Adaptation to Climatic and Socioeconomic Change in Rural Regions: The Case of the Prince Edward County Wine Sector

This thesis is an investigation of the adaptive processes in rural regions experiencing changing and often interacting socioeconomic and climatic conditions. These processes are empirically examined in a regional wine sector faced with climate change and rural restructuring. This case study of a regional wine sector contributes to the development of a general understanding of the socio-economic and institutional processes that interact with climate change to influence the ability of the wine industry to adapt to changing conditions. It is well established that climate change is already having an impact on the wine industry, but few studies document the adaptive capacity of regional wine sectors in terms of the human dimension of adaptation. Informed by a review of the literature investigating climate change and the wine industry and data derived from wine producers, an analysis is performed of recent climate change in the Prince Edward County wine region in Ontario, Canada. The results characterize local environmental knowledge, technical winegrowing and winemaking skills, and social and business networks as key determinants of regional adaptive capacity in the face of a changing and challenging climate. Collaborative efforts and information networks are also highlighted as important factors in the ability of a wine region to adapt to rural socioeconomic changes. Following a review of the literature on rural commodification, wine tourism, and terroir, a conceptual framework of terroir tourism is developed that represents the unique characteristics of a place that can be used to attract wine tourists and ultimately serve as a driver of economic development in rural areas. The framework offers a novel model for examining the potential for a wine region to be a successful agritourism destination based on a unique regional identity. Findings of this research indicate that regional wine sectors have the potential to play an important role in the adaptation of rural regions to socio-economic changes, as long as strong networks are fostered among wine growers and between the wine sector and the broader tourism sector. The establishment and maintenance of these networks will also help wine producers to acquire and share the environmental knowledge and technical skills necessary to adapt to a changing climate.