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Understanding the cultural impacts of climate change harms on small-scale fisher communities through the lens of cultural ecosystem services

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Abstract

Small-scale fisheries sustain the livelihood and well-being of hundreds of millions of people globally. However, climate change threatens the existence of small-scale fishers (SSF). The harms caused by the changing climate adversely impact not only the economic aspects of the life of these fishers but also their cultural lives, which can lead to deteriorating individual and communal well-being. Using the concept of cultural ecosystem services, which emphasizes the intertwining of nature and culture, this study applied participatory mapping, photovoice, and focus group discussions with members of SSF communities living on a small island in Indonesia to understand how climate change alters the culture of their communities. Climate change was perceived to cause direct and indirect impacts on the cultural lives of these communities. Climate change directly threatens the sense of historical continuity as it was seen to cause damages to sacred coastal sites used for praying and burial. The indirect harms to culture caused by climate change mainly arose from the difficulties in performing traditional livelihood practices, which relied on local ecological knowledge. These practices were perceived to be crucial in maintaining a sense of collective identities and ensuring social cohesion. Crucially, our study participants acknowledged that the adaptation measures the communities had performed, mainly in terms of shifting fishing grounds, may not reduce the risk of future migration. Overall, these findings act as a preliminary indication on how climate change can affect the cultural lives of SSF communities living in the Global South.

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Data availability

To protect the confidentiality and anonymity of our study participants, the full dataset used in this study is not made publicly available. However, upon request directed to the corresponding author, anonymized data can be made available.

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Acknowledgements

The authors (CM, RAP) would like to acknowledge the benefits received from the mentorship program through GCRF Blue Communities Early Career Researchers Network. The authors would also like to convey our deepest gratitude to all research participants, research assistants, and local authorities for their immense supports. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

Funding

This study received funding from the UNESCO MAB Young Scientist Award that supports fieldwork for researcher RAP (Grant Letter Agreement No. 4500 427 717). This work was also supported in part from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) under grant agreement NE/P021107/2 to the Blue Communities project.

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Contributions

Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis and Investigation, Visualization, Writing—original draft preparation, Writing—review and editing: CM, RAP; Funding acquisition: RAP; Validation, Writing—review and editing, Supervision: YP. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Radisti A. Praptiwi.

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Ethics approval

The protocol of this study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Universitas Esa Unggul (No. 0372–20.360/DPKE-KEP/FINAL-EA/UEU/XII/2020, approved on 2 December 2020). Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Maharja, C., Praptiwi, R.A. & Purwanto, Y. Understanding the cultural impacts of climate change harms on small-scale fisher communities through the lens of cultural ecosystem services. Maritime Studies 22, 41 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-023-00332-2

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