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Adapting to Climate Change: Thresholds, Values, Governance, eds. W. Neil Adger, Irene Lorenzoni and Ka ren
O’Brien. Published by Ca mbridge University Press. © Cambr idge University Press 2009.
255
I n t r o d u c t i o n
C o n t i n u o u s o v e r - shing and declining sh stocks have caused many scholars to
proclaim a global crisis in sheries (Pauly et al., 1998 , 2002 ; Worm et al., 2006 ;
Clark, 2007 ). The extent and cause of this crisis are complex and heavily contested.
Despite this uncertainty, there is growing consensus that the future of sheries is
severely threatened and urgent action is required if marine ecosystems are to func-
tion in the future ( FAO, 2000 ; Pauly et al., 2002 ; WCSD, 2002 ). It is within this era
of alarm that sheries must now contend with an additional threat – that of human-
induced climate change. Most research on sheries and climate change focuses on
the predicted impacts of climate change on the sh – s h e c o s y s t e m s ( W a l t h e r e t
al., 2002 ), sh abundance (Stenevika and Sundbya, 2007 ) and sh habitats (Pittock,
1999 ). More recently, the impact of climate change on the economic future of sh-
eries has received growing attention (Eide, 2008 ). This chapter expands on this
debate by taking the social angle on the sheries crisis – an exploration into how
the s h e r a n d shing society is adapting (or not) to the many changes and chal-
lenges now faced.
Fishing is an inherently risky and unpredictable business. It remains one of the
most dangerous of all human livelihoods (Perez-Labajos, 2008 ) and shers often
live with high levels of income uctuation and uncertainty. Despite this, the ‘thrill
of the hunt’ and ‘ nding of sh’ has been interpreted as a valued aspect of sh-
ing life – the adventure and challenge of sheries playing an important role in
job satisfaction (Pollnac and Poggie, 2006 p. 333). Pollnac et al. ( 1998 ) argue that
this type of psychology serves to adapt shers to the dangers and risks of their
occupation. Fishers also frequently display occupational diversity and innovation
in their income-earning activities (McCay, 1978 ; Allison and Ellis, 2001 ). Despite
1 6
A d a p t a t i o n a n d c o n ict within sheries: insights
for living with climate change
S a r a h C o u l t h a r d
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256
the inherent risks in sheries, shing societies have lived, and lived well, for
generations with the unpredictability of the sea and its bounty. Fishers, worldwide,
have perhaps already earned the right to be considered as expert adapters.
Whilst the livelihood of shing may embed a degree of adaptability in its very
nature, the continued pressures from the sheries crisis has led many shers to
the limits of their experienced coping range. It is this aspect that deserves greater
attention from wider debates on adaptation to climate change. Many shers world-
wide are faced with tough decisions – to remain within an increasingly uncertain
livelihood or to change their livelihood, heritage and way of life in order to sur-
vive. Adaptation responses emerge from a range of shing countries and different
cultures and are able to inform research about what to expect from adaptation and
the challenges raised in supporting adaptation successfully. As Adger et al. ( 2003 )
argue, the present challenge in adaptation research is to recognize the varied sen-
sitivities to climate change exhibited by different sectors, as well as the need for
enhanced adapt ation to face f uture climate change outside of the ‘exper ienced cop-
ing range’ (emphasis is author’s own).
The aims of chapter are 2-fold: to provide insight into how adaptation is currently
being negotiated by shing societies, and to contribute towards conceptual thinking
on adaptation in the context of the sheries crisis. In doing so, it combines literature
and theory from the arenas of sheries management, rural livelihoods and climate
change. A recurrent focus of the chapter is the role of culture in the process of nego-
tiating adaptation in sheries. In this sense it contributes to wider debates on the
centrality of culture and values in facilitating adaptation to climate change.
The chapter starts with an overview of the sheries crisis, its many drivers and
contestations and the recent additional threat from human-induced climate change.
Adaptation by shing society is clearly necessary within this crisis. However, pres-
sures to adapt stem not only from falling sh stocks but also from sheries manage-
ment and policy approaches. A popular solution to the sheries crisis is the removal
of shers, as a means of reducing shing pressure on threatened stocks. The chapter
explores some of the implications of this policy, in particular the growing con ict
between livelihood needs and conservation measures. The choices shers face can
be hypothesized as two extremes: a temporary ‘coping’ with the problems in sher-
ies in the hope for better days ahead, or ‘adapting’ to pressure by leaving the shery
entirely and nding an alternative livelihood. The role of culture is pivotal to this
decision-making process and can act as either a facilitator or barrier to adaptation .
The crisis in sheries
Under present trends, some scholars (Worm et al., 2006 ) predict the collapse of
all commercial sh stocks within the next 50 years, and yet millions of people are
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Adaptation and con ict within sheries 257
directly dependent upon shing for a livelihood and as a source of protein rich
food security ( FAO, 2000 ; Allison and Ellis, 2001 ). The consequences of such a
prediction are clearly catastrophic at a global scale, affecting both mankind and
ocean functioning and diversity. However, it is important to note that, comparable
to debates on climate change, the extent of the crisis in sheries remains scienti -
cally uncertain and politically contested. Assessing the viability of s h s t o c k s i s
a complex science (Hilborn and Walters, 2003 ), which often produces recommen-
dations that are unpalatable and unpopular in the political and public spheres. As
the nature of the crisis is complex, so too are the drivers. Assignment of blame for
the crisis varies across different scienti c disciplines, each with its own method of
explanation and understanding.
A clear contributor to the sheries crisis has been our historical approach to sh-
eries development and a maximization of shing capacity and pressure. Until quite
recently, the world’s oceans had been assumed as an inexhaustible resource, which
could improve the lives of shers worldwide through the upgrading of technol-
ogy and properly marketed produce. During the rst half of the twentieth century
Western countries therefore industrialized their sheries. Developing countries,
aiming to build up their economies and improve lives for millions of poor, followed
suit in the period after World War II. International institutions such as World Bank
and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) assisted in
modernizing shing eets and improving access to global markets. One outcome
of such development measures is that in the present day, a substantial proportion of
the world population – particularly in the South – is directly or indirectly depend-
ent upon the existence of sheries. This number of dependents is growing. During
the past three decades, the number of shers has grown faster than the world’s
population: in 2006, an estimated 30 million people worked as shers, the great
majority of these in Asia, Africa and Latin America ( FAO, 2006 ) . In very basic
terms, there are ‘too many people chasing too few sh’, a phrase commonly used
to express the large population of shers and their growing technological capacity
to increase the size of catch.
The crisis in sheries also re ects a crisis in management. The open access
nature of sheries is commonly cited as an underlying driver of over-exploitation.
This was characterized in Hardin’s ( 1968 ) ‘Tragedy of the commons’, which pre-
dicts that all open-access regimes, such as oceans, will succumb to over-exploitation
and degradation due to a lack of de ned property rights. Open access denotes that
access to the resource is unregulated, free and open to everyone and as such, the
resource is susceptible to misuse and overuse. However, a growing body of scholars
has countered the assumptions of this tragedy, illustrating the capabilities of many
societies to organize themselves and govern natural resources is a sustainable way
(Feeny et al., 1990 ; Dietz et al., 2003 ). Increasingly, it is argued that the erosion of
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258
traditional management laws and institutions contribute to the crisis in sheries
management, particularly in small-scale, or artisanal sheries. Subsequently, there
are growing calls for better recognition of traditional property rights and greater
incorporation of local knowledge in sheries management (McCay and Acheson,
1987 ; Dyer and McGoodwin, 1994 ; Finlayson and McCay, 1998; Berkes, 2004 ).
Despite multiple interpretations of the sheries crisis and its causes, the world’s
scientists and policy-makers have reached a consensus that, variation accepted, sh-
eries worldwide are threatened by over-utilization at an unsustainable rate (FAO,
2000 ; Pauly et al., 2002 ; WCSD, 2002 ). It is within t his atmosphere of urgency and
alarm that fears develop over yet another threat to sheries – that of human-induced
climate change. We have known for some time that climate has a strong in uence
over sh abundance. A good example is the El Niño–Southern Oscillation ( ENSO)
phenomenon, an ocean–atmosphere event in uencing sea surface temperatures,
oceanic circulation and nutrient availability (Wang and Schimel, 2003). Located
in the tropical Paci c, El Niño and La Niña events have a worldwide impact on
weather and climate (IPCC, 2001 ) and cause serious oscillations in many sh
stocks especially in Latin America (Ibarra et al., 2000 ). This type of global cli-
matic variation makes the assessment of s h s t o c k s a n d shing trends particularly
dif cult (Watson and Pauly, 2001 ). Nevertheless, the last decade has seen a urry
of research attempting to assess and predict the impacts of human-induced climate
change on marine ecosystems and sheries (Walther et al., 2002 ). The latest IPCC
( 2007 ) reports on climate change state, with high con dence, that ob serve d ch anges
in marine and freshwater systems are associated with rising water temperatures.
These include shifts in ranges and changes in algal, plankton and sh abundance
in high-latitude oceans, and range changes in s h m i g r a t i o n r i v e r s . E m p h a s i s i s
placed on expected regional changes and shifts in the distribution and productivi-
ties of sheries. Local species extinctions will occur at the edge of ranges, whilst
in some cases productivity can increase (Easterling et al., 2007 , p. 275).
The vulnerability of sheries from human-induced climate change therefore
seems 2-fold. First, given the multiple facets of the sheries crisis it is dif cult
to segregate impacts from climate change from all other pressures which marine
ecosystems currently face. It will therefore be dif cult to know where and when
regional shifts and changes occur, making prediction and response to impacts
tricky. Vulnerability becomes more pronounced when we consider who might be
at risk from regional changes in sheries. Large commercial shing eets argu-
ably have some capacity to follow sh abundance wherever it occurs in the world’s
oceans. But the small-scale, artisanal sher has a much poorer migratory choice, at
least at a multi-regional scale. The vulnerability of small-scale shers has been rec-
ognized by the IPCC, who state (with high con dence) that complex and localized
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Adaptation and con ict within sheries 259
impacts will be felt by ‘small holders, subsistence farmers and shers worldwide’
(IPCC, 2007 , p. 29)
A d a p t a t i o n i n sheries: necessities and pressures
At a global scale, sheries are clearly changing and their future is undecided.
At a regional and local scale, declining sh catches are a serious problem for
many coastal communities (Marshall, 2001 ; Atta-Mills et al., 2004 ; Gutberlet
et al., 2007 ). Fishers are well aware of the problems in sheries and frequently
live with diminished returns and fragile pro ts. However, it is not only unpre-
dictable catches that spur the need for adaptation. The management response to
the sheries crises is, in many ways, creating a crisis of its own amongst shing
peoples.
Increasingly, the dominant discourse of sheries science and management
i n t e r v e n t i o n s f o c u s o n p r e s e r v a t i o n a n d c o n s e r v a t i o n o f sh stocks. This is under-
standable given the urgency with which over shing must be addressed, and with
recognition that conservationists have spent years trying to prioritize the sheries
crisis on the world’s political agenda. A popular solution is to reduce the number
of shers and boats, as a necessary means of conserving s h s t o c k s , b i o d i v e r -
sity and habitats. This ‘removal of shers’ from sheries is often enacted through
providing alternative livelihoods, a now frequently recommended management
approach (Pomeroy et al., 1997 ; Kühlmann, 2002 ; Pauly et al., 2005 ). Another,
related, approach is the establishment of Marine Parks with no-take zones, which
again require shers to stop shing to allow ecosystem recovery and replenish-
ment of stocks (Roberts, 1997 ; Agardy, 2000 ; Pauly and Watson et al., 2005). Such
mechanisms often come hand in hand; marine park initiatives are now advised to
aim for some level of livelihood security for shers (Pomeroy et al., 2004 ). This is
often in the form of compensation, involvement in management and reserve pro-
tection, buy-back schemes and alternative employment in tourism (Roberts and
Hawkins, 2000 ). However, as is discussed extensively in development and conser-
vation literature marrying the aims of conservation, sustainable livelihoods and
economic development is extremely challenging (Salafsky et al., 2001 ; Majanen,
2007 ). Initiatives for reducing shing pressure frequently marginalize important
actors whom, as a result, withhold support (Brown et al., 2001 ). Marine reserves in
particular have been an arena for con ict between ‘protecting’ and ‘utilizing’ sh-
eries (Faasen and Watts, 2007 ). As Christie ( 2004 ) argues, a marine protected area
(MPA) may be a biological ‘success’ – resulting in increased sh abundance and
diversity – but a social ‘failure’ – lacking participation in management and con ict
resolution mechanisms. Such con icts have spurred calls for a pro-poor approach
to conservation (Brockington et al., 2006 ; Kaimowitz and Sheil, 2007 ) and better
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linkages between conservation and development research (Brown, 2002 ; Brown
et al., 2002 ; Balint, 2006 ; Baral et al., 2007 ) .
Conservation of sh stocks and nding alternatives to shing livelihoods can be
viewed as an adapt ive strategy in response to t he sheries crisis. However, sheries
biologists and managers have, it seems, underestimated the ease with which people
can be moved out of sheries – and this now has repercussions on the workability
and acceptability of ‘adaptation’ through sheries management. Fishing societies
have lived with the dynamic sea for generations; their cultures are thus inextrica-
bly bound to the marine environment and its many changes . What is missing from
the biology-dominated discourse on sheries is the strong cultural (McCay, 1978 ;
McGoodwin, 2001 ), traditional (Dyer and McGoodwin, 1994 ) and even religious
(Kraan, 2007 ) associations, which are so evident in sheries – and their centrality
to making management work.
Adaptation is often discussed in an international setting as governments debate
how to support adaptation and who is responsible for doing so (Paavola and
Adger, 200 6 ). However, adaptation is enacted at the individual level where it is not
autonomous but framed by social structures and process (Adger, 2003 ; Paavola
and Adger, 2006 ). Fishers who face a declining catch or/and pressure from sh-
eries management have a degree of choice in how they respond. Either change
livelihood, moving out of sheries, or continue shing and ‘wait it out’ – which
may involve shing with diminished returns, low income and/ or ignoring leg-
islation and new initiatives. Illegal and unregulated shing remains widespread
( S u m a i l a e t a l . , 2 0 0 6 ) a n d n o n - c o m p l i a n c e t o shing law is common (Nielsen
and Mathiesen, 2003 ). Binkley ( 2000 ) describes in detail the coping strategies
employed by struggling Nova Scotia shing-dependent households who are ‘get-
ting by in tough times’ . She states: ‘by restructuring their work shing-dependent
households hope that they can get by until the shery bounces back’ (Binkley,
2000 , p. 323). These days, many shers are caught ‘between a rock and a hard
place’ – there is growing doubt that the sh will come back; it is even more doubtful
that the sheries legislators will leave.
Adaptation is thus necessary – however, it is important to conceptualize and
differentiate the degree of adaptation that is chosen and possible. Amid hanging up
one’s net or continuing to sh in de ance of growing hardship, there are in-between
options to be mediated, namely livelihood diversi cation .
From diversifying livelihoods to diversifying
out of sheries: coping or adapting
One way of organizing these concepts of choice, diversi cation and adaptation
within sheries is by better distinguishing the terminology of coping and adaptation.
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Adaptation and con ict within sheries 261
Within climate change discourse the terms coping strategies and adaptation are
often used interchangeably and sometimes even intermixed, such as adaptive coping
mechanisms as described by Brouwer et al. ( 2007 ) . Whilst coping with and adapt-
ing to climate change imply different aspects of time and process, the time element
and permanence which are associated with adaptation deserve greater attention.
Within sheries it seems particularly important to distinguish between the two.
Many shers, worldwide, exhibit multiple livelihood activities as a m eans of coping
with lean shing seasons and low income. As Allison and Ellis ( 2001 ) argue, sher-
folk diversify their livelihood for very good reasons; the high risk of the occupation,
seasonal uctuation in the resource, and the need to reduce the risk of livelihood
failure by spreading it across more than one income source. Marschke and Berkes
( 2006 ) go as far as equating livelihood diversity with the well-being of shers in
rural Cambodia. In their study, Cambodian shers emphasized that the ability of
household members to access multiple types of shing gear and techniques or to
combine livelihood skills such as raising animals contributed to the adaptability of
the household and successful well-being (Marschke and Berkes, 2006 ).
A s t h e sheries crisis deepens, however, shers are increasingly under pres-
sure to permanently leave the shery – to hang up their nets, sell their boats and
nd a new way of living. This movement out of sheries is a longer-term adapta-
tion and a more permanent response to the sheries crisis. Marschke and Berke’s
article clearly shows an association between multiple livelihoods and well-being
as a recognized source of resilience to risk and threat – this is, however, quite dif-
ferent from the act of leaving the shery and choosing a different livelihood as a
permanent change. Marschke and Berkes ( 2006 ) emphasize the bene ts of multi-
ple livelihoods, which are pursued largely in addition to their shing way of life.
Would shers describe the same sense of well-being if they were asked to remove
themselves from shing entirely?
Livelihood studies give a wealth of theoretical debate on the relationships
between coping and adaptation. Davies ( 1996 ) argues that adaptation occurs when
coping strategies become permanently incorporated in the normal cycle of activi-
ties. She argues that coping strategies are too often seen as an inherently good
thing (Davies, 1996 , p. 61) and that adaptation can be either positive or negative.
Positive adaptation is of choice and can be reversed if fortunes change and usually leads to
increase security and sometimes wealth . It is concerned with risk reduction and is likely
to involve an intensi cation of existing livelihood strategies or a diversi cation into neigh-
boring livelihood systems … Negative adaptation is of necessity, tends to be irreversible
and frequently fails to contribute to a lasting reduction in vulnerability. It occurs when
the poor are forced to adapt their livelihoods because they can no longer cope with short-
term shocks and need to alter fundamentally the ways in which they subsist. (Davies and
Hossain, 1997 , p. 5; Van der Geest and Dietz, 2004 ).
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262
In advocating the necessity for adaptation, do we suf ciently consider the different
types of adaptation which may emerge: positive and negative; chosen or enforced
adaptation and all the shades in between?
Adaptation in sheries could be envisaged as a clear decision to move out of
sheries – to ‘hang up one’s net’ and substantially rely on non- sheries means to
provide a household income. Adaptation in this sense is closely related to the con-
cept of transformability in socio-ecological systems thinking. Transformability has
been de ned as ‘the capacity to create a fundamentally new system when ecologi-
cal, economic, or social (including political) conditions make the existing system
untenable’ (Walker et al., 2004 , p. 7). According to sheries conservationists, this
may be the only viable option – a transformation of the system, through substantial
adaptation by mankind, to secure sustainability for future sheries. Walker et al.
( 2004 ) argue that transformability is closely related to adaptability – it is only when
adaptability fails that transformability takes place. With this in mind, it seems that
sheries management has gone straight to advocating a phase of transformability
without suf ciently considering the opportunities for adaptation and resilience that
may exist within shing society itself. Transformability requires capacity ‘to create
untried beginnings from which to evolve a new way of living’ (Walker et al., 2004 ,
p. 8). This is a tall expectation from shing societies – not only are many shers
locked into their livelihoods through heavy investment in gears and knowledge but
this also means leaving one’s history, heritage, culture and traditions behind. The
cultural appropriateness of transformability through change will be fundamental in
any attempts to bring about a sustained reduction in shing pressure .
C o n c l u s i o n
This chapter posits that in the midst of a sheries crisis, shers worldwide are react-
ing to change and new pressures. Responses by shers can be visualized in terms
of coping, non-temporary responses such as livelihood diversi cation, or adapta-
tion, a permanent departure from the shery into a non- shing related occupation .
Choices and decisions about whether to cope with or adapt to the shers crisis are
socially and culturally driven (Adger, 2003 ). In the context of livelihood diversi -
cation, Frank Ellis ( 2000 ) reminds us that ‘Choice, or the lack of it, does not obey
some sort of de nable break point between two mutually exclusive states. There are
many instances where individual choice may be socially circumscribed at standards
of living well above the survival minimum … households and individuals can also
move back and forth between choice and necessity seasonally and across years’
(Ellis, 2000 , p. 56). If we consider those shers who choose to make ends meet in
the hope of a revival in the shery, as illustrated by Binkley’s ( 2000 ) description of
shers getting by in Nova Scotia, these points become particularly pertinent.
