Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Global patterns of adaptation to climate change by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. A systematic review Anna Schlingmann1, Sonia Graham2, Petra Benyei1, Esteve Corbera1,3,4, Irene Martinez Sanesteban5, Andrea Marelle1, Ramin Soleymani-Fard1 and Victoria Reyes-Garcı́a1,3,6 Indigenous Peoples and local communities have implemented is changing and that the changes are in large part caused myriad responses to deal with and mitigate climate change by human activities’, mainly by fossil fuel combustion and impacts. However, little effort has been invested in compiling, industrial processes [1,2]. The ongoing manifestation of aggregating, and systematizing such responses to assess global global warming results in local impacts such as an increase patterns in local adaptation. Drawing on a systematic review of in the frequency of coastal flooding, droughts, wildfires, 119 peer-reviewed publications with 1851 reported local and a continuous decline in sea ice [2]. Social scientists responses to climate change impacts, we show that Indigenous have shown that communities are differentially affected Peoples and local communities across the world apply a diverse by climate change; not only because climate change portfolio of activities to address climate change impacts. While impacts are highly place-specific, but also because climate many responses involve changes to natural resource based change affects communities through specific pathways, livelihoods, about one-third of responses involve other activities largely mediated by local economic systems and culture. (e.g. networking, off-farm work). Globally, local responses to Specifically, climate change threatens the livelihoods and climate change impacts are more likely to be shaped by people’s well-being of Indigenous Peoples and local communities livelihood than by the climate zone where they live. (IPLC) — groups who are descended from and identify Addresses 1 with the original inhabitants of a region and maintain a Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de deep connection to place and nature over generations Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain 2 School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of [3,4]—who urgently need to minimize associated present Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia and future harms [5]. 3 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain Throughout history, IPLC have experienced and 4 Dept. of Geography, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, responded to environmental changes and climate vari- 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain 5 Dept. of Political Science and Public Administration, Universitat ability based on intricate and complex systems of knowl- Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain edge about the world around them [6], broadly referred 6 Dept. of Anthropology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, to as Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) [7]. 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Corresponding author: Schlingmann, Anna (anna.schlingmann@uab.cat) Despite two decades of research on climate adaptation, we know little of the diversity of responses led by IPLC, and of the extent to which ILK-based measures may be Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51/52:55–64 transferable and beneficial across regions, cultures and This review comes from a themed issue on Climate decision-making environmental conditions [8,9]. Research on IPLC cli- Edited by Diana Reckien, Cathy Vaughan and Rachael Shwom mate adaptation has focused on understanding local, so- called ‘autonomous’ [10], responses through case studies [11,12], with a few reviews focusing on specific liveli- Received: 30 September 2020; Accepted: 01 March 2021 hoods (e.g. Ref. [13]), regions (e.g. Refs. [14,15,16], or ethnic groups (e.g. Ref. [17]). Only a recently published https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.03.002 scoping review [18] represents a first step to reduce the 1877-3435/ã 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an degree of fragmentation of this literature [19]. open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Systematic literature reviews are a powerful tool for evidence-based decision-making due to their high level of transparency, objectivity and reproducibility compared Introduction to traditional reviews [20], and increasingly applied in There is a ‘strong, credible body of evidence, based on adaptation studies [19,21]. Departing from previous multiple lines of research, documenting that the climate works, this review does not focus on institutional and www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 56 Climate decision-making governmental-driven adaptation [22,23,24] or on partic- and institutions, from which we could draw lessons about ipatory processes, such as community-based and co-pro- how to support or mainstream local adaptations in the duced adaptation strategies [22,23,24] that do not pri- years to come. Detailed information on the review pro- marily target community-driven responses [25]. Rather, cess, including search terms, article selection, data cod- we focus on community-driven responses to climate ing, and spatial and statistical analysis can be found in the change as such an approach directly addresses the need Appendix A. Supplementary Materials 1 (SM1). to integrate ILK into adaptation strategies [2,26], by strengthening bottom-up approaches [27] and contribut- Drawing on previous classifications of ‘adaptation’ (e.g. ing to the identification of the best adaptation practices Refs. [13,22,33]) and through an iterative process that and their potential transferability [8,9]. Specifically, with involved analyzing similarities and differences among this review we aim at answering the following questions: documented responses, we developed a 3-level classifica- What is the geographical extent of research on local tion system defining response sectors, domains, and types responses to climate change impacts? What are frequently (see Table SM9). The response sector encompasses the reported local response strategies? How do responses main natural resource dependent livelihood activities, for differ across climates, livelihoods and regions? example, cultivation, livestock and fishing, as