Pacific Island Countries, despite significant variation in levels of exposure and internal adaptive capacities, are often portrayed homogenously as the world’s most vulnerable region to climate change. As such over the past few decades, a plethora of projects intended to assist communities across the region adapt to future climate change have been developed, channelled through multilateral and bilateral funding mechanisms and implemented in communities across a range of countries. Whether such adaptation projects have been effective in reducing the vulnerability of targeted groups remains unclear. This paper evaluates a climate change adaptation project focused on food security implemented across two communities on Abaiang Island, Kiribati (central Pacific). The project was independently evaluated using the following criteria: appropriateness, equity, efficacy, impact, and sustainability. Data was gathered from focus groups with recipient community members (n = 84) supplemented by interviews (n = 26) with relevant local stakeholders involved in implementation. Results show that while the project inputs (such as tangible and intangible goods and services) were provided, the outcomes of the project were largely ineffective and unsustained amongst the target communities. The main lesson is that local contextual factors—be they social norms, environmental, or local governance and decision-making structures—must be clearly identified, meaningfully acknowledged, and accounted for when designing and implementing local-level adaptation initiatives. This then raises broader questions about who is currently, and who should be defining “good” adaptation. The answer to this question has ramifications for social justice as well as broader issues for developing effective sustainable responses to the challenges of climate change in such places.

中文翻译：

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谁定义了“良好”的气候变化适应及其重要性：基里巴斯阿拜昂岛的案例研究

尽管暴露程度和内部适应能力差异很大，但太平洋岛国通常被同质地描述为世界上最易受气候变化影响的地区。因此，在过去的几十年中，已经制定了许多旨在协助该地区社区适应未来气候变化的项目，这些项目通过多边和双边供资机制进行引导，并在许多国家的社区中实施。尚不清楚此类适应项目是否有效降低了目标群体的脆弱性。本文评估了一个针对粮食安全的气候变化适应项目，该项目在基里巴斯（中太平洋）阿拜昂岛的两个社区中实施。使用以下标准对项目进行了独立评估：适当性，公平，效力，影响和可持续性。数据是从焦点小组与接受社区成员（n  = 84），另加面试（n = 26）与参与实施的相关地方利益相关者。结果表明，尽管提供了项目投入（例如有形和无形商品和服务），但项目成果在很大程度上没有效果，并且在目标社区中不可持续。主要的教训是，在设计和实施地方层面的适应计划时，必须清楚地识别，有意义地认可并考虑地方背景因素（无论是社会规范，环境还是地方治理与决策结构）。然后，这引发了关于谁是谁，以及谁应该定义“良好”适应的更广泛的问题。这个问题的答案不仅对社会正义有影响，而且对发展有效的可持续对策以应对这些地方的气候变化的挑战也更为广泛。