Pacific women take on the fight against climate change

Sea level rise, freshwater scarcity, and extreme weather events — Pacific Islanders experience some of the most devastating effects of climate change, and women are often particularly susceptible to these impacts. Women are also important knowledge holders, developing innovative ways to adapt to the ever-increasing impacts of climate change. Despite this, their perspectives and contributions have been largely absent from research and policymaking worldwide.

A recent study published in Marine Policy aims to fill this crucial gap. A team of researchers led by Elizabeth Mcleod from the Nature Conservancy brought together nineteen women from seven Pacific Island nations for a workshop in Palau. Participants came from the Marshall Islands, Palau, Yap, Kosrae, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Papua New Guinea and included subsistence farmers, community leaders, members of local women’s groups and farming associations, and staff from conservation and development NGOs. At the workshop, women broke into small discussion groups and explored two key questions: How are women in the Pacific affected by climate change? In what ways are they leading climate adaption efforts in their communities?

The participants highlighted that climate change often makes everyday life harder for women than for men because of traditional gender roles. Because climate change makes it more difficult to collect potable water or firewood, it takes women longer to complete daily tasks. For example, as freshwater becomes scarcer, women often must walk farther to fetch water from wells. This increased workload means that they have less time to spend on education or income-generating activities. If they don’t collect enough water, they are unable to finish household chores. When they can’t do laundry or prepare food for the family, they are more likely to experience domestic violence.

Climate change-induced hardships, however, do not stop women from fighting back. The researchers highlight that, using traditional knowledge passed from generation to generation, women in the Pacific Islands have come up with many innovative climate solutions. To protect crops from rising sea levels, women in Palau are collaborating with the Palau Community College Cooperative Research and Extension to develop salt-tolerant varieties of taro, an important traditional food. In Papua New Guinea, women are using plastic bags and raised beds to plant food crops. In Kosrae and Chuuk, women are drying and fermenting breadfruit to increase food security during the dry season.

Women’s leadership role in climate adaptation, however, is not without its challenges. Perhaps the most pressing problem is that women are at risk of losing the rich traditional knowledge that inspires adaptation strategies. In Palau, an increasing number of women join the workforce each year. Women’s increasing employment across the country is an important source of economic empowerment. However, it also means that women spend less time growing traditional plants and are forgetting how to cultivate these crops. Another difficulty is that the traditional practices are often hard to implement in increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. In other words, the very practices that could help women adapt to climate change could disappear if the pace of change is too fast.

The study presents a series of recommendations on both global and local scales that can help Pacific women continue to drive their countries’ adaptation efforts. First, international climate frameworks must do a better job at integrating gender into their policies. Government agencies and policymakers need to develop policies that are not only sensitive to gender but also actively address gender gaps ingrained in some societies. They must also develop strategies that maintain traditional knowledge, assist women’s groups, and support women’s adaptation strategies. On a larger scale, countries need to address underlying issues such as gender-based violence and inequities in landownership, as well as developing a support system for environmental migrants.

Though often unnoticed, women around the world are making important contributions to climate adaptation efforts. While policy makers tend to prioritize technological fixes, it is important to recognize groups of people with a vast knowledge of their local environments. Supporting women’s adaptation efforts, elevating their voices, and empowering them to be leaders will be key to ensuring a future where communities can continue to thrive in the face of a rapidly changing climate.