Hawaii-Fiji collaboration: workshop on social-ecological resiliency to climate change, preliminary data collection, and methods training

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Hawaii-Fiji collaboration: workshop on social-ecological resiliency to climate change, preliminary data collection, and methods trainingPeople who live on small islands are involved in tight feedback loops that make them acutely aware of how anthropogenic and natural influences affect their resources. Pacific Islanders have developed traditional ecological knowledge and resource management systems to deal with high levels of environmental uncertainty and resource scarcity, and may be able to teach us important lessons about adaptive capacity and resilience in coupled human and natural systems. A cross-disciplinary team of researchers from the University of Hawai?i(USA) and the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) will hold a planning workshop, teach a short training course in social-ecological methods and approaches to studying resilience in coupled human natural systems, collect baseline data, and develop a collaboration that has the capacity to test if and under what conditions traditional ecological knowledge and traditional resource management can enhance adaptation and resilience to climate change in the Pacific Islands. This project builds capacity in research and education. It provides cross-disciplinary training for undergraduate and graduate students and an international research experience that can lead to longer term collaborations. By targeting Pacific Islanders in recruitment, this initiative will broaden the participation of an under-represented group. In establishing a collaboration among US researchers from different disciplines (social and natural sciences, marine and terrestrial spheres), and between US and Fijian researchers with complimentary expertise, this project develops a network that has the capacity to address complex issues that can contribute to policy for improving strategies for resilience and adaptation to climate change.