The Role of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Knowledge in Combating Climate Change
There are still major gaps in climate science around the role of Traditional Knowledge (TK):
- what type of contribution can it make;
- how is it relevant to mitigation and adaptation;
- where are the knowledge holders;
- how can TK be presented in a form that is useful to the climate scientists;
- how can the next assessment of the IPCC use TK; and
- what is the role of TK and indigenous people in the post-Kyoto regime being developed under the UNFCCC process?
Building on its previous work, the UNU Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) has identified three main research activities that can make valuable contributions to this discussion: (1) Case studies on best practice; (2) The Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA); and (3) Examining the epistemological divides and relationships between western climate science and TK.
Focus areas:
Technology Transfer
Regions covered:
Global
Participating entities:
WMO, UNESCO, UNU Media Studios, UNU-EHS, UNU-ISP, UN Permanent Forum Indigenous Issues, UNDP
Non-UN partners:
Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), World Bank, Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education), ICC, Woods Hole Research Centre, the Government of Denmark.
Results:
Key products for COP 15:
- Report of the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change (Anchorage, April 2009)
- The Canaries in the Global Coal Mine Are Singing: Climate Change, Adaptation and Indigenous Peoples — A Compendium of Case Studies
- Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples - Country Case Studies on Local Mitigation and Adaptation Measures
- Malaysia: Bidayuh-Jagoi Case Study, Jennifer Theresa Rubis
- Indonesia: Customary Iban Community — Life Beyond Carbon: The Exemplary Contribution of the Self-Determining Societies of the Indonesian Archipelago In Resolving the Planetary Social-Ecological Crisis Without Carbon Trading – The Case of the Customany Iban Community, Henro Sangkoyo
- Philippines: Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines: The Calamian Tagbanua and the Ikalahan views and actions on Climate Change
- Ecuador: Limoncocha Case Study, Amazon Basin – requires light editing (first draft only submitted, lacks references), review from Asian summit may suffice (12 pages)
- Tanzania: Engikaret Village, Elifuraha Isaya Laltaika
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Page last modified 2019.04.16.