Abstract
Climate change adaptation decision-making frameworks have evolved over the past three decades, with the management of information and knowledge now a key element of these processes. This paper examines the use of climate change-related information for national adaptation planning and decision-making in the Pacific Islands region to better understand the use of, and demand for, such information. Using an appreciative inquiry approach, a situation analysis was undertaken to examine the information praxis of national governments in Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Tuvalu, as well as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. The study revealed that adaptation decisions are (i) driven by national strategies and priorities which are innately community-centred, (ii) largely made through collaborative structures involving multiple stakeholders within a specific governance or project setting, and (iii) informed by a range of climatic and nonclimatic information from domestic, regional and international sources. The study also affirmed the importance of information and knowledge management to national adaptation planning and decision-making, evidence of collaborative and multistakeholder decision-making processes, and the trend towards country-driven and user-centred information and knowledge production. The study recommends dedicated commitment to and investment in information and knowledge management for Pacific Islands, and the need for a holistic understanding of the complex environment in which climate change adaptation takes place.
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Notes
Supporting the Regional Management of Climate Change Information in the Pacific (Pacific iCLIM Project) aimed to enable better climate change resilience and adaptation planning in the Pacific Islands region by improving the discoverability, storage, access and utilisation of climate change data and information. The project was funded by the Australian Government and implemented by Griffith University in partnership with SPREP.
Tonga’s Joint National Adaptation Plan 2 on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (JNAP2) is considered to be a NAP equivalent but it has not been formally submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat as a NAP document.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to SPREP and participating governments for their cooperation in this study. Appreciation also extends to the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Funding
The study was carried out under the Pacific iCLIM Project funded by the Australian Government DFAT under Grant agreement 68616.
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Full ethical clearance was received for this study from Griffith University’s Human Research Ethics Committee on 16 April 2019 under the following title and reference number: “Situation Analysis: How IKM is currently used in the Pacific to support effective adaptation planning and decision making” (GU Ref No: 2019/319).
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Morioka, K., McGann, M., Mackay, S. et al. Applying information for national adaptation planning and decision making: present and future practice in the Pacific Islands. Reg Environ Change 20, 135 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01715-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01715-5