Islands are more than land

What is it about?

Climate science and the media tend to portray small islands and atolls as sinking places that are doomed by climate change. The focus of these portrayals is the (rising) sea that threatens small, inert landmasses and powerless islanders. Yet atoll inhabitants conceive their environments not just as passive landscapes but as dynamic assemblages. The land in islands is actively shaped by islanders who have a special connection to their land as a symbolic, social and cultural entity to which they have legal obligations, not least the duty of custodianship that is at the base of in situ adaptation rather than mass relocation.

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Photo by Ernests Vaga on Unsplash

Photo by Ernests Vaga on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The importance of the land in islands does not only lie on what it is (how it is conceived, thought of, assembled and regulated) but on what it does, particularly in relation to the people: how it confers identity and sustains those who live on it, but also the obligations that it bestows on islanders both at home and abroad. This mutual agency of people and land determines the adaptation choices at hand (what can be done, not just in physical and utilitarian terms but also symbolically, legally and socially) and the motives for action. This association between land and identity is of paramount importance when it comes to climate change adaptation. This cultural and emotional connection to the land also provides a sense of communality between islanders and their environment; it is not only a source of strength and well-being but also the motivation to stay and adapt to climate change