The IPCCA Strategy
The three parallel IPCCA processes
- Global Assessments to be carried out by Working Groups focusing on how global processes that are drivers of climate change impact upon indigenous peoples.
- Coordination with local partners and working groups, and management of the Indigenous Knowledge Base Portal to ensure that local and global processes complement and build on each other as they progress.
- Local Assessments to be carried out by communities using indigenous inquiry methods to understand the impacts of climate change on their biocultural systems and build appropriate adaptation strategies.
The three processes are shown to be occurring simultaneously, and the red arrows indicate the flow of information between them.
Information from global and local assessments will feed into the knowledge base portal, managed by the Secretariat which will contain an intranet feature for IPCCA partners to exchange information. Each process will produce reports at specified points in the process that will also formalize facilitate knowledge exchange. Likewise, during the process, the Secretariat will coordinate development of synthesis reports.
Finally, the information produced during the assessments and in the reports will inform intervention and strategic responses for local, national and international spheres.
The strategy has been designed to facilitate the implementation of the UNDRIP.
Local assessments will promote the self-determination of indigenous peoples to inquire into their capacity maintain the resilience of the biocultural system and enhance their well-being to build strategic and appropriate responses for adaptation and mitigation based on their local context. Only after such self-determined exercise of visioning and building of creative responses, appropriate to indigenous frameworks, can proposals feed into international processes of climate change and indigenous peoples.
The global assessments of thematic areas of particular interest to indigenous peoples and climate change adaptation will enhance the ability of local assessments to articulate their strategies in a coherent and effective manner for policy development. Moreover, conducting local assessments on an international scale allows for highly valid information on the global state of climate change. The approach used in this initiative paints the big picture of climate change, while also highlighting the unique, local details.
This method will produce concrete recommendations for international forums based on the vision of indigenous peoples, founded in long-term processes of climate change impact and indigenous resilience.