Of Winds, Seasons and Survival: Reimagining Climate Adaptation and Resilience Through Indigenous Eyes

Dystopian narratives of scorching heatwaves, relentless storms, unpredictable weather patterns, and unseasonal floods have all become increasingly prevalent nowadays. This is a clear consequence of failing to maintain an ecosystem balance, a simmering issue which was turned a blind eye to in the past decades, as unchecked developmentalism topped national agendas.

Illustration by The Geostrata

Climate change is now single-handedly posing a threat to our existence. It also has disproportionate impacts across various communities, with the vulnerable groups being more susceptible to the increasingly inhospitable face of nature. In order to adapt to multidimensional changes facilitated by climatic fallouts, indigenous populations rely on local and traditional knowledge systems to amp up their adaptation and resilience strategies.

This article shall look at the foundational role that indigenous and local knowledge can play in cushioning climate adaptation and resilience strategies. 

Indigenous and local knowledge refers to local wisdom and techniques, approaches, skills, practices, philosophies and uniqueness of knowledge within a particular culture, which is moulded by the local communities through accumulated experiences and informal experimentations. It is grounded in a close understanding of local environments and contexts.

The use of indigenous knowledge (IK) alongside scientifically developed approaches are now known to offer a comprehensive climate action framework. Contrary to the popularly held notion that IK architecture is static and fixed in time, it is a dynamic and multifaceted concept, often reflecting its diverse experiences and fluctuating character. 

Indigenous people can sense the heralding of a climate-induced disaster using social, biophysical and ecological indicators (Apraku et al. 2021; Granderson 2017; Hiwasaki et al. 2015). Since their lives are complexly and intimately intertwined with the environment they dwell in, the smallest of variances are easily observed and accounted for.

They pay attention to insects, birds, plants, animals, moon-star alignment, tides flows, snowdrifts, direction of currents and more; which encompasses crucial signs to understand the changing nature of the environment.

Accumulated knowledge about the aforementioned elements manifests in the form of traditional seasonal calendars, which includes geographical-context specific environmental observations. These calendars then dictate the local activities, social events and aid in the prediction of silently brewing dangers.

INDIGENOUS UNDERSTANDING AS CLIMATE COMPASS

Within the larger ambit of disaster management, climate change adaptation is looked at from different vantage points of ecological, economic and social contexts. Certain alterations are conditioned to be made, and can be in the form of modifying processes, practices or structures to reduce the risk of damage.

IK, therefore, is largely focused on tuning physical environments and human systems as a means of coping with future or present climatic catastrophes. 

In the Puno region of Peru, indigenous communities rely on their deep understanding of natural cycles like rainfall patterns, plant blooming and animal behaviour to know the best times to sow and harvest. Similarly, Chipaya people in Bolivia observe the wind, snow, clouds and stars to narrow down on what crops to grow and where.

The Comcaac people of Mexico lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle, relying on both desert and marine ecosystems to reduce the risk of exploiting one terrain. Their cleverly translated land-use pattern has been instrumental in building climate resilience, especially in fragile regions.

On the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, intercropping coconut and betel nut with banana plants enables farmers to cope with intense summer heat and tendencies of extreme dry spells. Interestingly enough, the Bethama practice in Sri Lanka imbues the temporary redistribution of land during dire weather events, to share water resources.

Needless to mention, these practices, when collectively drawn together and assessed, reveal the depth and sophistication of indigenous ecological acumen, which are indispensable reserves of sheer practical expertise. 

WHY INDIGENOUS WIDSOM COULD LEAD CLIMATE GOVERNANCE?

Effective climate adaptation strategies should be a feasible concoction of both modern scientific and indigenous approaches.

Developing this type of a well-rounded approach would then require coordinated action and inclusive policy processes wherein dialogue between indigenous communities and scientific actors jointly guide the co-creation of context-specific models and practices.

It is only in the face of such collaboration that climate adaptation and resilience models can enable the formulation of subnational and local climate actions plans which are rooted in nationally coherent yet locally responsive policy architecture. 

KNOWLEDGE THAT BREATHES: PRESERVING AN INVALUABLE REPOSITORY

Indigenous groups are selectively targeted and oftentimes also coerced into assimilating into the mainstream fold. Moreover, threateningly enough, the younger generations are increasingly alienated from the older population, thus reducing the scope for passing on and thereby sustaining the accumulated and age-tested wisdom.

This degradation of social networks within communities is directly proportional to declining resilience and augmenting vulnerabilities of indigenous communities. 

IKSs are undeniably in steady decline in the face of aggressive globalisation and erosion of cultural transmission pathways. Preserving indigenous climate wisdom requires dedicated documentation efforts, respect for community autonomy and the mindful integration of traditional systems into modern climate governance.

Simultaneously, these fragile communities are engaged in an ongoing battle involving their rights over land and other relevant territories. Stepping up their access to secure land tenures as well as their rightful entitlement to natural resources is immensely critical, as it would then continue to enable them to fortify a stable assemblage of indigenous knowledge systems. 

It is therefore high time we recognise and embrace IK as a living, evolving framework, which is imperative for navigating a turbulent environmental future. 

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BY NAKSHATRA H M

CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE ACTION

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com