Climate change and COVID-19: reinforcing Indigenous food systems.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zavaleta-Cortijo C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7413660 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundAnthropogenic changes in the environment are increasingly threatening the sustainability of socioecological systems on a global scale. As stewards of the natural capital of over a quarter of the world's surface area, Indigenous Peoples (IPs), are at the frontline of these changes. Indigenous socioecological systems (ISES) are particularly exposed and sensitive to exogenous changes because of the intimate bounds of IPs with nature. Traditional food systems (TFS) represent one of the most prominent components of ISES, providing not only diverse and nutritious food but also critical socioeconomic, cultural, and spiritual assets. However, a proper understanding of how future climate change may compromise TFS through alterations of related human-nature interactions is still lacking. Climate change resilience of indigenous socioecological systems (RISE) is a new joint international project that aims to fill this gap in knowledge.Methods and designRISE will use a comparative case study approach coupling on-site socioeconomic, nutritional, and ecological surveys of the target ISES of Sakha (Republic of Sakha, Russian Federation) and Karen (Kanchanaburi, Thailand) people with statistical models projecting future changes in the distribution and composition of traditional food species under contrasting climate change scenarios. The results presented as alternative narratives of future climate change impacts on TFS will be integrated into a risk assessment framework to explore potential vulnerabilities of ISES operating through altered TFS, and possible adaptation options through stakeholder consultation so that lessons learned can be applied in practice.DiscussionBy undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic and nutritional contributions of TFS toward the sustainability of ISES and projecting future changes under alternative climate change scenarios, RISE is strategically designed to deliver novel and robust science that will contribute towards the integration of Indigenous issues within climate change and sustainable agendas while generating a forum for discussion among Indigenous communities and relevant stakeholders. Its goal is to promote positive co-management and regional development through sustainability and climate change adaptation.
| S-EPMC9302735 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Family farming plays a pivotal role in ensuring household food security and bolstering the resilience of food systems against climate change. Traditional agricultural practices are evolving into context-specific, climate-resilient systems such as family farming, homestead gardening, and urban agriculture. This study examines the ways in which family farming can foster climate-resilient food systems amidst climate vulnerabilities. A systematic literature review spanning the past 22 years was undertaken to develop a conceptual framework. From this review, 37 pertinent documents were identified, leading to the creation of a context-specific, climate-resilient food system framework. The research posits that family farming facilitates easy access to food and nutrition by capitalizing on family-sourced land, labor, and capital, and by securing access to technology and markets. Each facet of family farming is intricately linked with sustainability principles. Local adaptation strategies employed by climate-vulnerable households can diminish their vulnerability and augment their adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities, enabling them to establish a climate-resilient food system. The research further reveals that farming families employ a myriad of strategies to fortify their food systems. These include crop diversification, adjusting planting times, cultivating high-value crops and fish, planting fruit trees, rearing poultry and livestock, and leveraging their land, labor, and resources-including their homesteads-to access food and nutrition. This study endorses the climate-resilient family farming framework and offers multiple metrics for assessing the resilience of family farming in developing countries.
