Vulnerability of Subsistence Systems Due to Social and Environmental Change: A Case Study in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Vulnerability of Subsistence Systems Due to Social and Environmental Change: A Case Study in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
复制标题
社会和环境变化导致的生存系统的脆弱性：阿拉斯加育空-库斯科奎姆三角洲的案例研究
作者：
Nicole M. Herman‐Mercer;M. Laituri;Maggie Massey;Elli Matkin;R. Toohey;K. Elder;P. Schuster;E. Mutter
北极土著社区被列为极易受到气候变化影响的群体。北极社区地处偏远，对当地物种和生境的依赖，以及土著人民历史上的边缘化，都强化了这种脆弱性的特征。然而，脆弱性是各种历史、社会、经济、政治、文化、体制、自然资源和环境条件和进程的结果，不容易简化为单一的衡量标准。此外，尽管脆弱性的特点很普遍，但北极土著社区具有极强的复原力，数千年来发展起来的生计机构就是证明。我们探讨了脆弱性的生存系统在切瓦克的Cup'ik村和Kotlik的Yup'ik村通过透镜的强大的季节性方面的资源供应。在阿拉斯加原住民村庄的生存收获的背景下，脆弱性可以通过分析生存资源对气候变化影响的暴露，社区对这些影响的敏感性以及生存机构吸收这些影响的能力来确定。生存资源，他们的季节性，并认为这些资源的影响进行了调查，通过半结构化的访谈和参与式的地图日历研讨会。结果表明，虽然这些社区正在经历气候变化的不成比例的影响，土著的聪明才智和适应性提供了一个途径，文化上适当的适应战略。然而，尽管有这种复原能力，快速的社会文化变化有可能成为社区适应的障碍，最近，季节性天气模式的持续变化可能使季节性特定的生存适应景观特别脆弱。
Arctic Indigenous communities have been classified as highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The remoteness of Arctic communities, their dependence upon local species and habitats, and the historical marginalization of Indigenous peoples enhances this characterization of vulnerability. However, vulnerability is a result of diverse historical, social, economic, political, cultural, institutional, natural resource, and environmental conditions and processes and is not easily reduced to a single metric. Furthermore, despite the widespread characterization of vulnerability, Arctic Indigenous communities are extremely resilient as evidenced by subsistence institutions that have been developed over thousands of years. We explored the vulnerability of subsistence systems in the Cup’ik village of Chevak and Yup’ik village of Kotlik through the lens of the strong seasonal dimensions of resource availability. In the context of subsistence harvesting in Alaska Native villages, vulnerability may be determined by analyzing the exposure of subsistence resources to climate change impacts, the sensitivity of a community to those impacts, and the capacity of subsistence institutions to absorb these impacts. Subsistence resources, their seasonality, and perceived impacts to these resources were investigated via semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping-calendar workshops. Results suggest that while these communities are experiencing disproportionate impacts of climate change, Indigenous ingenuity and adaptability provide an avenue for culturally appropriate adaptation strategies. However, despite this capacity for resiliency, rapid socio-cultural changes have the potential to be a barrier to community adaptation and the recent, ongoing shifts in seasonal weather patterns may make seasonally specific subsistence adaptations to landscape particularly vulnerable.