Assessing the Potential Role of Education as a Tool for Adaptation to Climate Change in two Rural Communities in Solomon Islands

More than 85% of the Solomon Islands’ population live in villages and communities within 1.5 km from the coast. Therefore, these communities are exposed to extreme ocean-based events, whose intensity and variation are expected to increase due to climate change. The government realises the expected devastating impacts on the population, and has partnered with aid-donors to invest millions of dollars in climate change related programs, especially mitigation, adaptation and transformation strategies in rural communities. This paper describes people´s perceptions of the role of education as an adaptation and transformation tool to cope with negative impacts from climate change. We describe the situation of two study sites in rural communities in Solomon Islands. One study site covered Oibola Village, Langa Langa Lagoon, Malaita Province, in 2013. The second study site covered communities of Keigold and Mondo, Ranogha Islands, Western province, in 2015. In both locations, we identified that communities were applying a climate change focused education that can be considered a useful model for adaptation to climate change to be replicated in other rural communities in Solomon Islands. In both study sties, we found converging insights with regard to participants’ strong beliefs that formal education provided a long-term adaptive mechanism to climate change and extreme environmental events.