Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Stay or leave? Potential climate change adaptation strategies among Aboriginal people in coastal communities in northern Australia

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Natural Hazards Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Coastal northern Australia is largely owned and occupied by Aboriginal people who are strongly connected to their traditional country. We assess the views of Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land on the impacts of climate change and their possible precautionary responses to both sea level rise and a potential increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones in coastal communities. All respondents had heard about climate change, and 48 % had already seen environmental changes, particularly sea level rise, which they attributed to climate change. Fifty-eight percent of respondents would consider relocating in the future for safety reasons, although most respondents perceived living close to the sea as highly important for their future well-being, emphasising their strong connection to their traditional sea country. Many of those willing to relocate would consider moving inland, either temporarily or permanently, provided that community facilities could also be moved. Other respondents who said they would be unlikely to relocate in the future because of climate change impacts, and would prefer to adapt in situ with government support (e.g. building more shelters for severe cyclones, building sea walls and better roads for quick evacuation if necessary). We recommend that the diversity of adaptation preferences among Aboriginal people should be accommodated in policy to minimise social impacts of climate change and to take advantage of potential opportunities that could arise from moving.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The term vulnerability in this paper embraces exposure and susceptibility to climate change impacts. The scopes of sensitivity and adaptive capacity which are also part of the concept of vulnerability (Adger et al. 2009) are beyond the scope of this paper.

  2. We use the term ‘country’ for indigenous-owned traditional land and sea with which they have a special relationship. For indigenous Australians culture, nature and land are all intertwined (Fuller and Parker 2002; Altman et al. 2007). Country is home to ancestral beings which, according to Aboriginal creation stories, with the rivers, creeks, hill sides and other landscape and marine features they created on their journeys now being imbued with spiritual significance (Edwards 2004).

  3. In situ adaptation is defined as actions undertaken to reduce vulnerability in places where people currently live, whereas ex situ adaptation involves the movement of people, systems and/or assets from places of vulnerability (see e.g. Bardsley and Hugo 2010).

  4. Kinship defines a ‘social organisation’ and provides strict rules on the ways in which Aboriginal people should behave towards each other, defining a person’s position within their network of relatives. Kinship relationships in Aboriginal culture are very different to any Western system (Ranzijn et al. 2009) with incompatibility between networks inhibiting some types of communication (Edwards 2004). For the sampling, this meant that the Aboriginal co-researchers were not allowed to speak to certain people, making the sampling procedure non-random. We employed three Aboriginal co-researchers with different networks (‘skins’), thereby maximising the number of people who could be approached.

  5. 1US$ = 0.96 AU$ (April 2012).

  6. Reasons for relocation can be classified into push and pull situations (e.g. Adger 1999). Pull relocation is driven by the demand to move because of attractive circumstances elsewhere. Push relocation occurs if relocation is caused by detrimental living situation in the home locality.

References

  • Adamowicz WL, Louviere J, Williams M (1994) Combining revealed and stated preference methods for valuing environmental amenities. J Environ Econ Manag 26:271–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN (1999) Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Dev 27:249–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Hughes TP, Folke C, Carpenter SR, Rockström J (2005) Social-ecological resilience to coastal disasters. Science 309:1036–1039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Dessai S, Goulden M, Hulme M, Lorenzoni I, Nelson DR, Naess LO, Wolf J, Wreford A (2009) Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Clim Change 93:335–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman J (2004) Economic development and Indigenous Australia: contestations over property, institutions and ideology. Aust J Agric Resour Econ 18:513–534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman J (2009) Contestations over development. In J. Altman and D. Martin (eds) Power, culture, economy: indigenous Australians and mining. Research Monograph No. 30, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia

  • Altman J, Buchanan GJ, Larsen L (2007) The environmental significance of the Indigenous estate: natural resource management as economic development in remote Australia. Discussion paper no. 286, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia

  • Anderson-Berry LJ (2003) Community vulnerability to tropical cyclones: cairns, 1996–2000. Nat Hazards 30:209–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2012) Tropical Cyclones in the Northern Territory. Bureau of Meteorology, Canberra, Australia, http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/about/northern.shtml#history. Last accessed October 2012

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012) 2011 Census of Population and Housing. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • Bardsley D, Hugo G (2010) Migration and climate change: examining thresholds of change to guide effective adaptation decision-making. Popul Environ 32:238–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F, Jolly D (2001) Adapting to climate change: social-ecological resilience in a Canadian western arctic community. Conservation Ecol 5, 18 [online]

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliemer MCJ, Rose JM, Hess S (2008) Approximation of Bayesian efficiency in experimental choice designs. J Choice Model 1:98–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Boxall PC, Adamowicz VL, Swait J, Williams M, Louviere J (1996) A comparison of stated preference methods for environmental valuation. J Ecol Econ 18:243–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braaf R (1999) Improving impact assessment methods: climate change and the health of Indigenous Australians. Glob Environ Change 9:95–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browne J, Laurence S, Thorpe S (2009) Acting on food insecurity in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: policy and practice interventions to improve local access and supply of nutritious food. http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-risks/nutrition/other-reviews. Last accessed October 2012

  • Bunn SE, Arthington AH (2002) Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity. Environ Manage 30:492–507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke MB, Miguel E, Satyanath S, Dykema JA, Lobell DB (2009) Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106:20670–20674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byg A, Salick J (2009) Local perspectives on a global phenomenon: climate change in eastern Tibetan villages. Glob Environ Chang 19:156–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell D, Burgess CP, Garnett ST, Wakeman J (2011) Potential primary health care savings for chronic disease care associated with Australian Aboriginal involvement in land management. Health Policy 99:83–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christie M, Perrett B (1996) Negotiating resources: language, knowledge and the search for ‘secret English’ in northeast Arnhem Land. In: Howitt R, Connell J, Hirsch P (eds) Resources, Nations and Indigenous Peoples: case studies from Australasia, Melanesia and Southeast Asia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp 57–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleworth B, Kapterian G, Gillies P (2008) Gove: forgotten catalyst for native title or are we just where we started? Native title and the mining industry issues in Australia from Gove to the present day. Working paper No. 7, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

  • Cook GD, Goyens CMAC (2008) The impact of wind on trees in Australian tropical savannas: lessons from Cyclone Monica. Austral Ecol 33:462–470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CSIRO (2012) State of the Climate 2012. CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • de Sherbinin A, Castro M, Gemenne F, Cernea MM, Adamo S, Fearnside PM, Krieger G, Lahmani S, Oliver-Smith A, Pankhurst A, Scudder T, Singer B, Tan Y, Wannier G, Boncour P, Ehrhart C, Hugo G, Pandey B, Shi G (2011) Preparing for resettlement associated with climate change. Science 28:456–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domingues CM, Church JA, White NJ, Gleckler PJ, Wijffels SE, Barker PM, Dunn JR (2008) Improved estimates of upper-ocean warming and multi-decadal sea-level rise. Nature 453:1090–1094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards WH (2004) An introduction to aboriginal societies. Social Science Press, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellemor H (2005) Reconsidering emergency management and indigenous communities in Australia. Environ Hazards 6:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faist T (2000) The volume and dynamics of international migration and transnational social spaces. Clarendon, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ford JD, Pearce T, Duerden F, Furgal C, Smit B (2010) Climate change policy responses for Canada’s Inuit population: the importance of and opportunities for adaptation. Glob Environ Change 20:177–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller D, Parker L (2002) Indigenous economic development in Northern Australia: opportunities and Constraints. Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton

    Google Scholar 

  • Garnett ST, Sithole B, Whitehead P, Burgess P, Johnstone F, Lea T (2009a) Healthy Country, Healthy People: policy Implications of Links between Indigenous Human Health and Environmental Condition in Tropical Australia. Aust J Public Adm 68:53–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garnett ST, Crowley GM, Hunter-Xenie H, Kozanayi W, Sithole B, Palmer C, Southgate R, Zander KK (2009b) Transformative Knowledge Transfer Through Empowering and Paying Community Researchers. Biotropica 41:571–577

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green D (2008) Climate impacts on the health of remote northern Australian Indigenous communities. Garnaut Climate Change Review, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • Green D, Billy J, Tapim A (2010) Indigenous Australians’ knowledge of weather and climate. Clim Change 100:337–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunn R, Hardesty BD, Butler J (2010) Tackling ‘ghost nets’: local solutions to a global issue in northern Australia. Ecol Manage Restor 11:88–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hensher DA, Greene WH (2003) The mixed logit model: the state of practice. Transportation 30:133–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hensher DA, Rose JM, Greene WH (2005) Applied choice analysis: a primer. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Herron N, Davis R, Jones R (2002) The effects of large-scale afforestation and climate change on water allocation in the Macquarie River catchment, NSW, Australia. J Environ Manage 65:369–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Howitt R, Douglas J (1983) Aborigines & mining companies in Northern Territory. Alternative Publishing Cooperative Limited, Chippendale

    Google Scholar 

  • Howitt R, Havnen O, Veland S (2012) Natural and unnatural disasters: responding with respect for indigenous rights and knowledge. Geogr Res 50:47–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt J, Altman JC, May K (2009) Social benefit of Aboriginal engagement in natural resource management. Report for the Natural Resource Advisory Council, NSW. Working Paper No. 60, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia

  • Hurlimann A, Dolnicar S (2011) Voluntary relocation: an exploration of Australian attitudes in the context of drought, recycled and desalinated water. Glob Environ Change 21:1084–1094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (2007) Ngene: a software capability to design and generate choice experiments. The University of Sydney, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2012) Summary for Policymakers. In: Field CB, Barros V, Stocker TF, Qin D, Dokken DJ, Ebi KL, Mastrandrea MD, Mach KJ, Plattner G-K, Allen SK, Tignor M, Midgley PM (eds.) Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation. A special report of working groups I and II of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, and New York, pp 1–19

  • Kainz T, Carson DA, Carson DB (2012) Temporary Indigenous mobility in remote South Australia: understanding the challenges for urban based health and social service delivery. J Rural Community Dev 7:16–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerins S (2009) The First-Ever Northern Territory Homelands/Outstations Policy. Topical Issue No. 9, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia

  • King D, Goudie D, Dominey-Howes D (2006) Cyclone knowledge and household preparation: some insights from cyclone Larry. Aust J Emerg Manag 21:52–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster K (1966) A new approach to consumer theory. J Polit Econ 84:132–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li G (2009) Tropical cyclone risk perceptions in Darwin, Australia: a comparison of different residential groups. Nat Hazards 48:365–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Limpus CJ, Miller JD, Parmenter CJ, Limpus DJ (2003) The Green turtle, Chelonia mydas, population of Raine Island and the northern Great Barrier Reef: 1843–2001. Mem Queensl Mus 49:349–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Luckert MK, Campbell BM, Gorman JT, Garnett ST (2007) Investing in indigenous natural resource management. Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin

    Google Scholar 

  • Manski J (1977) The structure of random utility models. Theor Decis 8:229–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marika R, Yunupingu Y, Marika-Mununggiritj R, Muller S (2009) Leaching the poison: the importance of process and partnership in working with Yolngu. J Rural Stud 25:404–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marino E (2012) The long history of environmental migration: assessing vulnerability construction and obstacles to successful relocation in Shishmaref, Alaska. Glob Environ Change 22:374–381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFadden D (1974) Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior. In: Zarembka P (ed) Frontiers in econometrics. Academic Press, New York, pp 105–142

    Google Scholar 

  • McLeman RA, Hunter LM (2010) Migration in the context of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change: insights from analogues. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Clim Change 1:450–461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McSweeney K, Coomes OT (2011) Climate-related disaster opens a window of opportunity for rural poor in northeastern Honduras. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:5203–5208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morphy F (2010) (Im)mobility: regional population structures in Aboriginal Australia. Aust J Soc Issues 45:363–382

