Rural Cornish coastal fishing communities express, and have expressed, varying degrees of ability to develop and retain social resilience capacity, or the ability to withstand ‘shock’ over both ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ onset events in social, political, economic and natural domain terms (Wilson, 2012a). Endogenous and exogenous influences may include natural changes in resources and resource dependency resulting in the loss or depletion of community livelihoods associated with a decline in fishing activities (Brookfield, 2005; Marshall, 2007a), issues of tourism driven change and notions of ‘community’. Four capitals are initially conceptually considered, those of natural, political, social and economic capitals driving institutional change and individual-community behaviour within fishing communities. This is considered for fishing activities and cross-community aspirational or extant forms of resilience building with a particular focus on social memory, community-personal identity (Wilson, 2012b; Wilson, 2013; Wilson, 2014) and critically, power (Chaskin, 2001). This research frames community resilience within a resilience framework on local, national and EU scales. The initial capital approach is further developed and articulated into a novel resilience status and process framework, the community resilience and vulnerability index, or the CRVI. The research fieldwork observes social resilience through empirical qualitative methods supported by an anthropological lens, especially in regard to social issues, trust, confidence, power and agency within fishing communities and trajectories that have been guided by internal and external influences and adaptive change to social networks. One of the research challenges was the building of the CRVI using coupled approaches to coping strategies that may have value both across the Cornish case study communities and into wider community usage.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第24858号 / 地環博第241号 / 新制||地環||47(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 星野, 敏, 准教授 鬼塚, 健一郎, 准教授 落合, 知帆 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

Coastal indigenous communities in Keta, Ghana, are experiencing resettlement as a result of slow-onset, climate-induced flooding and erosion. Previous researchers have documented the risk of relocation from rapid-onset events, but little is known about the effectiveness of policies developed in response to slow-onset changes. This phenomenological study investigated the ongoing lived experiences of adult household members in Keta who were relocated by the government. Jun's critical theory provided a constructionist interpretive framework to determine whether Ghana's national policy on climate change resettlement adequately meets Rawls's criteria for distributive social justice. Policy documents and transcriptions of interviews with a purposeful sample of 17 family members were thematically coded and categorized into essence descriptions. Results revealed aligned perceptions of an absence of justice or fairness in the allocation of resources to households relocated by the government. Negative experiences characterized all families' resettlement processes. The government's commitment to ensuring basic community welfare was perceived to be poor. Findings highlight the need for social justice to be the primary policy consideration for future allocation of benefits to resettled households. To avoid reaching a tipping point at which prompt governmental intervention will be either compelled or impossible, quantitative studies are needed to guide policymakers in considering the real costs of relocation and the cumulative effects on families and communities. This study provides evidence for public consideration of the severe consequences of injustice in relocation and the need to prevent human rights abuse in the formulation of social, economic, and cultural policies associated with climate-induced resettlement.

In the early 1990s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the gravest effects of climate change could be on human migration, as millions would be displaced by coastal erosion, flooding, and drought. Today, this is considered a reality that is coming ever closer. Yet, there are currently no binding international frameworks dedicated to the issue of climate induced migration. In addition, the current regime of international refugee law is woefully inadequate at responding to the issue. Individuals that do not fall under the refugee definition are thus commonly left with the general scope of international human rights law standards, so-called complementary protection.   On these premises, this thesis sets out to examine the circumstances under which the non-refoulement principle in international human rights law could be applied in the context of climate change effects and especially slow onset processes, and how the principle could potentially be developed. Principally through examining jurisprudence concerning the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, this thesis finds that while there is a possibility for non-refoulement obligations to arise due to the effects of climate change, the precise scope of such protection is unclear. Although case law has emerged and continues to do so, the complex nature of climate induced migration and the undeveloped jurisprudence on this issue leaves important questions unanswered. This thesis finds that there seems to be no obvious response to the question whether climate change is a relevant factor in the legal analysis of non-refoulement claims, and whether it should be. Furthermore, there are great challenges in discerning the required intensity of harm for the threshold to be met and protection to be granted. In addition, this thesis finds that applying the non-refoulement principle in the context of slow onset processes entails several difficulties, particularly concerning the timing and prediction of the harm. It is therefore concluded that, as long as there is no framework dedicated to the issue of climate induced migration, clarity will be much needed in case law as to the scope of non-refoulement obligations in the context of, especially, slow onset processes due to climate change.