Indigenous Knowledge Can Help Address Climate Change

As climate change increasingly threatens populations across the globe, indigenous communities relying on rain-fed agriculture are especially vulnerable. Yet governments and policymakers have developed and implemented climate change adaptation plans rooted almost exclusively in Western scientific knowledge. These plans have consistently ignored or omitted the knowledge and expertise developed by indigenous communities themselves, despite the fact that these communities are the ones grappling with and adapting to the effects of climate change on a daily basis. Incorporating indigenous knowledge into Western science-based climate change adaptation plans is an untapped opportunity that can be mutually beneficial to both the communities and policymakers who must deal with a changing planet.

A recent paper by Cuthbert Casey Makondo and David S.G. Thomas of the University of Oxford argues that the integration of indigenous communities’ knowledge with scientific knowledge may have the potential for development of more sustainable and effective climate change adaptation plans. Through a review of indigenous communities’ adaptation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa, the paper attempts to achieve two goals: first, to enhance the reader’s understanding of these strategies, and second, to identify areas of indigenous knowledge that can be integrated with scientific knowledge to improve climate change adaptation plans.

To conduct this review, the authors interview 18 indigenous leaders in Zambia who are considered by their communities to be experts in developing coping strategies for changes in environmental conditions and climate. Based on the interviews, the authors categorize indigenous knowledge into different themes such as migration, land management, resource and utilization.

The interviews reveal that indigenous communities have long considered and developed adaptation plans for a changing environment and climate. For example, the paper explores how many indigenous communities practice swidden agriculture, a method of rotational farming in which land is cleared for cultivation by fire, then left to regenerate after a few years. Similarly, migration patterns among indigenous communities have evolved to address seasonal climate variation. Pastoralists migrate at certain times of the year and come back months later, leaving pasture idle during unfavorable climate conditions. The siting of water sources, as well as the conservation of water through techniques such as rainwater harvesting, were developed by indigenous communities for domestic use and food crop production. Indigenous communities also employ vegetation biomarkers and sediments to monitor water table levels. All of these practices and behaviors, according to the authors, can be extremely valuable and can be incorporated into future climate change adaptation plans.

Having outlined the adaptations by indigenous communities, the rest of the paper argues that integrating traditional ecological knowledge with mainstream science is important in implementing sustainable climate change adaptation plans. The authors explain that the current model of climate change adaptation involves policymakers identifying problems and implementing solutions through direct intervention in indigenous communities. This, the authors contend, increases disenchantment and resentment among communities on the receiving end, especially when technical considerations take priority over economic and other social considerations of the community. As a corrective action, the paper argues for identifying a new framework for integration of indigenous knowledge, greater cognizance of social contexts of integration, expanding modes of knowledge evaluation, and more involvement of inter-cultural “knowledge bridgers.”

Though the paper provides only a limited number of examples of indigenous adaptations, the broader emphasis of the work is to highlight the importance of working closely with the communities directly impacted by climate change and integrating their knowledge into adaptation plans. Indigenous communities are often found in places that are most vulnerable to climate change. For policymakers, this poses a significant challenge. For long-term sustainable planning, it is important not to simply implement a top-down solution, but rather to consider indigenous communities as equal partners with crucial knowledge in designing climate change adaptation strategies.

Article source: Makondo CC, Thomas DSG. “Climate change adaptation: linking indigenous knowledge with western science for effective adaptation.” Environmental Science and Policy 88 (2018): 83–91.

Featured photo: cc/(Astanin, photo ID: 600993640, from iStock by Getty Images)