Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Change Assessment and Adaptation

Douglas Nakashima is Chief of the Small Islands and Indigenous Knowledge section at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France. He created the global programme on Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) in 2002 that addresses the role of indigenous knowledge in environmental management, including climate change, and reinforces its intergenerational transmission. Dr Nakashima has been working within the field of indigenous knowledge for over thirty years, with research focusing on Inuit and Cree First Nations in Arctic and Subarctic Canada. He recently led UNESCO's work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to highlight the importance of indigenous knowledge for climate change assessment and adaptation in the Fifth Assessment Report. Igor Krupnik is the Curator for Arctic Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Trained as a cultural anthropologist and ecologist, Dr Krupnik has worked in polar indigenous communities, primarily in Alaska and the Bering Strait region. His area of expertise lies in modern cultures, indigenous ecological knowledge, and the impact of modern climate change on human life in the North. In 2012 he was awarded a medal from the International Arctic Science Committee for his work in building bridges among social and natural scientists and polar indigenous people. Jennifer T. Rubis is the coordinator for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Climate Frontlines project, focusing on indigenous knowledge in relation to climate change. She is also a native Dayak from Sarawak in Borneo, and is descended from a line of Jagoi shamans and priestesses. She is a strong advocate of community organising and the inclusion of indigenous perspectives in decision making. For over ten years she has worked on forest and environmental issues within United Nations agencies and in civil society organisations at the international, national and community level.

• Foreword; 1. Indigenous knowledge for climate change assessment and adaptation: introduction Douglas Nakashima, Jennifer Rubis and Igor Krupnik; Part I. Knowing Our Weather and Climate: 2. Forest, reef and sea level rise in North Vanuatu: seasonal environmental practices and climate fluctuations in Island Melanesia Carlos Mondragón; 3. Annual cycles in indigenous Northwestern Amazon: a collaborative research towards climate change Monitoring Aloisio Cabalzar; 4. Indigenous knowledge in the time of climate change (with reference to Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia) Rosita Henry and Christine Pam; 5. Local responses to variability and climate change by Zoque indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico María Silva Sánchez Cortés and Elena Lazos Chavero; 6. Climate knowledge of Ch'ol farmers in Chiapas, Mexico Fernando Briones; Part II. Our Changing Homelands: 7. Indigenous forest management as a means for climate change adaptation and mitigation Wilfredo V. Alangui, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Kimaren Ole Riamit, Dennis Mairena, Edda Moreno, Waldo Muller, Frans Lakon, Paulus Unjing, Vitalis Andi, Elias Ngiuk and Sujarni Alloy; 8. Indigenous knowledge, history and environmental change as seen by Yolngu people of Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia Marcus Barber; 9. Coping with climate: innovation and adaptation in Tibetan land use and agriculture Jan Salick, Anja Byg, Katie Konchar and Robbie Hart; 10. Seasonal environmental practices and climate fluctuations in Island Melanesia: transformations in a regional system in Eastern Papua New Guinea Frederick H. Damon; 11. Traditional knowledge and crop varieties as adaptation to climate change in SW China, the Bolivian Andes and Coastal Kenya Krystyna Swiderska, Hannah Reid, Yiching Song, Jingsong Li, Doris Mutta, Paul Ongugo, Mohamed Pakia, Rolando Oros and Sandra Barriga; Part III. Confronting Extreme Events: 12. Accounts from tribal elders: increasing vulnerability of the Navajo People to Drought and Climate Change in the Southwestern United States Margaret H. Redsteer, Klara Kelley, Harris Francis and Debra Block; 13. The spirits are leaving: adaptation and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua Mirna Cunningham Kain; 14. Indigenous reindeer herding and adaptation to new hazards in the Arctic Svein D. Mathiesen, Mathis P. Bongo, P. Burgess, Robert W. Corell, Anna Degteva, Inger Marie G. Eira, Inger Hanssen-Bauer, Alvaro Ivanoff, Ole Henrik Magga, Nancy G. Maynard, Anders Oskal, Mikhail Pogodaev, Mikkel N. Sara, Dagrun Vikhamar Schuler and Ellen Inga Turi; 15. 'Everything that is happening now is beyond our capacity' – Nyangatom livelihoods under threat Sabine Troeger; Part IV. Sources of Indigenous Strength and Resilience: 16. 'Normal' catastrophes or harbinger of climate change? Reindeer-herding Sami facing dire winters in Northern Sweden Marie Roué; 17. Canaries of civilization: small island vulnerability, past adaptations and sea level rise Marjorie V. C. Falanruw; 18. Peasants of the Amazonian-Andes and their conversations with climate change in the region of San Martin Rider Panduro; 19. People of the whales: climate change and cultural survival among the Iñupiat of Arctic Alaska Chie Sakakibara; 20. Indigenous knowledge for climate change assessment and adaptation: epilogue Igor Krupnik, Jennifer Rubis and Douglas Nakashima; Index.