Four core principles to reconcile sociocultural conditions and disaster risk reduction in pursuit of community resilience

As environmental risks, particularly climate change, exacerbate vulnerabilities, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) has increasingly prioritised community protection. However, communities' unique and contextual nature often renders top-down risk management efforts unsustainable or ineffective. To address these limitations, the community-based approach (CB) has emerged as a promising alternative. It is grounded in four interdependent principles: local participation, valuing diversity and inclusivity, integrating local and indigenous knowledge, and building local capacities for greater autonomy. Each of its principles benefits each other through a dynamic of interconnection and interdependence, which collectively ensure that DRR strategies are tailored to each community's specific needs, strengths, and sociocultural contexts. By promoting decentralised decision-making, participatory governance, co-production, and social learning, the CB approach aligns DRR efforts with local realities, making them more sustainable and effective. Although challenging to implement due to resource constraints and political dynamics, CB remains a vital pathway for building long-term community resilience in the face of evolving environmental risks. This paper provides a comprehensive framework for aligning DRR strategies with sociocultural conditions, offering practical insights and actionable recommendations to enhance community resilience.