Climate Change Resilience of Indigenous SocioEcological Systems

Nutrition, Healthy

The RISE project aims to understand how future climate change may compromise traditional food systems (TFS) by altering related human-nature interactions. A comparative case study approach coupling on-site socioeconomic, nutritional, and ecological surveys of the target indigenous socioecological systems (ISES) of Karen (Kanchanaburi, Thailand) and Sakha (Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation) people with statistical models projecting future changes in the distribution and composition of traditional food species under contrasting climate change scenarios.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) recognizes the right to the lands, territories, and resources which IPs have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. Within this context, food sovereignty and the sustainability of TFS are emergent issues within the sustainable development agenda as recognized by the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples' Issues (UNPFII). However, IPs are especially vulnerable to climate change and other environmental impacts. Disrupted ISES are characterized by increased food insecurity and inequalities, loss of traditional identity, westernization of livelihoods, and nutritional problems. The degree of vulnerability to these factors depends upon their adaptation capacity and resilience. Understanding the complex relationships among climate change, socioeconomic development, and TFS is crucial for informing adaptive strategies and promoting the sustainability of ISS in line with international agendas such as the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The movement for development emphasizes collaboration among various partners to deal with climate change effectively and to strengthen people's capacity to cope with present and future threats. Thailand has addressed relevant agenda to transform missions in response to climate change as the movement to establish food security based on the sufficient economic principle, the promotion of sustainable agricultural development, the encouragement of good food manufacturing, empowerment of health impact management, and the protection of biodiversity to reenergize natural ecosystem sustainability, for instances. RISE aims at bridging this gap by using a novel, transdisciplinary risk assessment framework in a comparative case study context using two contrasting ISES: the Karen people, the most indigenous ethnic minority of Thailand, and indigenous communities of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in Siberia. The Arctic and Tropics are sentinels and harbingers of climate and environmental change. They are home to a significant proportion of the world's IPs and face some of the most unprecedented, pressing anthropogenic and environmental impacts. Multiple components of the research study include the following studies. 1) Socioeconomic analysis of indigenous socioecological systems 2) Nutritional/dietary analysis of Indigenous Socioecological Systems 3) Project future changes in traditional food systems from contrasting scenarios of climate change and socioeconomic development 4) Estimate the risk to ISES sustainability and explore limits and enablers of adaptation to inform regional development and the climate and sustainably policy agendas.

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