In response to rising concerns about adverse global environmental change (GEC), or climate change (CC) impacts, adaptation and mitigation measures are being widely implemented. However, much still needs to be understood about how these measures manifest in reality at various scales and the drivers and barriers to action in specific contexts. This thesis uses multiple social science research methods to investigate responses to GEC/CC, with a particular emphasis on adaptation and underlying development contexts, within the neighbouring Ugu and eThekwini local government districts in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The study's focus on local authorities and communities is pertinent given that many adaptation and some mitigation actions are ultimately undertaken at local scales. The thesis comprises two main layers of analysis: first, a comparative analysis of Ugu and eThekwini municipalities' GEC/CC responses and an investigation of the relationship between these municipalities regarding environmental and GEC agendas, and the likely effect of collaboration or lack thereof on GEC adaptation initiatives. Second, incorporating these municipal-scale findings, I explore understandings and responses to climate variability and change and their likely effects within several diverse local study sites across rural-urban continua within both municipalities. The results show that, despite their close proximity, the two municipalities have responded to GEC in very different ways and that municipal authorities, together with their respective diverse local populations, have divergent adaptive capacities. The research also reveals that horizontal inter-municipal collaboration and vertical collaboration between multiple government spheres is weak. The thesis suggests that strengthening such collaboration within a multi-level governance framework can facilitate effective adaptation and address current divergent municipal adaptive capacities. The thesis also reveals the importance for GEC measures to account for the diversity of understandings, responses and vulnerabilities to GEC amongst local populations, shaped by multiple climatic and non-climatic stresses, including cultural beliefs.

Climate change is now recognised as one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and has attracted concerted, but inadequate attention from the international community. This thesis' overarching aim is to contribute to the understanding of how individuals, households and communities cope and adapt to climate variability and future climate change. The concept of resilience is used to examine the layers of responses to past and present climate variability, in order to provide insights into the factors and circumstances that may hinder or enhance resilience to climate variability and future climate change. Specifically, it tests the value of social capital in influencing resilience in the face of global climate change. While there are many examples where social capital influences resilience to climate variability, there is limited in-depth research on the specific role of social capital. This study involved in-depth examination of scholarly research on resilience and social capital and related concepts and case studies of specific communities in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh, which is one of the most vulnerable countries to both current variations in climate and future climate change. This empirical research was based on examining the resilience of two case study villages to past and present climate processes (salinity) and climate hazards (cyclones). These case studies followed an interpretative and qualitative approach, primarily carrying out focus groups and semi-structured interviews with village inhabitants and key informants. To supplement this research, a range of semi-structured interviews and focus groups were carried out with multi and bilateral agencies, government, research based organisations and national and international NGOs. The results indicate that enhancing resilience under current climate conditions and in high poverty contexts is by no means straightforward and is likely to become more unsustainable in the context of future climate change. This research crucially highlights the moral and ethical importance of reconceptualising resilience with an emphasis on the most vulnerable, as resilience approaches that fail to recognise the differentiated nature of resilience, risk reinforcing vulnerability. Moreover, situated responses that take account of resources, gender histories, power and cultural dynamics and the capacity to develop economic and physical capital rather than social capital per se, appear to be at the heart of the notion of resilience. Westernised concepts have important benefits but crucial limitations when applied to the particular conditions, value sets and modes of community working in the south. The uncritical importation of social capital and its liberal political basis needs to be treated with caution especially in the context of climate adaptation.

No description available.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean are one of the world’s ‘hottest’ ‘biodiversity hotspots’. However, this biodiversity continues to be threatened by habitat loss, and now, by climate change. The research reported here investigated the potential of species distribution modelling (SDM) as a plant conservation tool within Caribbean SIDS, using Trinidad as a case study. Prior to the application of SDM, ancillary analyses including: (i) quantification and mapping of forest cover change (1969 to 2007) and deforestation rates, and (ii) assessment of the island’s vegetation community distribution and associated drivers were carried out. Community distribution and commercial importance and global/regional rarity were used to generate a list of species for assessing the potential of SDM within Trinidad. Species occurrence data were used to generate species distribution models for present climate conditions within the SDM algorithm, MaxEnt. These results were assessed through expert appraisal and concurrence with results of ecological analyses. These models were used to forecast suitable species climate space forty years into an SRES A2 future. Present and future models were then combined to produce a ‘collective change map’ which showed projected areas of species’ range expansion, contraction or stability for this group of species with respect to Trinidad’s Protected Areas (PAs) network. Despite the models being indicative rather than accurate, it was concluded that species’ climate space is likely to decrease or disappear across Trinidad. Extended beyond Trinidad into the remainder of the Caribbean region, SDM may be a crucial tool in identifying which PAs within the region (and not individual islands) will facilitate future survival of given target species. Consideration of species conservation from a regional, rather than an individual island perspective, is strongly recommended for aiding the Caribbean SIDS to adapt in response to climate change.