Context
Trinidad and Tobago, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) is vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. Physical size, susceptibility to natural disasters, a small population (~1.4 mil), economic vulnerability, and low adaptive capacity (1,2) are all factors that contribute to the small islands’ vulnerability. The effects of climate change are impacting the cultural survival, livelihoods, and physical and mental well-being of island communities. Furthermore, the negative mental health impacts of climate change on SIDS populations are projected to worsen (1,3).
Community Description
Trinidad’s north/northeast coast is famous for its beautiful, picturesque coastal communities and beaches including Grand Rivere, Waimea, La Fillet, Blanchisseuse, Maracas and Las Cuevas. Within rural/coastal communities in Trinidad, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are very high levels of both dimensions of place attachment – ‘place identity’ and ‘place dependency’. Place identify manifests in the ‘emotions, values, memories, attitudes, and behaviour’ of persons in these small, remote communities where many family generations live/ lived and where familial ties and strong relationships extend beyond bloodlines. Furthermore, the livelihood of many families in these communities is directly linked to their ‘resource/materially driven relationship with their environment’ – ‘place dependency’. Income for many families is generated from fishing, farming, and tourism. Their ‘place dependency’ is manifested in the ‘functional bonds’ they have with their environment through recreation, occupation, or social activities (4,5).
From as early as 2011, Sargassum seaweed started appearing in unprecedented amounts, lining coastal areas of the North Atlantic and the Caribbean including Trinidad and Tobago. While Sargassum seaweed is a crucial part of the ‘marine ecosystems and provides food, habitat, nursery, and a migration route for marine organisms’, in proliferated amounts, it can result in adverse environmental and health (including mental health) outcomes (6). Annual invasions lead to high levels of place disruption in coastal communities – that is, ‘negative emotions and grief experienced when one’s community/environment’ is ‘modified, degraded or destroyed’ (5). These negative emotions and grief result from the interruption in fishing and boating activities, its profound effects on wildlife and coastal pollution as well as on recreation and tourism. Physical health can also be impacted by the invasion of the seaweed and include ‘problems breathing, drowsiness, fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, irritability, poor memory, and dizziness when exposed to hydrogen sulphide, the gas that is emitted when the seaweed decomposes on hitting the shores’ (6).