The Community Perspective Towards the Effect of Climate Change Adaptations on Rule Breaking Incidences by Coastal Stakeholders: A Case Study in Rekawa in Southern Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is endowed with a long coastline and a diversity of coastal resources which providing livelihoods to thousands of coastal dwellers. Coastal resources are being used by a multitude of stakeholders; marine fishers, lagoon fishers, farmers, tourism stakeholders. As these stakeholder groups have different interests and in achieving their aims, they tend to impose negative externalities on each other as well as on the existing legal patterns which leads to rule breaking incidences. The coastal ecosystem is also heavily subjected to climate change and people’s adaptations in coping with climate change also have implications on existing rule breaking incidences. In this context, the study was undertaken, which aimed at identifying the implications of climate change adaptation strategies on rule-breaking incidences. The study was carried out in Rekawa, in Hambantota District of Southern Province in Sri Lanka. The primary data sources consisted of a focus group discussion and a field survey with a structured questionnaire. Focus group discussion was conducted with a sample of 24 purposively selected stakeholders including 6 representatives from each stakeholder group. A sample of 104 households was selected for the field survey with a questionnaire, following the stratified random proportionate sampling method. The study revealed that all stakeholders experienced and observed changes in climatic parameters, and extent of the impacts of these changes on their livelihood activities varied among stakeholder groups. All stakeholder groups adopted strategies to cope with the impacts of changes in climatic parameters while marine fishers and lagoon fishers were highly affected by the impacts of climate change than farmers and tourism stakeholders. The study also revealed that the strategies adopted by stakeholders affected the existing legal systems by generating rule breaking incidences which led to conflicts between stakeholder groups. Further, this study helps to identify the conflict resolution methods to the response of rule-breaking incidences incurred as a result of climate change adaptation strategies.