Building resilience to climate change impacts and socioeconomic attributes of rural households in Solomon Islands

Abstract

The source of livelihood varies amongst the urban centers and rural areas in the Solomon Islands. Most of the people within the communities rely on subsistence activities, agriculture, forestry and marine resources for survival. This research aimed to perform a descriptive analysis of the socioeconomic attributes of rural households that participate in the Coral Triangle initiative (CTI) and Mangrove rehabilitation project (MRP) in selected rural villages of Solomon Islands. Household surveys were conducted in order to raise information on the socioeconomic attributes of participant households. The analysis revealed that households from Sairaghi (project site 1), and Oibola (project site 3), rely mainly on marine resources for their income; whilst in Naro (project site 2) they rely mostly on agriculture. Consumable items were the main household expenses, followed by education. It was identified that the villagers also begun to invest in a series of new business ventures that could potentially prepare them better to cope with impacts and risks from climate change in the future. We found that beneficiaries’ expectations on potential benefits from project outcomes were high. CTI and MPR projects are vital for the communities as most villages are settled along the coastal lines, however ownership of conservation initiatives must be taken by villagers in order to assure of their support and a higher sustainability of the projects. In spite the immediate project impacts that slow the economic activities at local level, villagers perceive that benefit obtained from restoration would assist them to be resilient against the impact of climate change, given the fact that they will be able to obtain such project benefits in the near future.