US-Pacific Islands Planning Visits: Conceiving biocultural resilience with Pacific island communities: bridging disciplines, language, and culture

American Museum Natural History, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

US-Pacific Islands planning visits: Conceiving biocultural resilience with Pacific Island communities: bridging disciplines, language, and culture This project is designed to bring together individuals and communities from the Pacific Islands that haven't worked together before. The principal investigator proposes a combination of virtual and in-person meetings between scientists and communities in the US (including Hawai'i), the Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, and France to understand how communities can be resilient to future change. One of the key values of this project is the opportunity it provides for participants to think creatively and work productively across major cultural divides. This project will support two early-career US scientists. At the local level, it will contribute to the development of resource management plans and capacity building in Pacific Island nations for decision making to manage community landscapes for sustainability. Ultimately, this project will contribute to linking short-term decision-making needs of communities and long-term investment of researchers in understanding integrated biological and cultural systems. This project aims to unite disparate research groups and local communities to better understand and manage Pacific Island system resilience in the face of pending large-scale disturbances such as climate change and increasing market pressures. This collaborative project is designed to bring together individuals and communities across three existing gaps: those between cultural and geographic boundaries in the Pacific, biological and social scientists, and scientists and local communities. This project plans to develop "biocultural resilience indicators" that are academically rigorous while also feasible to implement for decision making by communities faced with imminent social, economic, and ecological disturbances. Resilience is defined as the capacity of a system or set of communities (biological, social, cultural, biocultural) to absorb, resist, or recover from stress, and adapt to change while maintaining valued functions and benefits. The term "biocultural" is used to emphasize building on and moving beyond social-ecological theoretical explorations towards applied collaborations with communities. The principal investigator proposes to hold a combination of virtual and in-person meetings between scientists and communities in the US (including Hawai'i), the Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, and France. One of the key values of this project is the opportunity it provides for participants to think creatively and work productively across major cultural divides. Comparative research across the Pacific Islands is largely lacking but can be critical to gaining a better understanding of resilience in these coupled social-ecological systems. There is a growing need for projects that recognize and work in step with the increased fluidity and cross-fertilization of ideas across the breadth of the Pacific. Testing the interaction among biocultural indicators and major pressures to understand impacts on human and ecological well-being requires comparison across different biocultural units. While there is incredible diversity across Pacific social-ecological systems, Pacific communities predominately share large-scale pressures such as oceanic fishing, demographic growth, and climate change. Common indicators across these communities will help to illuminate the patterns and relationships between changing pressures, biocultural states, and socio-ecological benefits, such as ensured food security and effective adaptation to climate change.