Exploring the co-benefits of disaster risk reduction for human, animal and ecosystem health from a rural island perspective

Rural island residents need to generate and sustain place-based responses to a range of social and ecological challenges, including climate change. This research explores how islanders—and the social profit sector they have built—understand and are taking action to foster health and wellbeing in the age of climate change. This qualitative study utilized key informant walking interviews with members of the social profit sector on Cortes Island off the West Coast of British Columbia to explore how: 1) wellbeing is understood by the social profit sector; 2) the impacts of climate hazards are being experienced locally; and 3) how organizations are responding to climate change on Cortes Island to reduce risks related to their sector. Theories of political ecology and eco-social approaches to health were applied to this case to illustrate how action on the social and ecological determinants of health serve as a strong basis for well-being promoting interventions that have co-benefits at the community level related to climate change. This study found that despite participants valuing both the social determinants of health and the ecological determinants of health as central to wellbeing, a hierarchy existed for the social determinants of health over the ecological determinants of health due to the necessity of meeting basic social needs. The links between the impacts of climate change and the work that participants pursued in their organizations varied significantly, as conceptualizations of the ability of organizations to address climate change ranged from organization's mandates being completely aligned and funded to address climate change hazards and organizations not having the capacity to address climate hazards. Participants highlighted issues of governance, funding and capacity as barriers to integrating climate change considerations into their work on Cortes. These findings highlight the need to ground climate change in discussions with rural communities in ways that align with existing work being pursued to address community priorities.