Integrative Human Resilience: Infrastructure, Institutions, and Interspecies Relationships in Flood Adaptation, Tacana TCO 1, Bolivia

Abstract

This thesis explores flood adaptation and resilience in five fluvial communities located within the Tacana 1 TCO. It argues first that the ways by which these communities are addressing climate change and engaging in activities of adaptation need to be reviewed within the context of the history and policies that have had continued impacts on the communities in the region. Second this thesis will argue for the need to develop better understanding of local community needs and perspectives to better understandthe processes by which adaptation isoccurring and develop more accurate understanding of the needs and interests of the communities impacted by climate change. This thesis uses three aspects of resilience to explore historical, political and ecological factors that, while found in theories or empirical studies of resilience and adaptation, are not often enough integrated with one another: those of infrastructure, institutions, and interspecies relationships. This thesis will first describe the history of the region and argue of the importance of this history in understanding contemporary infrastructure and access. Second it will explore institutional relationships and development, throughthe policies that encouraged these collaborations and moving forwardto investigate local perceptions ofinstitutional impacts in comparison to local interests. Last in willreviewcontemporary narratives of adaptation and vulnerability focusing on perceptions, risks, and access and interspecies relationships within these communities. At the end I will combine these narrativesdemonstratehow resilience is understood and the necessity of developing effective and accurate understandings of adaptation with these combined lenses.