Indigenous communities living in the mountainous areas of Kyrgyzstan are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These communities practice traditional livelihoods such as pastoralism, horticulture, etc. and managed to preserve many unique elements of their intangible cultural heritage (ICH), which are closely interlinked and inseparable from the environment and traditional livelihoods. Unfortunately, the impact of climate change on ICH is often overlooked in governmental climate change adaptation plans, whereas climate change impacts are overlooked in ICH safeguarding plans.
The project aims to train indigenous youth to conduct participatory research on the impact of climate change (interpreted based on local indicators of climate change) on indigenous ICH and document local adaptive strategies.
This project builds on the main findings of the previous project on documentation of indigenous indicators of climate change. The project strives to build indigenous youth’s capacities in generating knowledge and strengthen indigenous voices through the co-production of knowledge to highlight the close links between the environment, traditional livelihoods and ICH in the context of climate change.
This project is needed to:
– Strengthen the capacity of indigenous youth through training in participatory research methods
– Expand the body of knowledge on local indicators of climate change
– Document local climate change adaptation strategies related to ICH
– Promote the co-production of knowledge and indigenous-led research.
The project is likely to influence mainstream climate change adaptation programs and discourses in Kyrgyzstan by foregrounding strong links between indigenous livelihoods, traditional ecological knowledge, and intangible cultural heritage in the context of climate change.