While governments around the world continue to debate about policies and practices to address climate change solutions, they pay little attention to the situation of indigenous peoples who are among those most affected by climate change on the ground. Thus indigenous peoples are compelled to act and respond immediately to climate change impacts to reduce or minimize risk on their livelihoods. However, they still have very limited access to information and government facilities in terms of financial or technological support at the national and local levels.
This briefing paper is based on information and insights gained from a three-year project implementation, including community assessments, as well as the two regional knowledge exchange programs Adaptation Learning Highway (ALH) participated by indigenous knowledge holders from 9 countries in Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Myanmar, North East India, and Nepal.
Drawing from these experiences, the paper is about collective responses on nature-based solutions, indigenous peoples’ adaptive strategies and measures to climate change-induced hazards in South and South East Asia, as well as on socio-cultural and political barriers that hamper the implementation of these practices.