Indigenous environmental knowledge and climate change adaptation

Abstract

Certain climate change impacts are now unavoidable. The importance of adapting to climate change impacts has become increasingly clear, particularly at the local and regional scales. Many entities are looking to community-based adaptation as a place-based response, and a vehicle for empowering individuals, families and peoples. In regions across the world, including the Pacific, an appeal to indigenous environmental knowledge (IEK) is also emerging. This chapter explores the possible integration of IEK into the laws governing climate change adaptation.Integration of IEK, in the adaptation context, describes at least two different phenomena. It describes the indigenous methods used to respond to historical extremes that climate forecasts portend with greater frequency and severity – such as floods and drought – and suggests proven adaptations. It can also describe a lens, or worldview, with which decisions should be made that might facilitate long-range, multigenerational adaptive governance.While there have been multi-scalar efforts to support IEK methods on an ad hoc basis, few have attempted to harmonize core indigenous worldviews with discrete methods used in the Western context. In other words, Western researchers and practitioners generally investigate and employ specific management strategies without also exploring and introducing the relevant worldviews that have fostered such strategies. Moreover, there has been even less discussion of how to integrate these worldview…