What is shaping vulnerability to climate change? : the case of Laamu Atoll, Maldives

Abstract

As climate change accelerates, it brings with it numerous challenges to society and the natural world. Concepts such as vulnerability have emerged as a way of trying to understand people’s risk, despite there being a range of variables that can influence vulnerability and its temporal and spatial dimensions. Drawing from the well-known conceptualisation of vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, this paper seeks to understand what variables are influencing and shaping vulnerability in Laamu Atoll, the Maldives, and produce a base of knowledge for future vulnerability reduction initiatives. Household questionnaires (n=412) were used on Laamu Atoll to ascertain locals’ perceptions of vulnerability based on livelihood resources, financial security, and climate-change experiences. Results show that peripherality, as a notion that describes the disparities between ‘core’ and ‘peripheral’ islands, is a key factor shaping vulnerability variables on Laamu Atoll. This has prompted an overarching recommendation for peripherality to be considered as a key dimension of vulnerability to climate change and an important consideration for existing and future human development and climate change policy and practice in Small Island Developing States.