Collaborative Research: An Integrative Study of Vulnerability and Cultural Response to Hurricane Hazards Among Indigenous Populations on the Miskito Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua

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Collaborative Research: An Integrative Study of Vulnerability and Cultural Response to Hurricane Hazards Among Indigenous Populations on the Miskito Coast of Honduras and NicaraguaBCS-0452399Kam-biu LiuLouisiana State UniversityHurricanes are significant environmental hazards that frequently impact coastal areas of Central America. Hurricane Mitch, for example, caused over 10,000 deaths and wrought an estimated 10 billion dollars in damage to Honduras, Nicaragua, and neighboring Caribbean countries in 1998. However, no research to date has assessed the societal vulnerability of this region to hurricane strikes. This project will examine the vulnerability of the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua to intense hurricane strikes and the cultural responses of different ethnic communities on the Miskito Coast to hurricanes during recent and historical times. This research will use geoscientific techniques in paleotempestology (an emerging field of science that studies past hurricane activity by means of geological proxy techniques) to assess the hurricane risk of the Miskito Coast in Central America. Several coastal lakes in Honduras and Nicaragua will be cored, and overwash sand layers in the sediments will be identified and dated to produce the first long-term record of intense hurricane strikes on the Miskito Coast. Ethnographic techniques and participatory research will then be used to construct oral histories and mental maps of hurricane damage for selected hurricanes that have impacted the study area in the last 30 years. By documenting local inhabitants' cultural memory of hurricanes, this research will be the first attempt to link ethnographic information concerning the spatial extent of hurricane impacts with geological proxy evidence, thus establishing a modern analog for reconstructing prehistoric hurricane impacts and deciphering paleohurricane magnitude from paleotempestological data. Ethnographic and participatory research will also be used to investigate the human dimension of hurricane vulnerability, with particular focus on local perceptions of hurricane threats and adjustment strategies among the different ethnic populations (Miskito, Garifuna, Hispanic Ladinos, Creoles) of the study area. The paleotempestological evidence will be incorporated into the participatory research framework to educate and to promote collaborative dialogue among local residents. This collaborative research is the first that integrates paleotempestological techniques with ethnographic and participatory research methods to produce a comprehensive assessment of societal vulnerability and cultural response to catastrophic hurricane strikes on the Miskito Coast. This project will produce the first proxy record of catastrophic hurricane strikes for Central America and the Caribbean region. This record is important for deciphering the temporal and spatial patterns of the "tropical-only" hurricanes and for testing the Bermuda High hypothesis. The ethnographic component of this research will make a significant contribution to the hazards literature by providing the first information on how rural indigenous communities in Latin America respond to hurricane hazards. Previous studies have only dealt with "modern" industrialized societies, and primarily those of North America. The innovative use of participatory methods in this research will provide an example of its potential in integrated social and physical scientific research. In addition, this research topic has major societal relevance. The results of this study have significant practical applications for hurricane hazard assessment and disaster mitigation in the developing nations of Central America. Information on hurricane risk estimates and cultural responses by different ethnic groups will be useful for decision-makers and stakeholders in disaster planning and management.