For detailed descriptions of the outputs for
this project for Year 4 (2009/2010) of the MTSRF Research
Programme, see the Annual Research
Plan.
In recent times, there has been growing concern over the
exposure of communities in the Torres Strait region to the impacts
of climate change. These changes have not only been recorded by
scientists, but they are also known of by Torres Strait Islanders
through their close relationship with their islands and seas.
This project seeks to work with community people, particularly
Elders, on a number of island communities in the Torres Strait
region, documenting their experiences with climate change. These
experiences will include their memories of extreme weather events
and changes, seasonal patterns (including winds, wet and dry
seasons) but also patterns in animal and plant life. The way
Islander people have adapted to these situations in the past will
also be a very important part of planning for future
culturally-appropriate adaptation strategies.
In the initial planning stages, discussions were held with the
Torres Strait Regional Authority to ensure that the objectives of
this project aligned with existing climate change projects in the
Torres Strait. As a result, this project will attempt to integrate
the collected traditional knowledge material across these other
projects. For example, knowledge of extreme weather events are well
placed to value-add to the inundation mapping project; the
traditional weather calendars could provide useful information for
the sea level rise mapping project; and the adaptation strategies
will offer added cultural detail to the coastal erosion mapping
project.
On this last point, this project sets out to better understand
past, present and future adaptability. Adaptation, in the context
of climate change, is the task of modifying ecological and social
systems to accommodate climate change to ensure the persistence of
these systems over time. Campbell and de Wet (1999: v) define
adaptation as "those actions or activities that people,
individually or in groups, take in order to accommodate, cope with
or benefit from the effects of climate change". Given that these
Torres Strait communities have been living through and adapting to
environmental changes throughout history, this project seeks to
document these adaptation "actions or activities" from the past, as
well as explore present and future adaptive capacity.
Through the synthesis and analysis of this knowledge, it is
hoped that adaptation strategies used in the past (and present)
might assist in developing future capacity. This in turn will help
in reducing the overall vulnerability of these communities to
direct impacts (such as increased average temperatures, changes in
rainfall, extreme weather events and slow onset sea level rise) and
indirect impacts of climate change (including food security and
gardening, water and energy security, biosecurity, biodiversity,
health, fisheries, planning and development, transport and
communications infrastructure, and culture and livelihoods). For
instance, existing adaptation activities might include the
maintenance of nurseries and water tanks to store water, while
potential future activities might involve traditional planting or
alternative water supply and storage programs.
Under the MTSRF program, the research generated from this
project is considered public good research that is end-user and
stakeholder-driven. The stakeholders for this research project are
the: (i) Torres Strait Regional Authority; (ii) Island Councillors
and Island Managers; (iii) Prescribed Body Corporate; (iv) Elders
in these communities; and (v) locals of these communities.
The overriding objective for this project is to collaborate with
the above-mentioned stakeholders to develop a project that
acknowledges, records and safeguards invaluable traditional
knowledge from community Elders on a number of Torres Strait
Islands. From this primary objective, there are a number of
tangible outcome-driven benefits of this knowledge for better
understanding climatic changes and adaptation strategies. These
aims are outlined below:
-
Report on how the Torres Strait is constructed (through a number
of means – public opinion using a surveying instrument,
policy documents and media);
-
Report on local stories of extreme weather events and
changes;
-
Develop calendars showing seasonal patterns (winds, wet and dry
seasons) and patterns in animal and plant life;
-
Report on resilience and adaptation strategies to climate
change; and
-
Develop a detailed science synthesis report.
