Paper short abstract:

This paper approaches the concept of resilience critically by looking at ontological assumptions of human-more-than-human interactions in Vanuatu. It discusses encounters with new environmental practices in adaptation projects for climate change and how they challenge or re-conceptualise resilience.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses approaches of improving resilience of communities in the face of climate change and shows how in rural Vanuatu horticulturalists reshape approaches to resilience along human-water-soil relations. Discourses about climate change in Oceania often connect resilience with the concept of vulnerability. In Vanuatu, resilience is discussed against the background of a population, which faces immense challenges due to natural disasters and prognosed problems for agriculture due to seasonal changes, including prolonged droughts. Therefore, the aim is to strengthen the resilience of people through adaptation measures; in order to either return to status quo after disasters (McDonnell 2020) or transform agricultural practices in order to secure food security. Participants in adaptation programs for food security are supposed to integrate new globalised measures for horticulture into their daily gardening practices. However, horticulturalists re-organise adaptation methods by interacting flexibly with humans, soil and water. In contrast to following standardised irrigation strategies, ni-Vanuatu explain that the soil shows them how to adapt their cultivation. Based on in-depth ethnographic research in Vanuatu, I approach the concept of resilience critically by looking at different ontological assumptions of human-more-than-human interactions. I explore ni-Vanuatu encounters with new environmental discourses and practices and ask how these encounters in adaptation projects might challenge but also re-conceptualise the notion of resilience.