What is shaping vulnerability to climate change? The case of Laamu Atoll, Maldives

As climate change accelerates, it brings with it numerous challenges to society and the natural world. Concepts such as vulnerability have emerged as a way of trying to understand people’s risk, despite there being a range of variables that can influence vulnerability and its temporal and spatial dimensions. Drawing from the well-known conceptualisation of vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, this paper seeks to understand what variables are influencing and shaping vulnerability in Laamu Atoll, the Maldives, and produce a base of knowledge for future vulnerability reduction initiatives. Household questionnaires (n=412) were used on Laamu Atoll to ascertain locals’ perceptions of vulnerability based on livelihood resources, financial security, and climate-change experiences. Results show that peripherality, as a notion that describes the disparities between ‘core’ and ‘peripheral’ islands, is a key factor shaping vulnerability variables on Laamu Atoll. This has prompted an overarching recommendation for peripherality to be considered as a key dimension of vulnerability to climate change and an important consideration for existing and future human development and climate change policy and practice in Small Island Developing States.