Indigenous Communities Have the Answer to Climate Change, so Why Aren’t we Listening?
I know 2020 has been quite a bit for everyone, but remember when California was on fire? The human toll has been devastating; Millions of people endured hazardous air and dozens lost their lives and their families. These tragedies, which are increasing in frequency due to climate change, demand that we bring innovative policy to the forefront of national discussions. Yet, hope lies in a group often ignored: indigenous communities.
Decades of climate dialogue have passed, but their traditions of living and understanding the land remain excluded from this critical national dialogue. By disregarding them, we risk missing out on time-tested practices in environmental governance. It is only by drawing upon indigenous practices of managing the land, that governments can formulate much-needed holistic climate change responses.
As the fires raged on in California earlier this year, orange and red fumes covered the skies for days and countless creatures that once lived in these green forests became lifeless sticks of charcoal. John Papas, a survivor of a wildfire event, explains that “all you could see was house after house reduced to nothing but a chimney…and rubble. Scanning the remains of what had been left behind, I felt as if I could be exploring an ancient archaeological site, except that these houses had been someone’s home just weeks earlier” (Papas).
If the U.S government had not banned Kurok and Yurok indigenous practices of controlled fires, experiences like John’s could be prevented.
In the 1850s, National Forest Service officials considered “the Indian way” of “light-burning” to be an “essentially destructive theory.” However, without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with vegetation that dried out every summer, creating kindling for the fires that have recently destroyed California communities (Calge). California must begin to work with fires, not just fight them. Controlled fires “don’t prevent wildfires,” says Crystal Kolden, an assistant professor at the University of California, who focuses on fire and land management. “But it makes wildfires less severe and… easier to control” (Somner). It was not until 2018 that the state decided to allow controlled burns and since then, 125,000 acres of wild lands are intentionally burned each year in California — which represents a tiny fraction of all the prescribed fire in the US. The new partnerships that government officials, tribal leaders and institutions like the U.S Forest Service forged to more effectively manage wildfires are a step in the right direction.
And yet, in 2020 alone, 90,000 people had to flee their homes due to California wildfires. This means more can be done and more should be done to allow controlled burns.
These partnerships in California are just the tip of the iceberg.
All over the world, indigenous practices should be taken into consideration to adapt to the effects of climate change. In Peru, an alliance combining scientific innovation with indigenous Quechua know-how is taking shape to preserve Andean potato varieties and find the ones that are most resilient to droughts. These partnerships seek to address the increasing challenge of global warming and declining food security (“Local Knowledge, Global Goals”). In Kenya, the indigenous peoples of Loita Maasai implement community-based forest management strategies that involve setting aside conservation areas, which have an important role to play in reversing rising deforestation — a process that sequesters carbon emissions. In Thailand, Moken people gained international attention when they predicted and escaped the tsunami waves that swept away their villages in 2004. Knowledge of the laboon, or ‘seventh wave’, had been passed down for thousands of years, which gave them enough time to evacuate to high land.
Integrating indigenous knowledge systems — including their holistic view of the environment — with existing management practices is a major resource for adapting to climate change.
But aren’t the practices of these communities unscientific? Are these scalable solutions? Well, not only have many of these mitigation strategies been proven to work, they are also discussed and validated on an international level. In Canada, the government funded an Indigenous Guardians program in 2017, recognizing that First Nations communities are well placed to serve as stewards of the land. At the global scale, the United Nations created the Traditional Knowledge Initiative to promote research on traditional knowledge and its incorporation into UN policy processes through joint research projects across interdisciplinary agencies.
There is immense potential in combining climate change mitigation strategies with existing frameworks to ensure faster, more efficient responses to extreme weather events. If we don’t start thinking differently, ravaging destruction will continue.
Let’s not forget 2020 and learn from it instead of making it a year we all want to forget. Let’s remember the fires, let’s remember the catastrophes, and let’s listen to those who might have the key to solve our climate crisis.
Works Cited
Cagle, Susie. “‘Fire Is Medicine’: the Tribes Burning California Forests to Save Them.” The Guardian, 21 Nov. 2019, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans. Accessed 29 October 2020.
“Indigenous Guardians Pilot Program.” Government of Canada, 24 Sept. 2020, www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-funding/indigenous-guardians-pilot-program.html. Accessed 30 October 2020.
Jones, Nicola. “How Native Tribes Are Taking the Lead on Planning for Climate Change.” Yale E360, 11 Feb. 2020, e360.yale.edu/features/how-native-tribes-are-taking-the-lead-on-planning-for-climate-change. Accessed 30 October 2020.
“Local Knowledge, Global Goals.” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2017, http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/SC/pdf/ILK_ex_publication_E.pdf. Accessed 1 November 2020.
Pappas, John. “What I Saw When Australia Burned.” The New York Times, 18 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/insider/new-york-times-presents-wildfires.html. Accessed 29 October 2020.
Smillie, Susan. “Tsunami, 10 Years on: the Sea Nomads Who Survived the Devastation.” The Guardian, 10 Dec. 2014, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/10/indian-ocean-tsunami-moken-sea-nomads-thailand. Accessed 30 October 2020.
Sommer, Lauren. “To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along.” NPR, 24 Aug. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along. Accessed 29 October 2020.
Srinivasan, Ancha. Local Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation.” Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2004, pp. 4–7, Local Knowledge for Facilitating Adaptation to Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific: Policy Implications, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00844.4. Accessed 30 October 2020.
