climate resilience

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4819e505-9dfa-4...

Abstract

Historical losses due to hurricanes have been significant in Sint Maarten (SXM) since 1960, with the most severe impact having been experienced in 2017 following Hurricane Irma. The objective of this report is to provide recommendations to the Government of Sint Maarten (GoSXM) for the formulation of a country-specific comprehensive disaster risk financing (DRF) strategy based on the assessment of the legislative, financial management, fiscal, and insurance market environment in SXM. It is envisioned that this report will be used as a planning tool for the potential development of an all-encompassing DRF strategy that would equip the GoSXM with information and instruments to manage contingent liabilities posed by disasters.

MSc Environment and resource management  - Thesis

Abstract                

Building resilience against climate change is a field of study which as grown exponentially in recent times. Small Island developing states are among the countries that will suffer more damages from climate change globally. The small island state of Sint Maarten has had a number of natural disasters which have brought hardships on local residents and slowed down the development of the nation. Sint Maarten is now looking for avenues from which to improve not only its natural disaster preparedness but also the resilience of the island itself against these events. This research employs a mixed method approach which combines scenario and stakeholder analysis in order to envision possible future climate change scenarios at different resilience levels, and possible policy pathways that can help in efficiently improve the island’s resilience against climate change.  The data used for the scenario analysis was taken from the most recent local census and statistical yearbook, while stakeholder interviews have been set up with local key players in community, economic, and ecological resilience. The data gained from both analyses has provided a comprehensive picture of future possible developments on the island in terms of resilience building. From the analysis of stakeholder interviews and scenario creation a strong vision for policy development was suggested. This vision takes into account the necessity for all actors to collaborate among each other and it is based on the importance of building climate awareness and improving monitoring of environmentally friendly behavior at the public and private levels. Policy recommendations were formulated accordingly to the vision resulting from the analysis.

Abstract

Small Islands (SIs) often have a small capacity to resist or recover from the increasing impacts of climate change and, therefore, increasing climate resilience is necessary. However, knowledge and research on climate resilience, especially in the context of (Caribbean) SIs are limited in number and quality, although imperative for increasing it. Additionally, research, while proven beneficial, often overlooks the household-level. Therefore, this study researched household climate resilience (HCR) in Caribbean SI-context –in this case Bonaire. Since the aspects determining HCR depend on geographic context, this contextwas first studied for Bonaire. Through 13 key-informant interviews, complemented by desk research, the main climate vulnerabilities, their impact on Bonaire and its households, and the aspects making Bonairean households resilient for these were identified. These aspects were used as indicators to form a composite score measuring HCR through online household surveys. Hereby, the barriers to HCR and differences in HCR between socio-demographic groups were identified. Results showed an average HCR-score for the sample (N=183) of .455 out of 1 (SD=.11) –indicating HCR is not low, but also not high. The following aspects negatively contributed to HCR: expected damage to homes, amount of savings, insurance covering damage from climate change (vulnerabilities), incomes, dependent income sources, vulnerable neighbourhoods, alternatives to electricity, water, and food, social resilience, community response, government response, awareness of climate change, information and education on climate change impacts, and steps to prepare for this. Furthermore, the following households are less inclined to be climate resilient: bigger households, households with high kid ratios, households with younger household heads, households speaking fewer languages, households not fluently speaking English, and households with a higher level of obtained education.This study knows limitations that possibly impacted these results, like the limited representativeness of the household sample. Although this study adds to the knowledge base of SI-context HCR, additional research is beneficial. Therefore, recommendations forfurther research are provided. The same goes for policy recommendations.

For more information, please contact Nina Zander nina.p.zander@gmail.com.

Please also see:

DCNA Policy Brief https://www.dcbd.nl/document/small-islands-%E2%80%93-large-climate-chang...
Raw data set https://www.dcbd.nl/document/household-resilience-climate-change-vulnera...