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller S (2008) Accountability constructions, contestations and implications: insights from working in a Yolngu Cross-Cultural Institution, Australia. Geogr Compass 2:395–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parry M, Arnell N, Berry P, Dodman D, Fankhauser S, Hope C, Kovats S, Nicholls R, Satterthwaite D, Tiffin R, Wheeler T (2009) Assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change: a review of the UNFCCC and other recent estimates. International Institute for Environment and Development and Grantham Institute for Climate Change, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Petheram L, Zander KK, Campbell B, High D, Stacey N (2010) ‘Strange changes’: indigenous perspectives of climate change and adaptation in NE Arnhem Land (Australia). Glob Environ Change 20:681–692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poloczanska ES, Limpus CJ, Hays GC, David WS (2009) Chapter 2: vulnerability of marine turtles to climate change. Adv Mar Biol 56:151–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranzijn R, McConnochie K, Nolan W (2009) Psychology and indigenous Australians: foundations of cultural competence. Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson K, Steffen W, Schellnhuber HJ, Alcamo J, Barker T, Kammen DM, Leemans R, Liverman D, Munasinghe M, Osman-Elasha B, Stern N, Wæver O (2009) Synthesis report. climate change: global risks, challenges and decisions. Report from Copenhagen conference 10-12 March, 2009, University of Copenhagen, http://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/files/synthesis-report-web.pdf. Last accessed October 2012

  • Rogelj J, Meinshausen M, Knutti R (2012) Global warming under old and new scenarios using IPCC climate sensitivity range estimates. Nat Clim Change 2:248–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sakakibara C (2008) “Our home is drowning”: iñupiat storytelling and climate change in Point Hope, Alaska. Geogr Rev 98:456–475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sándor Z, Wedel M (2001) Designing conjoint choice experiments using managers’ prior beliefs. J Mark Res 38:430–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffran J, Marmer E, Sow P (2012) Migration as a contribution to resilience and innovation in climate adaptation: social networks and co-development in Northwest Africa. Appl Geogr 33:119–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor J, Bell M (2004) Continuity and change in Indigenous Australian population mobility. In: Taylor J, Bell M (eds) Population mobility and indigenous peoples in Australasia and North America. Routledge, New York, pp 13–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner NJ, Clifton H (2009) ‘It’s so different today’: climate change and indigenous lifeways in British Columbia, Canada. Glob Environ Change 19:180–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNFCCC (2007) Investment and financial flows to address climate change. Climate Change Secretariat, Bonn

    Google Scholar 

  • Veland S, Howitt R, Dominey-Howes D (2010) Invisible institutions in emergencies: evacuating the remote Indigenous community of Warruwi, Northern Territory Australia, from Cyclone Monica. Environ Hazards 9:197–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veland S, Howitt R, Dominey-Howes D, Thomalla F, Houston D (2012) Procedural vulnerability: understanding environmental change in a remote indigenous community. Glob Environ Change. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.10.009

    Google Scholar 

  • Vermeer M, Rahmstorf S (2009) Global sea level linked to global temperature. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi:10.1073/pnas.0907765106

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker GR (2010) A review of the impact of cyclone Tracy on building regulations and insurance. Aust Meteorol Oceanogr J 60:199–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams N (1986) The Yolngu and their land: a system of land tenure and the fight for its recognition. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • Yununpingu D, Muller S (2009) Cross-cultural challenges for Indigenous sea country management in Australia. Aust J Environ Manag 16:158–167

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank all Yolngu participants of this study as well as John Rolfe, Kevin Boyle and Deanne Bird for their valuable inputs. Field work was supported by Cindy Hutchery and Aboriginal co-researchers Dhanggal Gurruwiwi, Gunariny Gurruwiwi, Yululu Gurruwiwi, Fiona Y. Marika, Djapirri Mununggirritj and staff of the Women Resource Center in Yirrkala. We also thank five anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The study was funded by an internal research panel grant by the Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia. The first author was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP0987528).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia

    Kerstin K. Zander & Stephen T. Garnett

  2. The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia

    Kerstin K. Zander

  3. College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Lisa Petheram

Authors
  1. Kerstin K. Zander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lisa Petheram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stephen T. Garnett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kerstin K. Zander.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zander, K.K., Petheram, L. & Garnett, S.T. Stay or leave? Potential climate change adaptation strategies among Aboriginal people in coastal communities in northern Australia. Nat Hazards 67, 591–609 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0591-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0591-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation