Community-Based Adaptation: Samoa

Samoa, a small island developing state in the South West Pacific, faces significant climate change risks.  These include sea level rise, increasingly intense storms, changing rainfall patterns, and impacts to ecosystems.  As a semi-subsistence nation with approximately 70% of the population and infrastructure located in low-lying coastal areas, these impacts will pose significant risks to community livelihoods and to Samoa’s sustainable development.  Awareness of climate change impacts has been particularly increased since the impact of tropical cyclones Ofa (1990) and Val (1991), which caused damage costing approximately four times Samoa’s gross domestic product.

Samoa’s climate is tropical and marked by distinct wet and warm (November-April) and dry and cool (May-October) seasons. Temperatures are typically tropical (ranging from 24-32° C daily) and generally uniform throughout the year with little seasonal variation. The rainfall and humidity are usually high, with the average annual rainfall about 3,000mm.  Approximately 66% of precipitation occurs during the wet season.

Samoa and other Pacific Island Countries have observed increasing average temperatures (0.3-0.8°C) during the 20^th century, with a mean increase in Samoa of 0.59°C.  The maximum and minimum temperature has also increased by 0.67°C and 0.18°C respectively, while precipitation has decreased by 49.28mm over the same period. Climate change projections suggest that this pattern will continue and accelerate, with increasingly frequent drought events, and increasingly intense rainfall events.   Recent studies of cyclones in and around Samoa’s region have found that there has been an increase in the frequency of tropical depressions, gale wind forces, and tropical cyclones during the cyclone season (December to February).

In addition to these observed changes, climate change scenarios for Samoa – prepared for the NAPA, the National Communications to the UNFCCC, and from the IPCC fourth assessment report – project the following:

• Reduced overall annual rainfall
• Higher occurrences of high-intensity rainfall events
• Increased average temperature
• Rising sea-levels, and
• Increased tropical cyclone frequency and intensity.

These projected climate changes are expected to pose significant and interlinked risks to communities and ecosystems across Samoa. For example, droughts will increase forest fire risks, and in turn increase erosion risks.  Erosion from increasingly erratic rainfall poses significant risks to mangrove ecosystems and to near-shore corals.  Damage to coastal ecosystems, from sedimentation as well as coral bleaching, increases vulnerability to cyclones, large waves, and storm surges.  Cyclones, large waves and storm surges have the potential to damage and salinize community water resources and agricultural land.

Community-Based Adaptation projects will address these climate change risks though improved natural resource management, with the aim of increasing the resilience of ecosystems and ecosystem services in the face of climate change. Projects in Samoa address the following two objectives:

• Enhance resilience of natural resources and livelihoods sensitive to climate change impacts through improving community adaptive capacities to sustainably manage natural resources;
• Through lessons learned from community projects, provide support to national adaptation policies and strategies, to reduce community vulnerabilities to the long-term effects of climate change and variability.