Climate change adaptation has become as important as mitigation of climate change. Often technical solutions are prioritized (such as building sea walls). Is there any benefit from including people's knowledge in adaption measures, or do they just not have the insights and skills to understand the challenges of and solutions to climate change?
Absolutely Eberhard. It is native wisdom that is being used with a more sophisticated language.
good question! without being awareness, they would be participating and contributing every ecological process.
In my opinion, all indigenous communities have dealt with some form of climatic extremes (flooding, droughts, cyclones etc.) in the past when technological solutions didn't exist. So surely climate change adaptation measures can either build on or integrate the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK's) of the indigenous communities with relevant technological solutions. Who knows these solutions may be cheaper and accepted more easily by indigenous communities compared to technological solutions alone which might be more expensive and require skills the communities might not necessarily possess or understand. Following is an example of a paper that supports the view that adaptation strategies need to incorporate TEK's and respect the views of local people in order to be accepted.
Article Responding to multiple climate-linked stressors in a remote ...
Bottom-up decision-making always works better than top-down. Involving the very people that have to live with the consequences of climate change is better than deciding for them in far-away offices. Local knowledge benefits from long-term day-to-day experience of an area. Pretending to know better because one has a high position in a university or government is condescending and counter-productive. Solutions are often more in behavior change than in infrastructure building.
Yes, indigenous knowledge contributed to climate change adaptation directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly.
Yes, i agree with the fact that indigenous knowledge system and their adaption are a great asset to the support system of climate change for these knowledge system are based from experiences to the changes in the environment and yes they play an important role in sustainability of the environment in the more natural way to say the least.
Using indigenous knowledge can be very useful as well, a good example was earlier this year when a tropical depression hit the southern parts of the Gilbert islands and also Tarawa, an elderly man who has no qualification on meteorology predicted the storm almost a month before it happened and warned his family and friends ...just from looking at the stars.....and his family and friends were prepared for the disaster that hit the Gilbert Islands early this year..
Knowledge of any kind, scientific or otherwise, can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Plants and animals seem to be able to do it, or risk becoming extinct.
Indigenous knowledge is particularly important as it is native to the local population, practical and applicable and has been relayed down their generations. Indigenous knowledge is gradually applied observing nature and the changes which are more of a slow onset. Introduced adaptation measures are in most instances too rapid, too technical and more costly and unaffordable to local communities who get caught up and are lost in between getting back to applying traditional methods or the introduced adaptation measures. A integration of the two methods is important. Yes traditional knowledge has a very important role to play which has a level of comfort to the owners
The word climate change might be new to some indigenous people, but with the increase awareness via the media and other platforms people started to collate what is seen on the ground by the means of high sea level raise, soil erosion, droughts and flooding etc and the message through the awareness on the issue.
I believe, we can count on our indigenous people's traditional knowledge in fighting climate change. Because climate change affects both their wellbeing and livelihood hugely and they will do what ever it takes to fight it.
Failures of developing initiatives to address climate change concerns have revealed that western technologies and conceptions may not be appropriate for many developing countries' cultural contexts. Sustainable solutions must depend on indigenous knowledge that is culturally appropriate.
I’m trying to do some research on this topic. Does anyone know any specific groups who have permaculture/regenerative agriculture type foundations?
This is not my research area, but I know that research in the development literature shows that indigenous knowledge can help stem climate change and eco-system deterioration. Colonial and agribusiness farming practices increased desertification, damaged soil chemistry, enhanced patriarchal relations (women were/are primary decision makers in farming in much of the world) etc. Indigenous knowledge, including on farming practices, can often restore soil and even reclaim desertified land. The literature and activism around "agroecology" gets at a lot of this but that is just one example.
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