The Resilience of Indigenous Peoples to Environmental Change

Abstract

Indigenous peoples globally have high exposure to environmental change and are often considered an ''atrisk'' population, although there is growing evidence of their resilience. In this Perspective, we examine the common factors affecting this resilience by illustrating how the interconnected roles of place, agency, institutions, collective action, Indigenous knowledge, and learning help Indigenous peoples to cope and adapt to environmental change. Relationships with place are particularly important in that they provide a foundation for belief systems, identity, knowledge, and livelihood practices that underlie mechanisms through which environmental change is experienced, understood, resisted, and responded to. Many Indigenous peoples also face significant vulnerabilities, whereby place dislocation due to land dispossession, resettlement, and landscape fragmentation has challenged the persistence of Indigenous knowledge systems and undermined Indigenous institutions, compounded by the speed of environmental change. These vulnerabilities are closely linked to colonization, globalization, and development patterns, underlying the importance of tackling these pervasive structural challenges.

Climate change and COVID-19: reinforcing Indigenous food systems

“… 1 Climate change is compounding many of these causes of health inequities, undermining coping mechanisms that are traditionally used to manage extreme events such as pandemics, and disrupting food systems and local diets. 2 Addressing underlying structural inequities and strengthening Indigenous knowledge systems offer opportunities for building resilience to compound socioecological shocks, including climate effects and pandemics.…”

“…Climate change challenges the resilience of Indigenous food systems with direct and immediate repercussions for the health and nutrition of Indigenous populations. 2 In our highly connected world, the COVID-19 pandemic has easily travelled across continents, reaching remote geographical locations and Indigenous communities in less than 6 months. There is a vital window of opportunity to support Indigenous populations who face the double and syndemic burden of compound and cascading socioecological hazards, such as climate change and pandemics, by prioritising the protection of key Indigenous food sources (eg, tropical forests, Arctic ecosystems), by reinforcing and supporting the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems, by improving access to culturally safe health resources, and by and safeguarding access and rights to land and natural resources of Indigenous populations.…”

Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100

“…Indigenous groups, well-situated to assess ecological and human determinants of regional vulnerabilities, should be included in this process [89][90][91] as they point out 92 . Emerging research shows that plausible and desirable low carbon modes of living are possible 93 but challenging to implement 94 , particularly at scale and for billions of people distributed across urban and rural landscapes.…”

From Multidisciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity and from Local to Global Foci: Integrative Approaches to Systemic Resilience Based upon the Value of Life in the Context of Environmental and Gender Vulnerabilities with a Special Focus upon the Brazilian Amazon Biome

“…Indigenous communities can be important players in efforts to reduce forest carbon emissions because they have the knowledge and the consciousness of the forest lands [45]. Although researchers acknowledge local knowledge as a rich source of information, recognizing its potential to enrich the evidence basis for biodiversity conservation and sustainability, this is often neglected in the existing lock-in mechanisms and strategies [19,46,47].…”