The study being focused on is one that deals with how climate change interacts with high mountain communities, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), institutes, and adaptation. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is the accumulation of knowledge about the environment derived from hundreds of years of experience and traditions from a specific group of people and/or a community. As climate change unfolds and impedes upon communities, it is important to integrate adaptation strategies with mitigation policies. Many communities of indigenous people, who follow TEK, are the first to feel and experience changes in the environment due to their reliance on biodiversity and nature to provide their livelihoods. This study explores the importance of traditional ecological knowledge in expanding our means to adapt to climate change through expansive knowledge of the natural world through centuries of accumulation. This importance of indigenous means of adaptation is important due to national policies primarily focusing on mitigation rather than adaptations. Local institutions are hypothesized to aid in improving our capacity to adapt through social, economic, and ecological security. The research explores how indigenous communities in the Himalayas are adapting to climate change challenges and the ways in which TEK can be implemented with climate change science to create better policies and improve the availability of data. The study explores the adaptation strategies of two indigenous communities that live within the alpine zones of the Sikkim Himalaya, India.
This research is done in two small communities located in the high regions of the Himalayas.
This region of the Himalayas has rich diversity of plants, animals, and indigenous ethnicities and is one of the more significantly impacted areas of changing climate conditions. An example of the changing climate is this region is the substantial temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius from 1982 to 2006. One community, the Dokpas, is made up of traditionally nomadic yak herders and the other, the Lachenpas practices agro-pastoralism. Both communities live in the Lachen Valley in the Sikkim district up North. Both communities rely on the biodiversity of their environment, livestock growth, and the collection of edible and medicinal plants. The study lasted for three years, was based on ethnographic field-work, and used a participatory rural appraisal approach. All interviews were conducted in the local language to better communicate with the members of the community. The methods used for collecting data included semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and informal interviews. The questionnaire included two types of question focuses: (1) the participant’s perceptions, observations, and interpretations of climate change conditions, and (2) their beliefs, and adaptations strategies, and coping mechanisms (Ingty). All questionnaire participants were older than 40 and the head of the household, which concluded to be comprised of mainly men who fit that role, yet there were 6 women interviewed who held the role of the head of household. In total 44 questionnaires were conducted. The focus groups comprised of members of the village council, government agencies, two groups of Lachenopas, who practice traditional agriculture, and two groups of Dokpas, yak herders. The members of the council were village elders and totaled 6 people in all. The government agencies spoken to were the Forest Department, Primary Health Sub-Center, Veterinary Center, and Tourism Information Center.
In addition to these questionnaires and focus groups, the interviews and independent observations enriched the field data substantially. It was stated that “participant and non-participant observations were also used that immensely improve the research” (Ingty).
The results of the study were categorized into six different areas of adaptation strategies; Institutional capital, rationing, forecasting, mobility, diversification, and communal pooling. The reasoning for separating the results into categories is to facilitate communication with policy makers and ease policy design. There is still much overlap between each adaptation strategy, despite their separation. The first category was Institutional Capital, which is the governmental structures put in place to aid in expanding the community’s adaptive abilities. In the alpine Himalayas, the village council plays a major role in securing and sustaining resources in order to prevent overuse and secure social, economic, and environmental security. The duties of the council are to manage resource use, conservation, pasture management, conflict resolution, social and community mobilization, traditions, and local government. The effects of this council have been ensuring the availability of resources during the winter, protecting poor members from price swings, and provide a financial safety net. The second strategy is rationing and storage as a response to common shortages. As they learned in interviews, there has been less snowfall in the region which has led to erratic rainfall, deteriorating of the pastures, declining biomass, sheep fatalities, and shorter periods of growth. Due to these resource scarcities, the village council placed a ban on sheep slaughter for 3 years, displaying the community’s willingness to make adaptive administrative decisions in response to climate change challenges.
Both communities that were studied stored food and fodder for the upcoming winter seasons in order to reduce their vulnerability and risk of starvation. The communities also practiced storing fodder by fencing off sections of pasture and allowing hay to form. Another strategy used is forecasting through intricate systems of weather prediction through noting the changes in their biophysical surroundings. They predict the weather through watching the responses of species and have noticed a shift in seasons. It was found, through the questionnaire, that spring and summer began earlier and winter and fall came later in the year. The fourth adaptive strategy mentioned is mobility through migration in order to reduce exposure and to manage resources. The mobility is important for coping with snowstorms, drought, famine, and land degradation. Another form of mobility is the transfer of livestock to summer pastures and allowing winter pastures to cope and regrow, this strategy has reduced exposure and sensitivity to climate change. The fifth strategy found was diversification of both agriculture and income. Agricultural diversification had been beneficial economically, allowing for more crops to survive which previously couldn’t. Diversification of livestock has also been shown to be beneficial through bringing in animals that can live on a poor-quality pasture and lessening the reliance on animals such as sheep that are less tolerant to these climatic changes. Income diversification is also very important for vulnerability reduction, an example of this is communities benefiting from the tourism industry after their trade was cut off between Tibet. This inclusion of tourism into the livelihoods of the villagers has opened up job opportunities and improved the local economy. The last strategy is communal pooling to counteract the power and influence of markets. This allows the community to maximize short-term agriculture without risking long-term sustainability.
The significance of this research for understanding climate change lies in displaying the adaptive capabilities of these communities through Traditional Environmental Knowledge. There is very little work being done to determine how to adapt to climate change, but the answers may lie in the TEK of the land and our interactions with it. The TEK has reduced vulnerability to climate change challenges through knowledge of grassland ecosystems, livestock dynamics, and social institutions. This study found that knowledge of the environment in these regions translated to action and policies taken to preserve the land and the community’s livelihoods, these finding may show that combating climate change will be most effective at the local level. This research is important because it demonstrates the ways in which indigenous populations have been for centuries and continue to adapt to climate change. These local and indigenous knowledges about the environment, biodiversity, and climatic changes acquired over hundreds of years are important for improving a community’s capacity to adapt to climate change challenges through providing economic, ecological, and social security to community members. Due to the overwhelming movement towards mitigation rather than adaptation in mainstream science, it is important to acknowledge and take into consideration the wealth of knowledge these indigenous groups have when it comes to living with the changing climate. TEK can even be used as a long-term dataset of environmental factors over centuries of trial and error to adapt to climate change. An improved way of approaching climate change issues would be to include TEK in the discussion of mitigation and adaptation alongside the contemporary sciences. Much of the TEK is accumulated through
experience and interaction with the environment and land in which the communities live, and isn’t something someone can easily learn in school. A lot of the time the indigenous communities will witness and predict outcomes of climate change far in advance to scientists but are typically not taken as seriously. Another reason why TEK is so important in assessing climate change impacts and adaptations is due to climate projections inability to downscale to the local level instead of the regional or global scale models being made. Many findings of adaptation strategies learn from TEK can ease the policy decision making process and show the ways in which we, as a society, can move forward and keep our livelihoods afloat in the coming years with climate changing impacts and problems that will arise. The indigenous community’s ability to reduce their vulnerability and increase their adaptive abilities shows the importance of documenting traditional ideals and knowledge in sustainable development and the implementation of adaptation policies. There is much to be learned from Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the implementation of this knowledge into contemporary science and environmental policies is fundamental for improving our adaptation abilities.
References
Ingty, T. (2017). High Mountain Communities and Climate Change: Adaptation, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Institutions. Climatic Change, 41-55.
