This thesis is a study of change and adaptability in a social-ecological system. In order to contribute to efforts toward sustainability on the British Columbia coast, the study focuses on the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Ucluelet, BC to investigate four specific issues, including: how coastal communities experience and deal with change; how global environmental change affects coastal communities; the key factors that build or threaten social-ecological resilience in coastal communities; and how resilience and adaptive capacity can be built to adapt to change and, in turn, shape change for sustainability. The findings of this thesis have relevance for systems on the British Columbia coast and at large. Above all, the experience in Ucluelet shows that the resilience of these communities is not in their maintenance of stability, but rather in their ability to turn successive experiences of change into opportunities for new cycles of more sustainable development and renewal. / Graduate

Landfills in British Columbia are reaching capacity; this has sparked renewed efforts to curb the output of household waste. Extending previous quantitative studies, I use a qualitative grounded theory approach to explore what influences the perception of waste and activates the intention to recycle and compost. Participants from Ucluelet, British Columbia, accumulated their refuse, recyclables, and compost during a four week period; simultaneously, I interviewed them about the meanings and feelings they associated with the process. My results suggest that participants' attitudes about waste are strongly influenced by what they see. Because garbage is regularly hauled away and dumped out of sight, participants were relatively unaware of how much they produce and its environmental impact. Increasing awareness appears to be a key factor in changing waste diversion intentions; incorporating small pro-environmental changes may lead to further changes. This reaffirms previous findings that adopting one environmental behaviour can empower further change.