Bridging knowledge: Transdisciplinary approaches to climate adaptation in the Pacific

Abstract

This panel posed the following guiding question: how can we conduct research that is truly relevant to the countries in which we work? What factors enabled us to formulate useful questions for populations and decision-makers in the context of climate change? What difficulties did researchers and institutional staff encounter when conducting such demanding research? Finally, what results were expected and discussed during the project's development? The panel proposed exploring these issues based on five years of transdisciplinary and applied research on climate change and adaptation conducted in the Pacific Islands. These islands, which are highly exposed to hazards, have also served as testing grounds. Since 2022, the CLIPSSA (Pacific Climate, Local Knowledge and Adaptation Strategies) project has been bringing together climatologists and social scientists with institutional and political actors in Vanuatu, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna to co-develop a programme aligned with the priorities of local authorities. After a year of consultation with governments, the food-water-agriculture nexus was selected as a common focus, with family farming — central to food security — being chosen more specifically. A crucial component focused on linking indigenous and local knowledge, climate science and public decision-making more effectively to accelerate adaptation. The consortium's researchers presented three contributions: (1) producing future atmospheric projections at a Pacific scale (20 km grid) and at a very high resolution on the islands (2.5 km); (2) analysing future climate impacts on agriculture in Melanesian and Polynesian contexts; and (3) studying the ways in which family farmers combine knowledge, experience and know-how today. Beyond the methods and initial results, the panel examined the constraints and opportunities of such approaches, fuelling a debate on their expected effects