Humedad

Livelihood is about a means of making a living (IFRC, n.d; Moore, 1996). As the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) states, livelihood ‘encompasses people’s capabilities, assets, income and activities required to secure the necessities of life’ (http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/from-crisis-to-recovery/what- is-a-livelihood/); and knowing how climate change affects their way of life is important. The rising sea level for instance, is an issue that low lying coastal communities should be aware of as it destroys freshwater. This is because freshwater reserves are limited to a shallow subsurface lens which is susceptible to contamination from salt water (Barnett,

2001). The IPCC describes climate change as having more direct impacts on the livelihoods of developing countries (Mertz, et al., 2009). These include, for example, changes in agricultural potential caused by rainfall change or inundation of cities and infrastructure due to sea level rise and a higher disease burden. Thus, it is therefore important that rural communities in PNG have access to or know where they can get access to the information on climate change and how it can affect their livelihood. The intent of this section is to highlight, given the limited accessibility to modern technologies such as the internet in rural communities, the identification of where they can get information on climate change which could help in making decisions to strengthen the network. At the same time, it will enable an understanding of the way the communities make decisions in response to the actual or perceived impacts of climate change.

On the question of how the local communities of Pere and OnaKeto came to know the climate change issues and their impact on their livelihoods, Table 5-2 illustrates that they have access to a number of information sources. First, they hear the stories about climate change from university students. These are mainly the students from their communities who have been studying in one of the universities in PNG and have relayed the message. Secondly, they read it in the daily newspapers and hear it on the radio broadcasts. The information they get from such sources are basically abstracts and do not allow for insights into the climate change with its associated impacts on their livelihood.

Table 5-2: Pere and OnaKeto villagers’ sources of climate change information regarding impacts on their livelihoods.

How did you know about the issue of climate change and its impact on your livelihood? Pere Village, Manus Province OnaKeto villages, Eastern Highlands

Province *Heard from university students, read in

newspapers and heard on radio broadcasts about climate change and its associated issues.

*Through awareness and training conducted by NGOs based in Manus and PNG such as Seaweb International, CELCOR, WWF and TNC.

*From local observation of the surrounding environment where rising sea levels led to eroding shorelines, inundation of sago production areas with increase salination, and a prolonged dry season that led to a shortage of fresh water.

*Awareness from NGOs (Partners with Melanesia) and NARI and relate them to local climate variability such as prolonged drought, continuous rainfall, including flooding and landslides. These affected the growing of food crops, caused lack of clean water, dying of food crops intended for local consumption or for selling.

In spite of that, they also receive information disseminated by NGOs. So far NGOs play a pivotal role in awareness raising and information dissemination in rural PNG where often no outside organizations can provide such services. The government of PNG recognizes the very important roles NGOs play in areas of information sharing, building capacity and promote sustainable development initiatives (Unage, 2009; DNPM, 2010a; World Bank, 2010). Therefore, the government institutions such as the National Agricultural

Research Institute (NARI) provide their published information in collaboration with NGOs. NARI mostly responds to requests from the communities through NGOs (Unage, 2009).

The information that NGOs share with the local communities is either from their own research or communications with like-minded organizations. Eventually this information is disseminated to the rural communities. The common issues that they are familiar with and share with communities are displayed in Table 5-3. These issues include: sea level rise, food security, increased incidences of diseases that are related to water and sanitation, and impacts on infrastructure and the environment. Of all the issues identified, food security and increased incidences of diseases were the most common issues participating groups identified. When these issues are communicated to the communities, it subsequently enables them to connect them with their local observations on the environmental changes that are taking place as a result of climate variability. The Pere and OnaKeto villagers have indicated this and it is presented partly in Table 5-1.

It is however, important as well to state that ‘many individuals, organizations and communities of practice hold different subsets of these existing data, information and knowledge, and have differential access to which they do not hold’ (Taylor, Bharwani, & Ali, 2010:25). As such the amount of information disseminated by NGOs and government agencies to the rural communities varies and is distorted. In other words, it is partly to do with the medium through which information is disseminated or communicated; the motivation to engage with the issue; and the skills and expertise

needed (Adger, et al., 2008; Taylor, et al., 2010). Hence, section 5.4 elaborates further on the climate change issues that are experienced locally in Pere and OnaKeto villages; giving rise to the knowledge of climate change issues known either nationally, regionally or globally.

Table 5-3: Outline of the main issues that threaten wellbeing as understood by NGOs and state institutions that promote climate adaptation projects in PNG

Common issues Individual groups’ perspectives on the

issues

*Sea level rise *CELCOR, WWF, RCF

*Food security (livelihood) *CELCOR, WWF, RCF, WCS, DNPM,

OCCD *Increased incidences of diseases (water &

sanitation)

*CELCOR, WWF, DNPM, WCS

*Impacts on infrastructure and environment *OCCD, WWF