Climate Change Adaptation: A Thematic Analysis of Narratives of Fisher Folk and Tribal Farmers

The escalating global warming of the planet is aggravating the consequences of climate change, particularly among the marginalized sections of the population. The planning of climate change adaptation policies often subverts locally immersed practitioners’ perspectives. The research on indigenous communities’ capabilities to make adjustments to climate change, while growing, has been still relatively sparse. The gaps are particularly discernible with reference to acknowledging the social element in the context of adaptation and in precluding knowledge beyond academic parameters from the debate. The proposed research intends to draw from the narratives of long-form conversations with two fisher folk and three tribal farmers in the Visakhapatnam coastal region, from the point of view of the stages of public adaptation outlined by Risbey et al. (Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 4:137–165, 1999). This study uses qualitative analysisQualitative analysis along with the elements of the grounded theoryGrounded theory approach to derive themes from the interviews of fishermen regarding climate change concerns and adaptation practices.