Indigenous Resilience & Vulnerability to Climate Change

11/17/20225 min read

"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard." (Article 25, United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007.)

There is evidence that the close Indigenous connection to the land enhances their resilience to climate change. Indigenous peoples’ “deep social, cultural, and spiritual ties” to their “terrestrial, water, and associated spiritual environments”, which are inextricably linked to “their livelihoods, health, and well-being”, together with “the interconnected roles of place, agency, institutions, collective action, Indigenous knowledge, and learning” (Ford et al, 2020), increase Indigenous ability to persist during, and recover from, a disturbance (Miller et al, 2010).

Resilience can be built in circumstances in which place or spaces acquire meaning and attachment, where “nature is viewed as a sentient being capable of reciprocity, collaboration, and/or harm” and “there is no separation between the human and non-human world” (Ford et al, 2020). Such a concept of place can “[underpin] moral relationships of responsibility to protect and care for nature”, thus “[reducing] the effects of environmental change, and minimizing environmental pressure” (Ford et al, 2020). Further, such resilience is fortified by “new configurations of people-place relationships”, in which attachment can be to multiple places and “mobility and flexibility enable the use of diverse environments” (Ford et al, 2020).

In one narrative, agency, understood as people's ability (and belief in their ability) to “have choice in responding to environmental change” (Ford et al, 2020), is theorized to contribute to significant resilience, by reason of “Indigenous socio-cultural organization where risk is managed through diversity and flexibility in resource use and habitation” (Ford et al, 2020).

Institutions, referring to the “norms, rules, and organizations that stem from social interaction and guide behaviour,” can also add to Indigenous resilience (Ford et al, 2020). Where Indigenous rights are recognized, resilience is reinforced by “customary laws and common property systems”, which “promote sustainable resource use” and biodiversity, “reduce deforestation and land degradation”, and help communities in “dealing with resource variability and managing exposure to natural hazards” (Ford et al, 2020). For example, in Bolivia, where Indigenous people constitute 62% of the population (CDKN, 2013), the Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra (Law of the Rights of Mother Earth) mandates developers’ rectification of environmental harm caused by their projects, Indigenous priority in the redistribution of agrarian lands, as well as the right of Indigenous people to be informed of development projects affecting them (CKDN, 2013). “[Strong] leadership by chiefs, elders, and village councils and assemblies” has also been identified as helpful in “enforcing customary rules, conflict management, and collective planning and stewardship” (Ford et al, 2020).

Collective action, involving steps taken by a group together for a common objective, can exist as “cultural norms of sharing and reciprocity” which in turn facilitate “risk management, risk sharing, and disaster recovery” (Ford et al, 2020). Collective action also enhances “flexibility, shared leadership, and innovation in responding to environmental change” (Ford et al, 2020).

Indigenous knowledge refers to “the understandings, skills, and philosophies developed by societies with long histories of interaction with their natural surroundings,” which includes environmental knowledge spanning the “climatological, botanical, ecological, and spiritual” (Ford et al, 2020). Such knowledge assists Indigenous peoples in their detection, understanding, and prediction of environmental change (Ford et al, 2020), For example, in a 2013 study of Indigenous communities in Bolivia, it was noted that Bolivian Indigenous communities’ unique bodies of knowledge enable them to use traditional climatic indicators such as winds, clouds, frosts, and constellations to predict the weather and improve agricultural practices (CKDN, 2013).

Learning, understood as “the capacity to generate, absorb, and process new information on changing conditions, assess response options, and frame or reframe problems”, is central to Indigenous cultures, and is encountered experientially, underwritten by “experimentation, practice, regular interaction, and openness to alteration” (Ford et al (2020). This facilitates “the development of new knowledge heuristics" and “new livelihood strategies”, improve “protocols of knowledge transmission”, and bolsters “traditional rituals and practices”, all acting together to “support rapid adaptation during times of change” (Ford et al (2020).

Unfortunately, with dependency and connection comes the danger of vulnerability.

First and foremost, one must recognize the legacy and far-reaching effects, which persist today, of historical colonialism and modern cultural and economic imperialism, and the resulting consequences of – amongst others – the reduced or stolen Indigenous autonomy over their own traditional lands and countries and the destruction and suppression of Indigenous lives, customs, systems, and structures. Further, according to the United Nations: “Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination and unemployment” (UNDESA).

Several of the factors above, which boost Indigenous resilience to climate change, can often also play a part in adding to Indigenous vulnerability.

The centrality of place in Indigenous cultures may render them susceptible to environmental disruptions, leading to “ecological grief”, curtailed “access to traditional hunting and fishing locations”, “disrupting cultural practices, social cohesion, and belief systems”, and “compounding the effects of place disruption” (Ford et al, 2020).

Some commentators describe agency as being undermined by Indigenous “social, political, and economic structures and changes”, in which Indigenous inputs on decision-making are limited and the consequent lack of control “can equally enforce feelings of powerlessness” (Ford et al, 2020). Others argue that “cultural beliefs” which portray change as “inevitable and outside of human control” may also “create risk attitudes that downplay agency” (Ford et al, 2020).

Where national or sub-national institutions do not protect Indigenous rights sufficiently or at all, “the promotion of scientific and state-led management practices” and “the privatization of land and enforcement of administrative boundaries” together contribute to increased Indigenous vulnerability to environmental change (Ford et al, 2020).

Collective action may influence vulnerability in contexts where there are “unequal power relationships in decision-making” and “conservative attitudes" which are “exclusionary or restrictive” and not “reflective of diverse interests” (Ford et al, 2020).

There has been a documented loss of Indigenous knowledge and a “weakening of traditional skills, knowledge, and their incomplete transmission to younger generations” by reason of, amongst others, modernization and “colonization and the associated loss of access to resources” (Ford et al, 2020).

To improve inclusion for Indigenous communities in climate and development, international institutions must “give Indigenous communities a central role that guarantees their inclusion in international debates that affect the global development agenda"; further, we must strengthen Indigenous communities’ access to justice by ensuring “legal recognition and access to resources” (WEF, 2022).

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