The Initiative

Indigenous peoples living in the most biodiverse and fragile ecosystems of the planet are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their direct reliance on the local natural systems for their well-being and their disadvantaged socioeconomic standing caused by historical, and often ongoing, political and social processes of discrimination. Some sectors of vulnerable indigenous populations, such as women, are disproportionately affected by climate change, feeling a multiplied impact, both as women and indigenous peoples. Climate change, which is felt strongly on the local level by indigenous peoples, is the result of interacting local and global processes. Assessment of the impacts of climate change and mitigation policy has focused mainly on reduction of emissions and more recently on building adaptation strategies to overcome current impacts and potentially catastrophic future trends. The recognition of the unique situation of indigenous peoples and their holistic worldview though requires attention to drivers that create differentiated impacts on indigenous communities and the ecosystems they inhabit.

At the same time as continuing to be environmentally and politically vulnerable to climate change, indigenous peoples potentially hold the knowledge and cultural practices to manage climate change based on their experience of historically managing change through their holistic worldview. The practice of mitigating the impacts of and proactively adapting to change for indigenous peoples is an ongoing process of living in an interconnected world by enhancing resilience of their biocultural systems to support the practical philosophy of buen vivir; living harmoniously and maintaining reciprocity between all elements. Protection of indigenous territorial rights and self-determination are, therefore, required for protection of some of the most important areas of biological and cultural diversity of the world. Current climate change science and policy do not provide participatory, transdisciplinary and multicultural frameworks necessary for empowering indigenous peoples to build resilience through their own self determined process of development and adaptation.

Considering the speed at which the world’s climate is changing, there is an urgent need to develop effective strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change both locally and globally. So far, climate change science and policy has offered indigenous peoples top down mitigation and adaptation alternatives that are associated to global carbon markets with little consideration of their rights and local biocultural systems. In this context, there are, on the one hand, real people, indigenous people, fighting to protect and maintain the land, which is a foundational component in the resilience of their ecosystems and cultures; while on the other hand, there exist fictitious carbon markets based on fictitious capital. The local assessments and corresponding responses to climate change will help differentiate between two types of ownership, social or collective vs. private or monopolic, to provide alternative adaptation strategies that are appropriate to indigenous frameworks.

The IPCCA offers a conceptual framework that will empower local indigenous communities to assess the impact of climate change drivers on their ability to enhance indigenous resilience of their biocultural systems and support buen vivir, paying special attention to the rights of women and children. Simultaneously, an assessment of global climate change drivers will be performed to enhance understanding of how indigenous peoples are affected. Together, the two approaches will be synthesized to produce practical local responses and national and global policy responses.

Broad Objective

To empower indigenous peoples to develop and use indigenous frameworks to assess the impact of climate change on their communities and ecosystems and to develop and implement strategies for building indigenous resilience and adaptive strategies to mitigate impacts while enhancing biocultural diversity for food sovereignty and self determined development or “Buen Vivir.”

Specific Objectives

  1. Provide a clear picture of the current impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples and their ecosystems at the local scale.
  2. Deepen the understanding of the relationship and linkages between climate change, indigenous resilience and indigenous buen vivir, including human rights and cultural survival with special attention on the most vulnerable sectors such as women and children.
  3. Demonstrate the potential of indigenous resilience and buen vivir to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  4. Build scenarios with indigenous communities and nations for future adaptation to climate change and socioecological resilience.
  5. Identify and evaluate policy and management options for climate change adaptation, harmonizing them with indigenous peoples’ buen vivir.
  6. Develop an indigenous knowledge base portal (IKBP) on indigenous peoples and climate change based on indigenous reciprocity, commons and open source principles.
  7. Influence national and international policy making forums on climate change and strengthen the representation of indigenous peoples in said forums.