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Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses pp 131–148Cite as

Good Fishing in Rising Seas: Kandholhudhoo, Dhuvaafaru, and the Need for a Development-Based Migration Policy in the Maldives

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Part of the book series: Global Migration Issues ((IOMS,volume 6))

Abstract

Recent research has shown that many people dependent on environmentally-based livelihoods have begun to use migration as a method of adaptation to deal with climate stresses on their livelihoods. Utilizing circular, seasonal, and temporary migration can assist households dependent on natural resources such as those in the agricultural sector. While this strategy can be employed by individuals and households through their own agency, there are others for whom migration as adaptation is needed but harder to realize. This is the case for some fishing communities in the Maldives. Isolated and close to sea level, Kandholhudhoo is a case study in the deterioration of living conditions before an economic base and the limits of adaptive capacity. For many years, rising seas have battered this small and over-crowded island, flooding homes and damaging buildings. Local interviews provide evidence of resilience, but also a lack of options. Inhabitants detail rising seas within their lifetimes and individual strategies for coping with the changes they have experienced such as replacing their belongings. The specific vulnerabilities of isolated islands to climate change necessitates a policy response to allow for individual agency to be more freely used. Not every interviewee desired to choose mobility, but most could not afford it even if they had wanted to. Development policy has the potential to assist those seeking to utilize internal migration as adaptation, but in the Maldives the process has been slow and has only benefitted a few. Policy suggestions which consider issues of overpopulation, island structural integrity, a limited economic resource base, and temporality are proposed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Where the Rain Falls is a collaborative project by CARE France, the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

  2. 2.

    This percentage is an aggregate mean of this percentage per location.

  3. 3.

    Some of the in depth interviewees had also completed the survey.

  4. 4.

    The semi structured interviews did not specifically ask about fishing and this information was offered independently.

  5. 5.

    D10, a member of the Atoll Council, did not discuss environmental changes in his interview, but was not asked about them specifically. He was primarily used as reference as to the islands’ redevelopment and infrastructure and did not offer any information on this topic independently.

  6. 6.

    Prior to the tsunami.

  7. 7.

    Neither the Atoll Council member nor the former Island Chief (D10 and D13) were asked personally if they had considered moving from their previous island.

  8. 8.

    Roughly estimated as a “handful” of families by the former Chief.

  9. 9.

    The interview was conducted in between a series of several contested elections held after President Nasheed was ousted in a coup. The administration at the time was headed by Mohammad Waheed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adaptation Strategies International, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Andrea C. Simonelli

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  1. Andrea C. Simonelli
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Correspondence to Andrea C. Simonelli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst for Environm & Human Security, United Nations University, Bonn, Germany

    Andrea Milan

  2. German Development Institute, Bonn, Germany

    Benjamin Schraven

  3. Inst for Environment & Human Security, United Nations University, Bonn, Germany

    Koko Warner

  4. Inst for Environmental & Human Security, United Nations University Inst for Environmental & Human Security, Bonn, Germany

    Noemi Cascone

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Simonelli, A.C. (2016). Good Fishing in Rising Seas: Kandholhudhoo, Dhuvaafaru, and the Need for a Development-Based Migration Policy in the Maldives. In: Milan, A., Schraven, B., Warner, K., Cascone, N. (eds) Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses. Global Migration Issues, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42922-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42922-9_7

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42922-9

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