Understanding cultural losses and damages induced by climate change in the Pacific region: evidence from Fiji

The global climate has undergone significant changes since the industrial revolution. These changes have been causing catastrophic consequences for life on Earth, disproportionately impacting the world's poorest communities despite their minimal contribution to the causes of climate change. The urgency of addressing this injustice has prompted international efforts, such as the United Nations (UN)-led loss and damage funding framework. However, current assessments of climate-induced losses and damages tend to focus merely on economic dimensions, often neglecting the cultural and social impacts. This study addresses this gap by assessing local communities’ relative valuation of the losses and damages to cultural heritage compared to other sectors such as infrastructure and agriculture. Our study was conducted in 10 coastal villages in Fiji, involving 100 participants. Each participant was tasked with allocating a hypothetical climate change compensation fund of 100,000 Fijian dollars per village across five sectors, including cultural heritage. In addition, the participants rated the level of importance they attach to losses of cultural heritage compared to losses and damages in other sectors. Participants consistently allocated 19% of funds to cultural preservation, highlighting its importance alongside infrastructure, agriculture, and social services. This prioritization held steady across gender and age demographics, underscoring a shared cultural recognition within Fijian communities. Furthermore, 79% of participants ranked cultural heritage losses as equally or more important than losses in sectors like agriculture and infrastructure. Our findings emphasize the need to integrate cultural heritage losses and damages into climate impact assessments, adaptation strategies, and compensation frameworks, and challenge the conventional practice of prioritizing economic losses in climate change impact assessments. We argue for the adoption of a balanced, holistic approach in climate change policy that values cultural heritage alongside economic resilience of local communities.Climate change impact assessments should include cultural heritage as a core aspect of community wellbeing.Policy makers (regional, national and international) should embrace losses and damages to cultural heritage as a central part of their climate change adaptation efforts.Local communities should be involved in the decision-making process to shape adaptation priorities and ensure the implementation of culturally relevant strategies.