| S-EPMC10988049 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundClimate change is expected to decrease food security globally. Many Indigenous communities have heightened sensitivity to climate change and food insecurity for multifactorial reasons including close relationships with the local environment and socioeconomic inequities which increase exposures and challenge adaptation to climate change. Pregnant women have additional sensitivity to food insecurity, as antenatal undernutrition is linked with poor maternal-infant health. This study examined pathways through which climate change influenced food security during pregnancy among Indigenous and non-Indigenous women in rural Uganda. Specific objectives were to characterize: 1) sensitivities to climate-associated declines in food security for pregnant Indigenous women; 2) women's perceptions of climate impacts on food security during pregnancy; and 3) changes in food security and maternal-infant health over time, as observed by women.MethodsUsing a community-based research approach, we conducted eight focus group discussions-four in Indigenous Batwa communities and four in non-Indigenous communities-in Kanungu District, Uganda, on the subject of climate and food security during pregnancy. Thirty-six women with ≥1 pregnancy participated. Data were analysed using a constant comparative method and thematic analysis.ResultsWomen indicated that food insecurity was common during pregnancy and had a bidirectional relationship with antenatal health issues. Food security was thought to be decreasing due to weather changes including extended droughts and unpredictable seasons harming agriculture. Women linked food insecurity with declines in maternal-infant health over time, despite improved antenatal healthcare. While all communities described food security struggles, the challenges Indigenous women identified and described were more severe.ConclusionsPrograms promoting women's adaptive capacity to climate change are required to improve food security for pregnant women and maternal-infant health. These interventions are particularly needed in Indigenous communities, which often face underlying health inequities. However, resiliency among mothers was strong and, with supports, they can reduce food security challenges in a changing climate.
| S-EPMC7990176 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This article examines how newspapers reporting on climate change have covered and framed Indigenous peoples. Focusing on eight newspapers in Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, we examine articles published from 1995 to 2015, and analyze them using content and framing analyses. The impacts of climate change are portrayed as having severe ecological, sociocultural, and health/safety impacts for Indigenous peoples, who are often framed as victims and "harbingers" of climate change. There is a strong focus on stories reporting on the Arctic. The lack of substantive discussion of colonialism or marginalization in the reviewed stories limits media portrayal of the structural roots of vulnerability, rendering climate change as a problem for, rather than of society. Indigenous and traditional knowledge is widely discussed, but principally as a means of corroborating scientific knowledge, or in accordance with romanticized portrayals of Indigenous peoples. Widespread disparities in the volume, content, and framing of coverage are also observed across the four nations.
| S-EPMC6560471 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Using an online survey experiment and a sample of 1650 participants from the Mid-Atlantic region in the United States, we investigate the effects of COVID-19 and two reinforcing primes on preferences for local food and donations to support farmers, farmers markets, and a food-relief program. At the beginning of the survey, we induce a subset of participants to think about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on either their personal life, finances, and health or on their local community and its members. Both primes increase participants' levels of anxiety and slightly reduce their sense of community. Additionally, both primes significantly decrease the hypothetical price premium participants are willing to pay for local food, that is, both for fruits and vegetables and for meat products. The primes do not significantly affect the amount donated to charitable organizations, except when controlling for participants' own experiences with COVID-19. While priming increases donations for some participants, it decreases donations for those with a "strong" COVID-19 experience, especially for the food relief program. [EconLit Citations: C90, Q19].
| S-EPMC9350039 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Microbial communities of boreal peatlands under climate change conditions: Does community structure indicate the dynamics of ecosystem function?
| PRJEB25233 | ENA
Project description:Climate change affects ecological communities through its impact on the physiological performance of individuals. However, the population dynamic of species well inside their thermal niche is also determined by competitors, prey and predators, in addition to being influenced by temperature changes. We use a trait-based food-web model to examine how the interplay between the direct physiological effects from temperature and the indirect effects due to changing interactions between populations shapes the ecological consequences of climate change for populations and for entire communities. Our simulations illustrate how isolated communities deteriorate as populations go extinct when the environment moves outside the species' thermal niches. High-trophic-level species are most vulnerable, while the ecosystem function of lower trophic levels is less impacted. Open communities can compensate for the loss of ecosystem function by invasions of new species. Individual populations show complex responses largely uncorrelated with the direct impact of temperature change on physiology. Such complex responses are particularly evident during extinction and invasion events of other species, where climatically well-adapted species may be brought to extinction by the changed food-web topology. Our results highlight that the impact of climate change on specific populations is largely unpredictable, and apparently well-adapted species may be severely impacted.
