Participants in a food security project on the Colombia-Ecuador border in Awa Indigenous territory, implemented by the World Food Programme and funded by the Adaptation Fund (Photo: World Food Programme)
Around the world, Indigenous peoples are using ancestral knowledge to adapt to extreme weather events and protect ecosystems
The importance and value that Indigenous peoples bring to tackling climate change is essential. Local communities should be at the heart of how to solve the climate crisis not only because they are at risk. Their connection to place provides unique insights into how to adapt to increasingly frequent extreme weather events. They have been the custodians of their land and water for generations – and the knowledge that brings is priceless.
The Adaptation Fund has financed multiple projects around the world where Indigenous peoples are being impacted by climate change. This offers the Fund unique opportunities to explore how climate adaptation can be implemented in lockstep with Indigenous knowledge.
Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund, said the organisation “takes great pride in supporting and empowering the most vulnerable local communities and groups, and you see this across many of our projects on the ground”.
“Our five-year medium-term strategy and environmental and social safeguards further foster support of human rights and equitable opportunity, including for Indigenous communities, which very often have the best ideas of what works well locally in building climate resilience,” he explained.
Read full story from Climate Home News here.