Climate change is expected to amplify existing environmental risks and unequally impact rural people living in vulnerable locations in poorer countries. Using data from recent fieldwork, this paper will outline the results of a baseline cross-disciplinary study assessing the vulnerability and perceptions of people living in Labasa (a coastal-deltaic marginal town developed on a floodplain) in northern Fiji (South Pacific), a region widely acknowledged as being particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change. Global perception studies show that response to climate change is influenced by a number of social and psychological factors, one of which is risk perception. To investigate the perceptions held by the people occupying this ‘risky’ area, a social survey (N = 420, mean age = 39.78 years; SD = 14.93) was conducted.

Risk perception showed a positive association with behavioural adaptation (r = .210), psychological adaptation (r = .317), and willingness to support initiatives on climate change (r = .434). All correlations were significant at p < .001. The main constraints for not making a behavioural change identified were financial constraints (24%), lack of awareness or motivation (30%), too inconvenient (25%), too big a problem for one person to solve (35%), or simply not knowing what to do (40%). Overall, results from this study can assist in the design of effective adaptation and risk communication strategies in vulnerable communities in Fiji and in the Asia-Pacific.