| S-EPMC5719173 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Neither war nor recession or any kind of prior disaster has been considered a prelude to the looming threat of climate change over the past era as coronavirus (hereafter COVID-19) has in only a few months. Although numerous studies have already been published on this topic, there has not been compelling evidence critically assessing the impact of COVID-19 by and on climate change. The present study fills this gap by taking a more holistic approach to elaborate factors, e.g., natural and anthropogenic factors, ocean submesoscales, radiative forces, and greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions, that may affect climate change in a more prevalent and pronounced manner. Based on the statistical data collected from the NASA Earth Observatory, the European Space Agency, and the Global Carbon Project, the findings of this study reveal that the climate/environment has improved during COVID-19, including better environmental quality and water quality with low carbon emissions and sound pollution. In the lockdown during the epidemic, the emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) significantly decreased because of the lower usage of transportation, decreased electricity demand, and halted industrial activities. The policy implications of this study suggested that keeping the climate healthy even in the post-COVID-19 era is a serious concern that needs to be addressed by investing in clean and green projects, ensuring green energy evolution, dealing with a large volume of medical waste, building health-ensuring and livable societies, and halting the funding of pollution. For governmental and regulatory bodies, these factors will provide a strong foundation to build safer, healthier, and environmentally friendly societies for generations to come.
| S-EPMC8088407 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Climate change is affecting food systems globally, with implications for food security, nutrition, and the health of human populations. There are limited data characterizing the current and future consequences of climate change on local food security for populations already experiencing poor nutritional indicators. Indigenous Amazonian populations have a high reported prevalence of nutritional deficiencies. This paper characterizes the food system of the Shawi of the Peruvian Amazon, climatic and non-climatic drivers of their food security vulnerability to climate change, and identifies potential maladaptation trajectories. METHODS AND FINDINGS:Semi-structured interviews with key informants (n = 24), three photovoice workshops (n = 17 individuals), transect walks (n = 2), a food calendar exercise, and two community dissemination meetings (n = 30 individuals), were conducted within two Shawi communities in Balsapuerto District in the Peruvian Loreto region between June and September of 2014. The Shawi food system was based on three main food sub-systems (forest, farming and externally-sourced). Shawi reported collective, gendered, and emotional notions related to their food system activities. Climatic and non-climatic drivers of food security vulnerability among Shawi participants acted at proximal and distal levels, and mutually reinforced key maladaptation trajectories, including: 1) a growing population and natural resource degradation coupled with limited opportunities to increase incomes, and 2) a desire for education and deforestation reinforced by governmental social and food interventions. CONCLUSION:A series of maladaptive trajectories have the potential to increase social and nutritional inequities for the Shawi. Transformational food security adaptation should include consideration of Indigenous perceptions and priorities, and should be part of Peruvian food and socioeconomic development policies.
| S-EPMC6191111 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change - two major current global crises - are far-reaching, the parallels between the two are striking, and their influence on one another are significant. Based on the wealth of evidence that has emerged from the scientific literature during the first two years of the pandemic, this study argues that these two global crises require holistic multisectoral mitigation strategies. Despite being different in nature, neither crisis can be effectively mitigated without considering their interdependencies. Herein, significant interactions between these two crises are highlighted and discussed. Major implications related to the economy, energy, technology, environment, food systems and agriculture sector, health systems, policy, management, and communities are detailed via a review of existing joint literature. Based on these outcomes, practical recommendations for future research and management are provided. While the joint timing of these crises has created a global conundrum, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated opportunities and lessons for devising sustainable recovery plans in relation to the climate crisis. The findings indicated that governments should work collaboratively to develop durable and adjustable strategies in line with long-term, global decarbonisation targets, promote renewable energy resources, integrate climate change into environmental policies, prioritise climate-smart agriculture and local food systems, and ensure public and ecosystem health. Further, differences in geographic distributions of climate change and COVID-19 related death cases revealed that these crises pose different threats to different parts of the world. These learnings provide insights to address the climate emergency - and potential future global problems with similar characteristics - if international countries act urgently and collectively.
| S-EPMC9252874 | biostudies-literature