Project: Strengthening Coastal Socio-Ecological Resilience to Climate Change, a Frontier Science Challenge

Abstract

his research is part of the project “Scientific foundations for strengthening socio-ecological resilience to climate change in coastal areas of Mexico,” and aims to provide the scientific basis for strengthening the resilience of coastal socio-ecosystems (SES) to the challenges of climate change (CC). Its activities are organized around four areas: understanding the socio-environmental challenges of the adverse effects of CC, identifying governance capacities to address these challenges, identifying training and budgetary requirements to develop alternative productive activities, and developing community-based adaptive coastal management programs. Each area was designed to strengthen the knowledge of decision-making bodies for socio-environmental resilience, harmonize local empirical knowledge with scientific knowledge to enrich decision-making, and promote sustainable practices in coastal ecosystems. For each SES: 1. Local scientific and empirical knowledge on the challenges faced in order to be resilient to the adverse effects of CC will be systematized; 2. The governance capacities that communities will need to develop to counteract the effects of CC will be identified through socio-environmental education and responsible, inclusive, and participatory communication; 3. Alternative productive activities to fishing that contribute to improving living conditions will be identified, as well as the technical and financial feasibility of carrying them out; 4. Capacities for inclusive community planning will be built to improve the socio-environmental resilience and well-being of coastal communities. The project will enable collaborative, co-responsible, and ongoing strengthening based on the identity of each SES, with a model that can be replicated in other coastal communities in the Yucatan Peninsula and Mexico.

Keywords: Coastal socio-ecosystem, socio environmental governance, climate change, sustainable economy, comunity wellbeing, evolutionary learning community.