Weaving scientific and local knowledge on climate change impacts in coastal Kenya, Western Indian Ocean
Chambon, Mouna (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Wambiji, Nina (Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute)
Alvarez-Fernandez, Santiago (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Azarian, Clara (Sorbonne University)
Ngunu Wandiga, Joey (Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute)
Vialard, Jérôme (Sorbonne University)
Ziveri, Patrizia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Reyes-García, Victoria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	Climate change poses severe threats to coastal social-ecological systems (SES) worldwide. Recent calls recognize the importance of including Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in research on climate change impacts. Yet studies that have attempted to weave ILK and scientific knowledge have seldom considered the gendered nature of climate change impacts. Building on the literature on gender and climate change and knowledge pluralism, this study contributes to addressing this research gap by exploring local knowledge on climate change impacts and its relation to scientific knowledge through a gendered approach and focusing on the Western Indian Ocean region, and more specifically on Kenya. We adopted a mixed methodology combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. We found evidence of pronounced climate change impacts on coastal SES both in the scientific literature and in local reports. Our findings highlight that there is an extensive overlap between information derived from scientific and local knowledge systems. Importantly, our study revealed reports of change that were only provided by SSF communities, namely changes in coastal dynamics, a decrease in rainfall, and a decrease in the abundance of green algae. Although we found gendered variations in changes reported by SSF communities, gendered differences of climate change impacts on SSF were not detected in the reviewed literature. Overall, our results suggest that knowledge cross-fertilization generates a holistic, relational, and place-based view of climate change impacts, which may support sound and gender-inclusive adaptive policies.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000940-M Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MDM2015-0552 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PRE2019-090126 European Commission 771056 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00182 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00640
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Climate change ; East Africa ; Gender ; Indigenous and local knowledge ; Scientific knowledge ; Small-scale fisheries
Published in:	Environmental science & policy, Vol. 160 (October 2024) , art. 103846, ISSN 1873-6416

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103846

13 p, 5.6 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles