Indigenous Knowledge Systems And Climate Change Management In Africa

Climate change presents a profound challenge to food security and sustainable development in Africa. Its negative impacts are likely to be greatest in the African region, which is already food insecure. In the face of global climate change and its emerging challenges and unknowns, it is essential that decision makers base policies on the best available knowledge. In recent years, the knowledge of local and indigenous people, often referred to as indigenous knowledge (IK) has been increasingly recognised as an important source of climate knowledge and adaptation strategies.

This book investigates indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in sub-Saharan Africa, thereby highlighting its role in facilitating adaptation to climate variability and change, and also demystifying the challenges that prevent it from being integrated with scientific knowledge in climate governance schemes. Indigenous people and their priceless knowledge rarely feature when decision-makers prepare for future climate change. This book showcases how Indigenous knowledge facilitates adaptation to climate change, including how collaborations with scientific knowledge have cascaded into building people’s resilience to climatic risks. This book also pays delicate attention to the factors fueling epistemic injustice towards Indigenous knowledge, which hampers it from featuring in climate governance schemes across sub-Saharan Africa. The key insights shared in this book illuminate the issues that contribute meaningfully towards the actualisation of the UN SDG 13 and promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in sub-Saharan Africa.

Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) are a combination of knowledge systems encompassing technology; social, economic, and philosophical learning; or educational, legal, and governance systems. The lack of documentation of these systems presents a problem as the knowledge is fading away over time. In response, it is essential that policies and strategies are undertaken to ensure that these systems are protected and sustained for generations to come. The Handbook of Research on Protecting and Managing Global Indigenous Knowledge Systems is a comprehensive reference source that works to preserve indigenous knowledge systems through research. Focusing on key concepts such as tools of indigenous knowledge management and African indigenous symbols, the book preserves and promotes indigenous knowledge through research and fills the void staff and students within the field of indigenous knowledge systems face with the current lack of research and resources. This book is ideal for university students, lecturers, researchers, academicians, policymakers, historians, sociologists, and anyone interested in the field of indigenous knowledge systems.

Even though the importance of indigenous knowledge is gradually being recognized in development studies, little attention had been given in research to the value of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation. This book takes up many of the research challenges articulated in the UN-commissioned Millennium Ecosystem Assessment which highlighted many uncertainties that exist about climate change issues. This book aims to address these challenges in a localized context by providing a robust evidence-base that supports improved implementation of climate change adaptation schemes in rural Africa. That is, to set up negotiations within the climate change adaptation agenda in ways that the ‘western scientific’ and ‘local-traditional practices’ can work together ethically, seriously and respectfully to combat climate change in the African continent. Interactions between indigenous knowledge systems and climate change adaptation, and resulting feedbacks are dynamic, location and time-specific, occurring at different scales, and responding to different drivers. Climate change and its adaptation strategies must be addressed as dynamic, multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional. This book will be useful to academia, community development practitioners, government and non-governmental organizations, consultants and practitioners, and students in the field of rural sociology and sustainable development, and will add to the literature that is beginning to build around indigenous knowledge and sustainable development in Africa.

Climate change is a major challenge for life on Earth. It is mainly manifested through modifications of average temperature, rainfall intensity and patterns, winds and solar radiation. These modifications significantly affect basic resources, such as land and water resources. Populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences with global warming of 1.5°C and beyond include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods (IPCC, 2018). Therefore, adaptation measures are recommended in order to cope with climate change. Indigenous peoples have developed practices for climate change adaptation, based on their long-term experience with adverse climatic effects. There was thus a need to identify such practices as they could be effectively mainstreamed in community-based adaptation programmes. This report makes an inventory of indigenous and community adaptation practices across the world. The inventory was mainly done through literature review, field work and meetings with selected organisations. The case studies documented are categorized in five technologies and practices themes, including: (1) Weather forecasting and early warning systems; (2) Grazing and Livestock management; (3) Soil and Water Management (including cross slope barriers); (4) Water harvesting (and storage practices); (5) Forest Management (as a coping strategy to water scarcity), and; (6) Integrated wetlands and fisheries management. These were then related to the corresponding main agro-ecological zones (AEZ), namely arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, humid, highlands and coastal and wetlands. The AEZ approach was considered as an entry-point to adopting or adapting an existing indigenous strategy to similar areas. Challenges that threaten the effectiveness of indigenous and community adaption strategies were identified. These challenges include climate change itself (which is affecting the indicators and resources used by communities), human and livestock population growth (which is increasing pressure on natural resources beyond their resilience thresholds), current institutional and political settings (which limit migrants’ movements and delimits pieces of usable land per household), cultural considerations of communities (such as taboos and spiritual beliefs), and the lack of knowledge transfer to younger communities. Indigenous knowledge provides a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation strategies that sustain the resilience of social-ecological systems at the interconnected local, regional and global scales. In spite of challenges and knowledge gaps, these strategies have the potential of being strengthened through the adoption and adaptation of introduced technology from other communities or modern science. Attention to these strategies is already being paid by several donor-funded organisations, although in an uncoordinated manner.

Provides insight into how diverse societies observe and respond to changing environments, for those interested in climate science, policy and adaptation.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Environmental Policy, course: Bsc. Environment Management - Climate change, language: English, abstract: Normally at the absolute bottom of the social strata, whether in rich or poor countries, are the indigenous or native peoples who are generally the least powerful, most neglected groups in the world. In many countries these indigenous people are repressed by traditional caste systems, discriminatory laws, economics, or prejudice. Unique cultures are disappearing along with biological diversity as natural habitats are destroyed to satisfy industrialised world appetites for resources. According to Nyong and Kanaroglou indigenous people are the more vulnerable to climate change impacts (Nyong and Kanaroglou 1999), thus there is need to consider their culture and their knowledge using to adapt and mitigate effects of climate change since they are cost effective and can easily be implemented. The aim of this research was to identify indigenous and local observations, knowledge and practices related to understanding climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation in Tukuyu. The study showed that indigenous knowledge and practices used in adaptation and mitigation of climate change include mixed farming and multiple cropping, zero tilling practices in cultivation, contour farming, mulching, adjustments to planting dates, planting trees along water sources and Land buffer zone on sacred forests. The most knowledgeable people were teachers, followed by farmers, then students and business men/women were the least knowledgeable groups. I recommend that there should be community awareness and education through the help of Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and the government also the government to take more steps forward to promote indigenous and local knowledge used to fight climate change so as to help indigenous people to be less vulnerable to impacts of climate change