Page - 375 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

15 UnderstandingLossandDamage inPacificSmall Island… 375 prominentconcernsacrosssectorsalthoughitisrecognizedasanon-climaticimpact. Someof theriskestimateshavebeenforexample informedbytheTropicalCyclone Pamrelatedassessments,e.g.,withinthetourismsectorandbynationalassessments. There is a need to recognise where loss and damage occur across sectors and groups: for example, the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) after TC Pam found that 69%ofall disaster effectswas found in theprivate sector (private enter- prises and individual ownership)with the rest occurring in the public sector. This isclearlyasignificantfinding,whichdemonstrates the importanceofunderstanding theprivate formal and informal sector better in thePacific region.Asset ownership levels and variance therefore could form an important baseline consideration for assessing loss and damage for example from tropical cyclones in the region. The PDNAcoveredboth the formaland informal sectorsof theeconomy. WhileTCPam illustrates themanydimensions ofL&Dpracticalities, from the livelihoodpoint of view it also raises thequestionof the inter-linkages between an extreme rapid event and slowonset processes, andwhat thesemean inmeasuring lossanddamage.OnTannaisland,whichwashit thehardest inVanuatubyTCPam, the foodcrops inparticularwerebadlydamagedand it tookat least ayear for them to recover and to support communities again in termsof food security andbuilding materials. This can be partly attributed toElNino,which strengthened at the time ofTCPamleading todroughtconditionswithsignificantdecreases insoilmoisture andrainfall impeding livelihoodandfoodsecurity recovery.Seedlingsplantedafter TCPamwerenot able togrowandproduceadequate foodcrops.Without available vegetablesfromthegardens,someremotecommunities,whodonotnecessarilyhave access tomonetary income, experienced significant food insecuritywith increased healthproblems.Shouldthen,adeclineinhealthstatusbeassessedaslosses/damages if inadequate levelsofnutritioncauseapermanentdecline inhealthofpeople in the communities?Also,ifthesameplaceandsamepeoplearehitbyasequenceofevents in a relatively short timespan,would the loss and damage then be calculated from healthy intact ecosystems or from the already degraded ones after themost recent event? What this illustrates is the interconnectednessbetween rapidonset extremesand slowonset processes in creating loss anddamage in a particular context. This also posesadilemmatointernationalmechanisms,whicharetryingtoassessforexample thelevelandscaleoflossanddamageduetoparticularimpactsandevents.Inthecase ofVanuatu, one could argue thatwhile thePDNAdoesgive somekindof estimate of the damage and loss (which is an underestimation as per the report), it provides a snapshot of the impacts andwould require longer termmonitoring and reporting that then can be used to determine to what extent loss and damage have become irreversible/permanent, and inwhich sectors, places and activities (Government of Vanuatu2015).