Union Island Climate Change Adaptation: Enhancing resilience of communities and globally important biodiversity through pioneering climate-smart tourism and curbing land-based stressors to coastal areas

Despite Union Island’s unique biodiversity and stunning vistas, impoverished communities suffer water shortages and are heavily dependent on seasonal tourism and importing necessities. Poor land-use, inefficient waste management and unsustainable development are exacerbated by climate change. An innovative climate change analysis will allow us to predict and map the local biophysical impacts of climate change and model the effects of different ecosystem management regimes. This, along with socio-economic data, will inform the participatory development of a viable, responsible, climate-smart tourism plan. Chatham Bay, a Key Biodiversity Area, serves as a community-managed model ‘ridge to reef’ pilot site for new tourism enterprises. The project will strengthen the local CBO, UIAE, to support the community’s ongoing EbA response to climate change and demonstrate how conserving natural ecosystems reduces risks to local residents and their livelihoods from upland soil run-off, garbage and gray waters, and the threat of destructive developments imposed by external tourism interests.