Biocultural diversity, climate change and livelihood security of Adi community: Grassroots conservators of eastern Himalaya Arunachal Pradesh.

Abstract

The role of Indigenous and tribal peoples and their traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) is now greatly appreciated and recognized in developing location specific strategies and mitigation plans for coping with climate change. The goal of this research, based on six years of collaborative work with Adi tribal peoples from 14 villages of East and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, was to record Adi knowledge and experiences relating to biocultural resources and their interactions with climate change and livelihood sustainability. Data were collected using conventional interviews and village workshops. A total of 700 Adi people participated in these workshops, while two elderly Adi women were observed and interviewed over the course of 7 days, to document their deep knowledge on the subject. Results indicated that Adi people are rich in knowledge relating to biocultural resources that play a pivotal role in coping with weather anomalies and any abrupt climatic changes in order to sustain their livelihoods. People are aware about climate change and its potential to threaten heir biocultural resources and livelihoods. To combat future climate change and ensure sustainable lifeways, they are interested in establishing ‘community reserve forests’ (CRF) within undisturbed community forest landscapes. These could be either at an individual or community level or even at both levels, provided that environmental agencies are able to link these ‘CRFs’ with REDD programs and that rewards and incentives are given to Adi tribe. The future of the Adi tribe’s biocultural resources and livelihood sustainability depends very much on their TEK and their active role in research, planning and policy implementation for climate change mitigation and adaptation.