well as responses in other activities, such as housing, community Beyond reviewing case studies, our work also aims to life, and wage labor. The response domain captures develop a detailed and comprehensive classification sys- whether changes relate to activities’ timing, location, tem of local adaptation strategies that overcomes chal- livelihood products, productive resource input, social lenges of previous classifications which are either too and human capacity building, or the whole livelihood broad for in-depth analysis [2,28,29] or not exhaustive system. Finally, the response type identifies whether the (e.g. Refs. [13,29,30]). Classifying the documented local response domain refers to quantitative changes, measur- responses allows assessment of global response patterns able in physical units (e.g. kg, ha, money) or to qualitative and sheds light on the diversity, commonalities and changes, such as changes in crop or livestock composition particularities of IPLC climate adaptation strategies. or in the cultivation methods applied. Each response strategy is further described by a direction (e.g. increase, Specifically, here we i) review recent research on IPLC decrease). responses to climate change impacts, ii) propose a new and comprehensive classification of such responses, and Results iii) describe the global range, variability and commonali- Geographical distribution of case studies ties of such local responses across different climatic zones, The 119 articles reviewed reported 1851 local responses livelihood activities and world regions. to climate change impacts. Results correspond to 181 case studies in 260 locations in 44 countries (Figure 1 and We adopt an inclusive definition of local responses to Table SM8). 70% (n = 126) of the case studies refer to climate change as the adaptation of IPLC ‘to actual and locations in Asia (n = 68) and Africa (n = 58), and another expected impacts of climate change in the context of 15% to locations in Latin America (n = 27). There were interacting non-climatic changes, [ . . . ] [which] can more case studies in the equatorial (n = 54), temperate range from short-term coping to longer-term, deeper (n = 53) and arid (n = 30) regions, than in the snow transformations, aim to meet more than climate change (n = 23) and polar regions (n = 21). About one-third of goals alone, and may or may not succeed in moderating the studies were located along the coast (n = 67), in the harm or exploiting beneficial opportunities’ ([31], p. low-lands and mid-lands (n = 62), and at altitudes above 22026). We use the term ‘local response’, instead of 1500 masl (n = 52), respectively. ‘adaptation’, when referring to both direct actions to address climate change impacts and indirect measures Classifying local responses to climate change impacts in the form of adaptive capacity building to increase the We classified the 1851 reported responses into 187 cate- ability of IPLC to implement direct actions [19,32]. gories, of which 57 belong to cultivation, 33 to livestock, and 22 to fishery sectors. 46 categories refer to other Methods activities. Two-thirds (63%) of reported local responses We examined peer-reviewed publications that appeared occur in natural resource dependent livelihood sectors, after the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate and particularly in the cultivation sector (40%) (Figure 2, Change (IPCC) report [2], from January 2015 to Decem- sectors). This is consistent with agriculture being prac- ber 2019, including case studies documenting IPLC ticed in 80% of the case studies. In contrast, although 45% responses to climate change impacts. Our search encom- of the communities keep livestock and 38% practice passed, but was not limited to, responses derived from fishing or aquaculture (Table SM8), proportionately Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) and covered a fewer responses were documented in these sectors, that recent period of time to identify ongoing responses, that is, 13% and 5%, respectively. As much as 37% of the is, responses shaped by current assets, productive systems responses documented do not refer to a specific Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 www.sciencedirect.com Systematic review of climate change adaptation Schlingmann et al. 57 Figure 1 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Global distribution of case studies found in the literature across different main climates according to the Köppen-Geiger classification [34]. livelihood, but rather to changes in other household the composition of cultivated crops and trees’ (CU. assets, such as social capital (e.g. sharing food and other PRODU.COMPS = 10%), ‘changes in applied methods resources), or infrastructure (e.g. building dykes). and techniques in cultivation’ (CU.PRACT. METHD = 7%), ‘changes in general social relationships With respect to domains, as much as one-quarter (24%) of & networks among community members’ (OA.CAPAC. local responses involved changes in practices (e.g. meth- NETWK = 6%), ‘changes in finances and incomes not ods applied, weather forecast, biodiversity conservation), derived from natural resource-dependent livelihoods’ and almost one-quarter (22%) involved changes in pro- (OA.SYST.INCOM = 6%), and ‘changes in the protec- ductive resource inputs (e.g. water, fertilizer). Changes in tion of natural ecosystems (incl. biodiversity con- location and time management corresponded to less than servation)’ (OA.PRACT.NATUR = 4%). 