Atoll habitability thresholds

Abstract

What makes a place habitable? Or as some of the more conspicuous contributors in the ongoing, vibrant discussion surrounding climate migration planning have framed this seemingly simple question: Will government officials and communities recognize in advance the point at which areas become uninhabitable, or when it is time to move? Previous contributors have increased our focus on low-lying atoll communities, in particular, explicating the need to identify adaptation limits beyond which atoll social-ecological systems become uninhabitable. As a government official in the Maloelap Atoll Local Government, the author of this paper will echo the need to better understand atoll habitability thresholds by examining the merits of framing the question of ‘when it is time to move’ within a habitability narrative, and propose the local approach to community-based resource management in the Marshall Islands called Reimaanlok as an empowering, scientifically robust, and internationally useful starting point for climate migration planning, both for the communities facing displacement as well as recipient communities likely to intervene with resettlement guidelines.