An empirically tested overlap between indigenous and scientific knowledge of a changing climate in Bolivian Amazonia
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In: Regional Environmental Change, Vol. 17, No. 6, 01.08.2017, p. 1673-1685.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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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 -