During the United Nations 21st Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP), a Conservation Leadership alumna was working in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a small island nation in the South Pacific facing the realities of climate change. Britt Basel, an independent consultant on community-based climate change adaptation, was working in Vanuatu with OceansWatch as part of the RESCCUE Project. RESCCUE is being coordinated by the Pacific Community as part of a greater regional initiative. The project aims to support local stakeholders and government in increasing integrated coastal management and to support climate change adaptation in North Efate.

Basel was interviewed by the BBC World Service in December about the impacts of climate change on these communities in Vanuatu. “If the rains don’t come and they can’t get a big enough crop, they’re not going to eat. Or if they have to fish too much to be able to sell those fish to be able to buy rice because they’re not producing enough crops, it destroys the entire system,” Basel told BBC. She also explained that increased intensity of extreme weather events will be of great concern to these communities. The people of Vanuatu have suffered devastation from Cyclone Pam in 2015 and are currently facing El Niño related drought, which is impacting agricultural production, livelihoods and water security. While in Vanuatu, Basel and the OceansWatch team conducted interviews, workshops, and community consultations with villages throughout North Efate. The data gathered will be used to inform RESCCUE project activities.

We hope that agreements reached during the COP will help minimize future impacts from climate change. In the meantime, communities around the world are facing climate change related challenges and the abilities of communities to adapt to these challenges will be increasingly important.

Audio Podcast credit to BBC News. Air date December 1, 2015 on World Service.

Written by Terra Sampson on January 12, 2016