Paper short abstract:

During adaptation projects people with different assumptions about the world encounter. Consequently, knowledge transfers often do not take place as intended by implementing organisations. The paper looks at alternative approaches of people in Vanuatu to talk about and act within their environments.

Paper long abstract:

In many places in Vanuatu, various development organisations run so-called adaptation projects with the aim to change practices and to increase the knowledge of people and thus prepare them for adverse effects of climate change. These projects, and the knowledge they intend to transfer, are based on assumptions derived from natural science that include the separation of environmental changes and human actions. The paper shows that people in rural regions of Vanuatu categorise their world differently and it illustrates some basic characteristics. For them, climate change is not an environmental phenomenon that people influence or are influenced by, but also means changes in the way the community itself lives together. Accordingly, their actions after the implementation of an adaptation project often do not meet the expectations of the development organisations. The paper argues that in order to establish a constructive communication between the parties involved, it is not sufficient to record so-called local knowledge and to try to include it in the project designs. It is necessary to discuss basic assumptions of the people about their world and to establish a shared approach to problems carved out in this process. In order to achieve this, it may be necessary to scrutinise the concept ‘knowledge’.