How adaptive capacity shapes the Adapt, React, Cope Response to climate impacts: insights from small-scale fisheries

As the impacts of climate change on human society accelerate, coastal
communities are vulnerable to changing environmental conditions. The
capacity of communities and households to respond to these changes (i.e.,
their adaptive capacity) will determine the impacts of climate and
co-occurring stressors. To date, empirical evidence linking theoretical
measures of adaptive capacity to community and household responses remains
limited. Here we conduct a global meta-analysis examining how metrics of
adaptive capacity translate to human responses to change (Adapt, React,
Cope Response) in 22 small-scale fishing case studies from 20 countries
(n=191 responses).  Using both thematic and Qualitative
Comparative Analysis, we evaluate how responses to climate, environmental,
and social change were influenced by domains of adaptive capacity. Our
findings show that adaptive responses at the community level only occurred
in situations where the community had Access to Assets, in combination
with other domains including Diversity and Flexibility, Learning and
Knowledge, and Natural Capital. In contrast, Access to Assets was
nonessential for adaptive responses at the household level. Adaptive
households demonstrated Diversity and Flexibility when supported by strong
Governance or Institutions and were able often able to substitute Learning
and Knowledge and Natural Capital with one another. Standardized metrics
of adaptive capacity are essential to designing effective policies
promoting resilience in natural resource-dependent communities and
understanding how social and ecological aspects of communities interact to
influence responses. Our framework describes how small-scale fishing
communities and households respond to environmental changes and can inform
policies that support vulnerable populations.