10% of reported responses each (Figure 2, domains). Finally, 68% of the responses represented qualitative changes, while only 32% accounted for quantifiable Comparing adaptation strategies across climates changes (Figure 2, types). Documented responses are similar across climate zones, with larger diversity within each climate zone than across Some of the responses reported draw from ILK, such as zones (Figure 3). With the exception of snow regions, the indigenous seasonal climate forecasts and farming practices most reported sector-based responses in all climate [35,36]. Other responses, such as the use of GPS devices regions relate to cultivation (30–50%) and other activities [37] or switching to early maturing hybrid varieties [38], (23–42%). In the snow regions, most responses refer to draw from scientific knowledge (see Table SM10). changes in livestock rearing (42%) and other activities (24%). The few responses reported for the fishery sector The five most frequent response categories describe 33% are limited to the equatorial, arid and polar regions of all reported local responses. These include ‘changes in (Figure 3b). www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 58 Climate decision-making Figure 2 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Diagram of the classification and coding system. Note that some strategies of the response type ‘Natural ecosystems (incl. biodiversity conservation)’ are qualitative, and some are quantitative. For the definitions of each response sector, domain and type see Table SM9. Changes in practices are the most frequently identified for 13% of the responses in the livestock sector. In the local response domain (21–27%) (Figure 3c), except in the fishing sector, the most common responses correspond to polar regions, where a shift in the main livelihood system the adoption of new fishing techniques (31%), especially and income sources is more frequently reported (19%) the use of improved methods and gear (20%), followed by than changes in practices (18%). In the snow region, changes in the location of fishing spots (19%) and the changes in location are the second most common response duration and timing of fishing activities (14%) (Figure 4b, domain (20%), probably due to common livestock rearing c). Responses in ‘other activities’ focus on intensifying in higher mountain regions, such as the Andes and the social relationships and networks (16%), income genera- Himalayas. In the other climate regions, responses related tion through wage labor or small businesses (16%), and to changes in productive resource inputs (13–20%), such biodiversity conservation (10%) (Figure 4c). as water and food, were more often reported than changes in locations (7–17%). Nuanced differences exist regarding Comparing local adaptation strategies across world regions livelihood products, including changes in crop composi- To understand macro-regional patterns, we compared the tion, which are more frequent in the temperate zones local responses documented in regions with more data, (20%), and changes in income generation activities, which namely Sub-Saharan Africa (AFR, n = 776), South Asia are more frequent in the arid (13%) and polar regions (SAS, n = 448), Latin America (LAM, n = 223) and the (14%) (Figure 3d). Asia-Pacific region (PAS, n = 203) (Figure 5a). Comparing local adaptation strategies across sectors Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia show similarities Local responses to climate change impacts largely vary regarding the frequency of responses for the cultivation across sectors (Figure 4). The largest number of local sector, 48% and 40%, and other activities, 33% and 38%, responses was documented within the cultivation sector respectively (Figure 5b). Latin America and the Asia- (n = 736) (Figure 4a). The most common local responses Pacific region show different patterns. For example, in in the cultivation sector involve changes in the livelihood Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, the share of products (30%) — mainly changes in crop composition — local responses directly related to the fishing sector are followed by changes in cultivation practices (21%), for higher than in other regions, 9% and 11% respectively. No example, soil conservation methods, and changes in the responses related to livestock keeping are reported for the application of productive resources, such as irrigation Asia-Pacific region. (13%) and fertilizer use (8%) (Figure 4b). Responses in the livestock sector were dominated by changes in graz- Although Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia show similar ing location (21%) and changes in animal species and herd response pattern regarding the cultivation sector, differ- size (21%). Adjustments in feeding practices accounted ences exist with respect to the response domain and type Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 www.sciencedirect.com Systematic review of climate change adaptation Schlingmann et al. 59 Figure 3 (a) (b) (c) (d) Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Frequency of local climate change responses across climate zones (a), according to the response sector (b), the response domain (c), and the response type (d). (Figure 5c,d). For example, while the demand for pro- which may be due to the uneven global distribution of ductive resource input, including water, fertilizer, pesti- research — also reported in other reviews on related cides and medicine is higher in South Asia (29%), more topics [18,26,39,40] — the exclusion of grey literature responses relate to relocation, including mobility, (12%) [41] and non-English publications [42], and research and income generation (9%) in Sub-Saharan Africa. investment patterns [43]. Income generation is also a common response strategy in Latin America, while in the Asia-Pacific region a more Consistent with previous work [13,14], we found a large common response is to strengthen social networks (19%) number and diversity of local responses to climate change and rely on food storage (11%). impacts. In absolute terms, we have identified more responses than any previous systematic review and Discussion described a larger number of response categories IPLC across the world rely on a diverse portfolio of [13,14,44]. Our 3-level approach is more comprehen- responses to face climate change impacts. While many sive and detailed than previous classification systems responses involve changing natural-resources-based live- [18,45,46], thereby contributing to an improved under- lihood practices, about one-third of responses involve standing of local response strategies. Our classification other activities (e.g. networking, off-farm labor, or biodi- system also allows manifold analysis by disentangling versity conservation). Globally, IPLC responses to cli- local responses into elementary units, that is, sector, mate change are more often shaped by livelihood activi- domain and type. We found that IPLC generally respond ties than by the climate zone in which respondents live. to climate change impacts by changing aspects of their We identified a geographic bias in the selected cases, natural resource dependent livelihood system (63%), with www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 60 Climate decision-making Figure 4 (a) (b) (c) Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Frequency of local climate change responses across different response sectors (a), according to the response domain (b) and the response type (c). Sectors: cultivation (CU), livestock husbandry (LS), fishing (FI), hunting/gathering (HG), aquaculture (AQ) and other activities (OA). cultivation being the most represented sector in the As much as 36% of the documented responses do not sample. While this predominance can be partially directly relate to natural resource dependent livelihoods explained by the relative global importance of small-scale but to other household and community assets, for exam- agriculture [47–49], the share of responses in other liveli- ple, social networks, spirituality or biodiversity conserva- hood sectors is disproportionately low compared to the tion [6,25,52]. A strong link between ILK and social number of communities that engage in other livelihoods capital and biodiversity conservation has also been in our sample. The apparent predominance of responses reported in other studies [53,54]. The importance of in the cultivation sector may also be due to the direct and social relations in adaptation derives largely from its strong impacts of changing rainfall patterns on cultivation interaction and cascading benefits with other forms of and the resulting urgent need to adapt [23]. capital (e.g. Refs. [55,56]). For example, social institu- tions such as customary laws support coastal forest pro- Similar to previous work [18,28,50], our findings show a tection as adaptation measures to climate change impacts high proportion of local responses related to behavioral [52]. changes, especially in the methods and techniques applied. However, contrary to previous work (e.g. Ref. Although our search specifically targeted responses to [28]), we did not find that management, planning and climate change impacts by IPLC, not all reported knowledge transfer are important local adaptation strate- responses could be unequivocally described as Indige- gies, probably because our review captures more sponta- nous or local [7], indeed some were externally driven and/ neous and reactive activities such as coping, adjusting or or scientifically based. For example, the use of chemical securing [51]. fertilizers and pesticides, the adoption of hybrid varieties Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 www.sciencedirect.com Systematic review of climate change adaptation Schlingmann et al. 61 Figure 5 (a) (b) (b) (d) Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Frequency of local climate change responses across world regions (a), according to the response sector (b), the response domain (c), and the response type (d). For the definitions of each world region see Table SM7. or the shift towards off-farm work [57,58] were common reflect the fact that people use similar strategies, rather responses. This finding shows that IPLC respond to than identical responses. For example, in different cli- climate challenges by using information from different mates, changes in the cropping patterns and the adoption knowledge systems [25,59], but it also raises questions of irrigation might be a common response to climate about the long-term viability of some responses, due to change impacts in the cultivation sector. However, the their financial capital requirements [60,61] or potential selected species and varieties and the amount of required negative ecological impacts [62]. Other responses are irrigation likely differ [65]. Thus, applying our findings at more transformative and imply the potential loss of cul- the local level requires accounting for local conditions and ture, tradition and social bonding [63]. In that sense, it is peculiarities. important to note that responses cannot be considered successful ‘adaptation strategies’ until their long-term Our classification system of local responses to climate viability, effectiveness, sustainability and potential change impacts provides a new tool for future analyses on impacts have been examined [64]. the topic. For future work, we have the following recom- mendations: the consideration of additional literature, Our results on global patterns of local responses to climate including grey literature, could further improve the clas- change impacts show that ILK is relevant and transferable sification system and our understanding of local responses beyond the local context and scale of communities [9]. to climate change. Future research could also apply this While the similarities in response strategies across cli- classification system to related topics such as assessments mates may seem surprising, we argue that the patterns of adaptation drivers, adaptation enablers and barriers, www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2021, 51:55–64 62 Climate decision-making evaluations of adaptation feasibility, success, future via- for their contribution to the classification of local adaptation in the agricultural system. bility, long-term sustainability and potential socio-cul- tural impacts of local responses to climate change We also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their useful impacts. Those are relevant topics for which our classifi- comments and suggestions that helped to further improve the manuscript. cation system presents a supportive tool for in-depth understanding. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary material related to this article can be Conclusion found, in the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10. Our systematic literature review constitutes a first 1016/j.cosust.2021.03.002. attempt to consolidate and structure the scattered find- ings from many case studies on IPLC local responses to References and recommended reading climate change impacts. The classification framework Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, presented permits manifold analysis and comparisons have been highlighted as: of local responses within and between communities from  of special interest different climates, world regions and with different natu-  of outstanding interest ral resource dependent livelihoods, at local, regional and global levels. Our study shows that IPLC local responses 1. National Research Council: America’s Climate Choices. The National Academies Press; 2011. to climate change are diverse, covering social, ecological 2. 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