Links between media communication and local perceptions of climate change in an indigenous society
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Standard
In: Climatic Change, Vol. 131, No. 2, 01.07.2015, p. 307-320.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Links between media communication and local perceptions of climate change in an indigenous society
AU - Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro
AU - Méndez-López, María Elena
AU - Díaz-Reviriego, Isabel
AU - McBride, Marissa F.
AU - Pyhälä, Aili
AU - Rosell-Melé, Antoni
AU - Reyes-García, Victoria
PY - 2015/7/1
Y1 - 2015/7/1
N2 - Indigenous societies hold a great deal of ethnoclimatological knowledge that could potentially be of key importance for both climate change science and local adaptation; yet, we lack studies examining how such knowledge might be shaped by media communication. This study systematically investigates the interplay between local observations of climate change and the reception of media information amongst the Tsimane’, an indigenous society of Bolivian Amazonia where the scientific discourse of anthropogenic climate change has barely reached. Specifically, we conducted a Randomized Evaluation with a sample of 424 household heads in 12 villages to test to what degree local accounts of climate change are influenced by externally influenced awareness. We randomly assigned villages to a treatment and control group, conducted workshops on climate change with villages in the treatment group, and evaluated the effects of information dissemination on individual climate change perceptions. Results of this work suggest that providing climate change information through participatory workshops does not noticeably influence individual perceptions of climate change. Such findings stress the challenges involved in translating between local and scientific framings of climate change, and gives cause for concern about how to integrate indigenous peoples and local knowledge with global climate change policy debates.
AB - Indigenous societies hold a great deal of ethnoclimatological knowledge that could potentially be of key importance for both climate change science and local adaptation; yet, we lack studies examining how such knowledge might be shaped by media communication. This study systematically investigates the interplay between local observations of climate change and the reception of media information amongst the Tsimane’, an indigenous society of Bolivian Amazonia where the scientific discourse of anthropogenic climate change has barely reached. Specifically, we conducted a Randomized Evaluation with a sample of 424 household heads in 12 villages to test to what degree local accounts of climate change are influenced by externally influenced awareness. We randomly assigned villages to a treatment and control group, conducted workshops on climate change with villages in the treatment group, and evaluated the effects of information dissemination on individual climate change perceptions. Results of this work suggest that providing climate change information through participatory workshops does not noticeably influence individual perceptions of climate change. Such findings stress the challenges involved in translating between local and scientific framings of climate change, and gives cause for concern about how to integrate indigenous peoples and local knowledge with global climate change policy debates.
KW - Ecosystems Research
KW - Climate Change
KW - Indigenous People
KW - Climate Change Adaption
KW - Information Dissemination
KW - Flood Frequency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84933671204&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10584-015-1381-7
DO - 10.1007/s10584-015-1381-7
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 26166919
AN - SCOPUS:84933671204
VL - 131
SP - 307
EP - 320
JO - Climatic Change
JF - Climatic Change
SN - 0165-0009
IS - 2
ER -