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Adaptation and con ict within sheries 263
The decision of one sher to leave the shery is likely to be in uenced by his
or her fellow shers and the social institutions in which sheries are embedded
(Coulthard, 2006 ). Necessity to adapt within the shery will also change season-
ally and between years. Fish catches oscillate and this may serve to relight hopes
of a return to better incomes – a reason to remain a sher, and disagree with the
perceived crisis.
Perceived necessities to adapt thus wax and wane over any given period in the
shery. Understanding how social relationships function in such an uncertain
environment, both within and between individual, household and societal levels,
requires long term observation of the social aspects of a shery. Adger ( 2003 ) illus-
trates how collective action and social capital can be the foundation of coping with
extremes in weather and for community-based management of natural resources.
However, it can also be a barrier to adaptation – people may rely on each other
to stand rm against the pressures to adapt, where this involves perceived unac-
ceptable levels of change. Strike action may hold similar parallels in so much as it
depends on identi cation a common cause, institutional organization and ghts for
a collective identity (Beckwith, 1998 ).
In conclusion, if adaptation interventions are to be effective and sustainable,
they must be built on an understanding of the values people have and the cultural
settings by which these are structured and in uenced. However, the challenges of
learning from local cultures in propagating adaptation are steep. In particular, it
will be dif cult to link nation wide polices with local realities and cultural specif-
ics. Adaptive co-management may be one way to progress, especially givens its
cla i ms to bridge di fferent levels of organization and to enable system governa nce to
be more supportive of self-learning at the local level (Folke et al., 2005 ). Adaptive
co-management has been de ned as a process by which institutional arrangements
and ecological knowledge are tested and revised in a dynamic, ongoing, self-or-
ganizing process of learning by doing (Folke et al., 2002 ; Ollson et al., 2004 ).
It combines the dynamics of adaptive management (Holling, 1978 ) with the col-
laborative management and sharing of power and responsibility between multiple
actors (Olsson et al., 2004 ).
In sheries, many shers know their systems well and there are certainly oppor-
tunities for effective management through collaboration, as well as evidence of its
success (Pomeroy et al., 2001 ; Nielsen et al., 2004 ). It is important to recognize,
however, that the nature of shers’ responses to change is shaped by a negotiation
of, and trade-off with, other factors. Co-management of resources often prioritizes
t h e s u s t a i n a b i l i t y o f t h e r e s o u r c e ( t h e sh). The well-being of the sher may be stimu-
lated by other factors, a preserved identity, culture and social cohesion being amongst
them. Olsson et al. ( 2004 ) argue that successful adaptive approaches depend upon
exible institutions, which are able to respond to feedback and support resilience.
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264
However, many cultures, religions and beliefs are in exible and non-negotiable,
which may make adaptive co-management problematic. Furthermore, adaptive
co-management recognizes the importance of working with key leaders. They
provide leadership, trust, vision, meaning, and they help transform management
organizations toward a learning environment: ‘Lack of leaders can lead to inertia
in social–ecological systems’ (Olsson et al., 2004 , p. 451). In the context of sher-
ies, this creates another potential challenge. Key persons in a shing society, those
with position, trust and in uence, may well be those least able to leave the shery:
boat owners, heads of sherman associations, exporters. Those with most in u-
ence to bring about co-management may also be those with the most to lose from a
change in the shery, especially where that change instigates a decline in shing .
Culture, it seems, can act as either a facilitator or barrier to adaptation and
its role must be better understood, and worked with, in both sheries and cli-
mate change management. It is therefore important to consider the substantial
potential for learning between the realities of adaptation in sheries and wider
academic and policy debates that encircle adaptation to climate change. Ttthere
may be learning opportunities from the successes and failures of adaptation and
its propagation in sheries, which can inform the shape of current adaptation
strategies in climate change. Certainly within sheries, the social and cultural
aspects that motivate sher behaviour need as much attention as the ecological
changes which fuel the current crisis . Culture evolved alongside society’s ability
to live with change in the past, and thus must be central in living with change in
t h e f u t u r e .
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