Cultivating island futures

Mapping Local Knowledge in Seas of Change

“How can island sustainable development better include sustaining communities, cultures, and ways of life?”

Photography by Riley Tsang

Small island communities in the Pacific are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While maps have aided in showing the threat of rising sea levels (Gerhardt, 2023), more work can be done to incorporate indigenous and local knowledge in climate adaptation, planning, and cartographic processes (Sultana, 2022). This important yet underrepresented knowledge is further threatened by climate migration and tourism overdevelopment. Given this context, how can cartographic practice be opened up to include indigenous and local small island communities and incorporate their knowledge, practices, and responses in conversations around sustainable development and climate resilience?

To address this question this transdisciplinary project hosted creative participatory map-making workshops with a local community of farmers, weavers and student journalists in Siargao, the Philippines.

This project is a collaboration between scholars from Netherlands-based institutions, Utrecht University, Department of Sustainable Development, and Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, and practitioners from Lokal Lab, a grassroots NGO based in Siargao.

Through a three-day workshop they documented local knowledge on ecology, climate adaptation and resilience. Together using drawing, writing, poetry, and oral history, different maps regarding the experience on the island, challenges faced by the community, as well as the hopes and dreams of the islanders were made. The outcome of these workshops is combined in an atlas called “Atong Isla, Atong Ipasigarbo: Mapping Siargao Island in Seas of Change.” (Translation: Our Island Our Pride) The purpose of the atlas is to provide an intergenerational lens into what sustainable development would mean in the island from the perspective of local community members. This can help inform policy and climate adaptation decisions, as well as deepen the understanding in academe to learn from bottom-up approaches to sustainability.

Project Team

  • Cara Flores: PhD Candidate, Department of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, Project Lead
  • Charmae Pyl Wissink-Nercua: Specialist in Urban Land, Housing Governance, & Capacity-Building at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
  • Elena Marie Enseñado: Specialist in Nature-based Climate Change Adaptation Planning at IHS
  • Nash Cruz, Graphic Designer based in Manila, Philippines
  • Photography by Riley Tsang

With support from Lokal Lab staff Grant conceptualization supported by Zuleika Bibi Sheik