Why history matters to planning: Climate change, colonialism & maladaptation

Abstract

Preparing for the future remains an enigma: Climate change is worsening and communities are already overwhelmed by disastrous impacts. Adaptation planning has the potential to prepare communities, yet adaptations are often maladaptive, having the unintended effect of increasing vulnerability. Maladaptation begets maladaptation, leaving communities trapped in maladaptive path dependencies (MPDs). Tracing maladaptation backward in history reveals how MPDs are deeply rooted in settler colonialism. This issue cannot be addressed by simply increasing adaptation efforts today. Exploring alternate paths may be the only means forward. Indigenous worldviews provide insight into ways of relating people and place beyond the colonial status quo, producing contextual, effective adaptations. Deep and personal biocultural relationships enable better understanding of complex socio-ecological systems, more accurate knowledge and, critically, adaptive learning. Currently, MPDs and extractive knowledge practices render adaptation co-management impossible: Indigenous Knowledge is appropriated to further development goals, erasing Indigenous Leadership and, in the process, hobbling adaptive learning. In this short perspective article we explore the temporal relationship of spatial planning, the impact of climate change and the urgent need for transformation. In particular, we showcase how in order to effectively address climate vulnerability, adaptation planning must first reconcile the historical roots of MPDs and ongoing Indigenous injustice.