Co-designing Climate Actions with Indigenous Communities

“Amazon Indigenous Wisdom: Shaping Climate Solutions in Brazil” highlights the essential role of the humanities in envisioning and shaping future policy development. The humanities provide a distinctive perspective that enables the exploration and projection of ideas about the future, particularly concerning climate change and environmental governance. This research highlights the incorporation of the ontologies and knowledge values of Amazon Indigenous communities into climate change mitigation and adaptation policies. This approach not only honours and maintains Indigenous wisdom but also critiques traditional Western-centric methodologies, fostering a more inclusive and pluralistic perspective on global environmental change. By co-designing climate actions with Indigenous communities, this project illustrates how humanities-based methodologies, including storytelling, cultural immersion, and participatory research, can yield innovative and sustainable policy solutions. These methodologies enhance the comprehension of the ethical, spiritual, and cultural aspects of climate resilience, which are frequently neglected in conventional policy frameworks. The role of the humanities in this project is vital for bridging the divide between various knowledge systems and promoting collaborative dialogue among indigenous communities, policymakers, and scholars. This dialogue is crucial for formulating policies that are both effective and culturally sensitive and equitable. Presenting at the BA conference will offer an opportunity to demonstrate how humanities-driven research can influence future policies, ensuring they are based on diverse cultural perspectives and ethical considerations. I anticipate contributing to this significant discussion and examining how the humanities can persist in inspiring and informing our shared future.

See our Research Bimi Pinu, Aldeia Ni Yuxibu, Acre, Amazon, Brazil. https://youtu.be/D5HVDTMJ1s8?si=qh0YzTs2pvAQWhpJ 

Amazon Indigenous Wisdom: Shaping Climate Solutions in Brazil

Brazil is an Indigenous land; over 60.3% of the Amazon Forest is in Brazil, and 385 Indigenous groups live there. They have ancestral knowledge on how to adapt, mitigate, and reduce climate disaster risks. However, Brazilian climate change legislation far from recognises the importance of Indigenous ontologies and knowledge in climate change response. Our research aim is to co-design climate change mitigation and adaptation actions and policies underpinned by Amazon Indigenous communities’ ontologies and knowledge values in responding to environmental challenges in Brazil. Climate change transformative Indigenous research requires the adoption of decolonizing methodologies. Therefore, our project is centred on Indigenous ontological pluralism in the context of global environmental change in the Amazon Biome. The research methodology is co-designed by four Amazon Indigenous ethnicities (Yawanawa, Noke Koi Katukina, Shanenawa, Huni Kuin) located in six communities in the Brazilian Amazon. The project comprises four Work Packages developed in 18 months.