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Pacific Islands Region Overview 5 on subsistence agriculture or fishing, and western legal systems dominate. In American Sāmoa and throughout Micronesia, traditional cultural systems govern behavior and traditional political structures are in place. Tribal systems led by chiefs have a large influence on decision making in the RMI, the FSM, and American Sāmoa (Petersen, 2009). Pacific Island populations share a cultural value that links society and the environment. Resource management and conservation are essential for healthy, stable communities on islands with limited resources because overexploitation could damage or permanently destroy resources. A key value for survival in Hawai‘i, for instance, is mālama ’āina, which means caring for the land (Kawaharada, 2011). In general, Pacific Island cultures recognize the value and relevance of their cultural heritage and systems of traditional knowledge and customary law developed within their social, cultural, and natural contexts (e.g., Gegeo & Watson-Gegeo, 2001). At the same time, contemporary island communities reflect diverse ancestries that, over time, have blended to create new cultural values. There is an emphasis on long-term connection with lands and resources, with multigenerational attachment to places (Gegeo, 2001; Teddy, Nikora, & Guerin, 2008). Climate change threatens the physical, biological, and human elements necessary for Pacific Island cultures to sustain their co-existence and evolving relationship with a defined place and to maintain their unique set of customs, beliefs, language, traditional knowledge, objects, and built environment. This threat is due in part to the familial and divine relationships certain Pacific Island cultures have with the natural world and the implications of severed kinship ties when places, species, and practices are lost (e.g., Lili’uokalani, 1997). Economic indicators show a wide range within the region (Table 1-1). Tourism figures prominently in the GDP of most island jurisdictions. Hawai‘i, for instance, welcomed almost 7 million visitors to the state in 2011, generating $12.6 billion in revenue (Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, 2011). A large US military presence means that the defense sector is also an important source of income. Climate change threatens the ecosystems (such as forests, streams, coral reefs, and open ocean) that communities rely on for sustenance and revenue. Geographic remoteness means that the cost of transport has a profound influence on island economies. The isolation of the communities of the region, from one another and from the rest of the world, has led to the development of technological and cultural strategies for responding to events such as typhoons and large inter-annual variability in rainfall. Historically, settlement patterns, crop diversity, food storage and preservation techniques, and strategies for intercommunity cooperation have evolved in different ways to cope with local conditions on each island (Barnett & Campbell, 2010). More recently, the recurrence of drought in the FSM has prompted systems of rationing and strategies for importing water (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1998). Although isolation has proved helpful in the development of adaptations that are highly specific to local needs, it has limited the gathering and exchange of regional information that could support and enhance local adaptation strategies. Scientific study is inhibited by the labor and costs required to maintain climate monitoring systems in such remote locations. At the national and global levels, decisions on adaptation strategies are made without good information from the region. Conversely, distribution of national and global scientific and policy information around the region must be translated into multiple languages.
6 Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts Table 1-1: Economic and demographic indicators for Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands Population Adjusted GDP GDP per capita Major income sources Governance Hawai‘i 1,374,810 (2011 est.) $66.7 billion (2011 est.) $48,500 (2011 est.) Tourism, US military, construction US state CNMI 46,050 (2011 est.) $900 million (2000 est.) $12,500 (2000 est.) US payments, tourism, subsistence agriculture and fishing Commonwealth in political union with the US FSM 106,836 (2011 est.) $238.1 million (2008 est.) $2,200 (2008 est.) US payments as part of their Compact of Free Association agreement, subsistence agriculture and fishing Constitutional government in free association with the US Guam 183,286 (2011 est.) $2.5 billion (2005 est.) $15,000 (2005 est.) US military, tourism (primarily from Japan), construction Organized, unincorporated territory of the US RMI 67,182 (2011 est.) $133.5 million (2008 est.) $2,500 (2008 est.) US military, US payments as part of their Compact of Free Association agreement, subsistence agriculture and fishing Constitutional government in free association with the US RP 20,956 (2011 est.) $164 million (2008 est.) $8,100 (2008 est.) Tourism, subsistence agriculture, and fishing Constitutional government in free association with the US American Samoa 67,242 (2011 est.) $575.3 million (2007 est.) $8,000 (2007 est.) US payments, tuna fishing and processing Unorganized, unincorporated territory of the US Note: Adjusted GDP (purchasing power parity) and GDP per capita show a wide range within the region. All data in this table are from the World Factbook (2011), except for the Hawai‘i data, which comes from the Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (2011).
Page 1: National Climate Assessment Regiona
Page 5 and 6: © 2012 The Pacific Islands Regiona
Page 8 and 9: About This Report Climate Change an
Page 10 and 11: Executive Summary The Pacific Islan
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Page 14: Hawai‘i Governor's Letter xiii
Page 17 and 18: PIRCA Core Team * Stephen Anthony U
Page 20 and 21: Contents About This Series About Th
Page 22 and 23: List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Page 24 and 25: List of Figures and Tables xxiii B-
Page 26 and 27: List of Abbreviations xxv Instituti
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Freshwater and Drought on Pacific I
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Chapter 3 Sea Level and Coastal Inu
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Sea Level and Coastal Inundation on
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Chapter 4 Marine, Freshwater, and T
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Marine, Freshwater, and Terrestrial
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Conclusions 119 Chapter 5 Conclusio
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Conclusions 121 actionable informat
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Appendix A Glossaries Related to We
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Appendix B 125 Figure B-1 The gener
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Appendix B 127 trend toward more
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Appendix B 129 the result of changi
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Appendix B 131 Figure B-7 CMIP5 cli
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Appendix B 133 with a 3 km horizont
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Appendix C 135 Deanna Spooner Coord
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Appendix E PIRCA Water and Drought
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appendix E 139 Kevin Kodama Senior
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appendix F 141 Facilitators: Arlene
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appendix F 143 Penny Larin Program
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Appendix G PIRCA Ecosystems Technic
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Appendix G 147 Richard McKenzie Res
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Appendix H 149 Workshop Evaluations
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References 151 Australian Bureau of
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References 153 McPhaden, M. J. (199
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References 155 Dickinson, W. R. (20
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References 157 Freed, L. A., Cann,
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References 159 Hunter, J. (2012). A
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References 161 Lander, M. A. (1994)
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References 163 Mendelsohn, R., Eman
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References 165 Petersen, G. (2009).
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References 167 Storlazzi, C. D., Lo
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References 169 Waycott, M., McKenzi
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Climate Change and Pacific Islands:
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