Climate change-induced relocation dilemma between preserving cultural heritage and embracing modern infrastructure: insights from Fijian coastal villages

The Pacific Island nation of Fiji, renowned for its cultural heritage, is facing unprecedented challenges due to climate change. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events are threatening Fiji's cultural heritage. Despite the profound significance of cultural heritage in Fiji, both international and national discussions on climate change-induced losses and damages tend to focus predominantly on economic aspects, often neglecting the cultural and social dimensions. To understand how local communities balance cultural heritage preservation and other socio-economic benefits, we employed the choice experiment technique combined with face- to-face interviews. Conducted in ten coastal villages, the research engaged 100 participants who evaluated 16 hypothetical relocation scenarios and rated the importance of different dimensions of cultural heritage. The findings revealed that cultural heritage emerged as a critical dimension of community life, with churches, fishing grounds, community ties, and place attachments being highly valued. The choice experiment results uncovered that there was a significant heterogeneity in participants' views, especially concerning the relocation of burial grounds. Improvement in infrastructure, particularly road connectivity, was consistently favoured, while the proximity of new villages to the old locations (i.e., place attachment) played a crucial role in relocation scenario selection. Participants were willing to accept relocation to distant locations if the relocation scenarios involve quality roads and/or a kindergarten. Intriguingly, participants demonstrated a willingness to contribute more labour under favourable relocation scenarios, which deviates from the conventional economic theory that postulates labour contributions create disutility. The willingness to contribute more labour in our experiment is likely driven by cultural norms and values surrounding communal labour and a strong desire for ownership of the newly established village. These insights underscore the need for holistic climate change adaptation strategies that are not only resilient but also culturally sensitive and community centric.