Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation in Indigenous Communities

11/30/20223 min read

On a physiological level, Indigenous peoples are impacted by increased malnutrition brought about by factors such as abrupt declines in their ability to produce and have access to food, less diverse diets, and loss of livelihoods (IPCC 2022). A further threat to Indigenous health arises from reduced access to safe drinking water by reason of rising temperatures, changes in precipitation and sea level, droughts, and contamination from permafrost thaw (EPA 2022).

In the societal, cultural, and religio-spiritual senses, Indigenous peoples possess close ties to their lands, which play integral roles in Indigenous wellbeing, health, and livelihoods (Ford et al 2020). Reduced access to traditional sites, for example for fishing or hunting, disrupts essential activities and exacerbates land dispossession and the psychological loss of place (Ford et al 2020).

Several factors, ultimately traceable to colonialism, contribute to Indigenous peoples’ vulnerability to climate change.

“Colonialism by corporation” in the early 17th century by various East India Companies morphed into “national colonialism” by state powers, which has now reverted to “colonialism by corporation” by way of a select handful of transnational corporate behemoths (Bhambra and Newell 2022).

Over the centuries, therefore, colonialism and capitalism have interwoven – and continue to do so - with the climate system, through the process of natural resource extraction, settlement and cultivation, slavery and other forms of forced labour, as well as human-driven changes to the planet (Bhambra and Newell 2022). For example, in St Vincent, European colonizers exiled the Indigenous Carib and forced the remaining populations into the most remote areas of the island (Smith and Rhiney 2016).

Colonialism is one of many “historical and ongoing patterns of inequity” which contribute to development challenges and which in turn cause high climate vulnerability (IPCC 2022). These patterns, especially in connection with ethnicity, gender, and income, contribute to Indigenous peoples’ vulnerability to climate (IPCC 2022). Smith and Rhiney (2015) suggest that vulnerability to climate hazards is not a natural phenomenon, but instead originates from broader social, justice- and development-related conditions, and that colonial legacies “produce and reproduce vulnerability”.

Indigenous knowledge, if received and implemented in coordination with Indigenous elders, can be of tremendous benefit to climate adaptation planning.

Indigenous environmental knowledge facilitates identifying, comprehending, and predicting changes in the environment (Ford et al 2020); risk is distributed spatially, temporally, and across individuals and assets, as guided by the principles of diversity and flexibility (Ford et al 2020). For example, farmers in St Vincent were observed to be more proactive in their response to climate hazards when they had the benefit of Indigenous knowledge (Smith and Rhiney 2016). Indigenous construction and settlement practices are more appropriate for the local environment and more hazard-resilient (Ford et al 2020), thus enhancing conservation and reducing stresses to the environment (Ford et al 2020).

Effective climate adaptation depends on cooperation and joint decision-making with Indigenous peoples, the acknowledgement of inherent Indigenous rights (including the right to self-determination), and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into adaptive measures (IPCC 2022).

According to Nursey-Bray and Palmer (2018), adaptation is and must be inextricable from broader, higher-level priorities of power and autonomy; successful adaptation requires new frameworks of environmental governance that prioritises collaboration and which acknowledges the history and continued presence of colonisation.

References:

  • Bhambra, G.K. and Newell, P. (2022). ‘More than a metaphor: ‘climate colonialism’ in perspective’. Global Social Challenges Journal, XX(XX): 1–9, DOI: 10.1332/EIEM6688

  • United States Environmental Protection Authority (‘EPA’). 19 August 2022. ‘Climate Change and the Health of Indigenous Populations’. https://www.epa.gov/climate-change/climate-change-and-health-indigenous-populations

  • Ford, J. D., King, N., Galappaththi, E. K., Pearce, T., McDowell, G., & Harper, S. L. (2020). ‘The Resilience of Indigenous Peoples to Environmental Change’. One Earth. 2020, 2(6). Pp 532-543.

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”). (2022). ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’. H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem and B. Rama (eds), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009325844.

  • Nursey-Bray, M. and R, Palmer. (2018). ‘Country, climate change adaptation and colonisation: insights from an Indigenous adaptation planning process’. Australia. Heliyon 4 (2018) e00565. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00565

  • Smith, R.A.J. and K. Rhiney. (2016). ‘Climate (in)justice, vulnerability and livelihoods in the Caribbean: The case of the indigenous Caribs in northeastern St. Vincent’. Geoforum 73 2016, pp.22–31.