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Abstract
This dissertation examines the connection between natural resource use and disaster vulnerability in the face of increasingly unpredictable rainfall. I use research findings to break down false narratives about small-scale natural resource users and the disasters they often face. As disasters increase in frequency, the time between them reduces, and compound disasters form. Little is known about how climate-related compound disasters impact livelihoods in those communities most directly reliant on the natural world. From a month of preliminary research in 2016 and a year of fieldwork in 2018-2019, I trace changes from the compound disaster (Hurricane Matthew followed by a months-long drought) that occurred between periods of research. I studied in the town of Camp Perrin, Haiti, once considered a place apart from the rest for Haiti, having an abundance of natural resources and remaining self-sufficient without the need of foreign or state intervention. I worked with local people to identify factors that make households more vulnerable to the disasters. I likewise identify the various adaptive strategies used in 2016 and 2017 and how they influence future household well-being and vulnerability. I combine theory from disaster studies, medical sciences, ecosystem services, livelihoods, adaptive capacity and vulnerability, and social-ecological system feedback to form new pathways of understanding of how rural Haitians and similar communities experience disaster. My findings discredit two false narratives about small island developing states and the small-scale natural resource dependent communities living in them. First, I reveal climate change induced reduction of choice portfolios for how households engage in natural resource-based livelihoods, leaving options known to be less desirable but necessary for survival. This and similar findings discredit the false narrative that local people use natural resources out of ignorance and apathy. Second, I explore systemic interactions that produce vulnerability and reduce adaptive capacity over long periods of time. This discredits the false narrative that disasters are random and temporarily isolated “natural” events. This integrative approach and these findings are essential to reframe narratives of Haiti and similar nations and to better prepare for continued change and climate unpredictability.