In rural parts of many Pacific Island countries, significant differences exist between cores and peripheries. Core communities may be better informed about the science of global change and better equipped to respond to its impacts; peripheral communities often have less such awareness. Yet much of the cultural resilience that has allowed such communities to survive for millennia is lost in core areas while in peripheral communities it remains stronger, often as traditional environmental/ecological knowledge. These disparities are clearest in archipelagic (island) countries but have not been recognized by agencies seeking to enable adaptation. Adaptation to global change in the rural Pacific may succeed only when it combines scientific with traditional knowledge. Science is needed to help communities cope with unprecedented environmental change while traditional knowledge localizes adaptation and expresses cultural resilience that will help sustain adaptation. The project will study 12 core and peripheral communities in the Federated States of Micronesia and Fiji. Information will be collected about exposure to environmental risk, awareness of global climate change and its (recent/future) manifestations and responses. This will allow assessment of the influence of peripherality (a measure of geographical distance from cores) that is key to effective policy development and adaptive interventions.