Title: Assessing the local perception of climate change in a small island: a case study

Authors: José Benedicto Royuela; Sandra Hervías-Parejo; Barbara Ambros; Azucena De La Cruz; Artur Gil

Addresses: Department of Geography, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain; Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain ' Global Change Research Group, Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain ' Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, BirdLife International, Lisbon, Portugal ' Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, BirdLife International, Lisbon, Portugal ' Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) and Azorean Biodiversity Group, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal; Research Institute for Volcanology and Risk Assessment (IVAR), University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Abstract: The effects of climate change are global, but small islands are among the most vulnerable places. Local populations on small islands might have a ground-based perspective of the impacts that threaten them. This study was undertaken on Corvo (Azores), where 34% of the residents of both genders and different education levels were surveyed. Here, their understanding of climate change and their perception of its local impacts, the sense of risk, the local areas at risk, the willingness to propose mitigation and adaptation strategies, and the knowledge of regional procedures was analysed. Education played a crucial role in local understanding. The general perception was that the regional policies were insufficient to address climate change issues at the local level. This fact points out that the efforts to mitigate climate change impacts, and the public participation procedures for supporting policy-making, must be significantly increased and improved, in order to reach a real impact on local island communities.

Keywords: global change; local impacts of climate change; local perception of climate change; island-scale mitigation; adaptation policy-support; outermost European regions; OERs; overseas countries and territories.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2020.110211

International Journal of Global Warming, 2020 Vol.22 No.1, pp.30 - 53

Received: 15 Aug 2019
Accepted: 21 Mar 2020
Published online: 09 Oct 2020 *

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