TY - JOUR

T1 - An empirically tested overlap between indigenous and scientific knowledge of a changing climate in Bolivian Amazonia

AU - Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro

AU - Garcia, Raquel Amaral

AU - Díaz-Reviriego, Isabel

AU - Cabeza, Mar

AU - Pyhälä, Aili

AU - Reyes-García, Victoria

PY - 2017/8/1

Y1 - 2017/8/1

N2 - Existing climate data for Bolivian Amazonia rely on observations from a few sparse weather stations, interpolated on coarse-resolution grids. At the same time, the region hosts numerous indigenous groups with rich knowledge systems that are hitherto untapped in the quest to understand local climate change. Drawing on an empirical dataset of climate change observations by an Amazonian native society, we assess the potential use of indigenous knowledge for complementing available climate data. We find indigenous observations to be robustly associated with local station data for climatic changes over the last five decades. By contrast, there are discrepancies between gridded climate data and both indigenous observations and local station observations. Indigenous knowledge can be instrumental to enhance our understanding of local climate in data-deficient regions. Indigenous observations offer a tool to ground-truth gridded descriptions of climatic changes, thereby making adaptation strategies more robust at local scales. We contend that the use of indigenous knowledge could help to assist the climate interpolation process and address the prevailing uncertainties in local assessments of climate change.

AB - Existing climate data for Bolivian Amazonia rely on observations from a few sparse weather stations, interpolated on coarse-resolution grids. At the same time, the region hosts numerous indigenous groups with rich knowledge systems that are hitherto untapped in the quest to understand local climate change. Drawing on an empirical dataset of climate change observations by an Amazonian native society, we assess the potential use of indigenous knowledge for complementing available climate data. We find indigenous observations to be robustly associated with local station data for climatic changes over the last five decades. By contrast, there are discrepancies between gridded climate data and both indigenous observations and local station observations. Indigenous knowledge can be instrumental to enhance our understanding of local climate in data-deficient regions. Indigenous observations offer a tool to ground-truth gridded descriptions of climatic changes, thereby making adaptation strategies more robust at local scales. We contend that the use of indigenous knowledge could help to assist the climate interpolation process and address the prevailing uncertainties in local assessments of climate change.

KW - Climate data

KW - Ethnoclimatology

KW - Ground-truthing

KW - Indigenous observations

KW - Interpolation

KW - Local environmental knowledge

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013749650&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2db6e2eb-461d-3068-bb8f-52d5819463f0/

U2 - 10.1007/s10113-017-1125-5

DO - 10.1007/s10113-017-1125-5

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85013749650

VL - 17

SP - 1673

EP - 1685

JO - Regional Environmental Change

JF - Regional Environmental Change

SN - 1436-3798

IS - 6

ER -