Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

For decades now, the implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation mechanisms and solutions in the agriculture sector have been embedded in scientific knowledge, sidelining indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) (Belfer et al., 2017). However, it must be noted that these two knowledge bases have for a long time worked hand in hand, and have always benefited from each other. In this paper, I argue that IEK is as important as scientific knowledge in effectively addressing climate change impacts and thus, the integration of the two knowledge bases can be very beneficial in tackling the many challenges emanating from climate change. This paper explores and analyzes effective IEK practices for climate change adaptation and resilience-building in agriculture in Zambia. The goal is to identify which IEK practices are effective for climate change adaptation and resilience-building and can be integrated with scientific knowledge and replicated in similar regions for a more resilience agriculture sector for all. This paper focuses on analyzing Zambia’s agriculture traditional society which involves assessing and examining available literature, field observations and oral history from the local knowledge holders themselves on changes within the environment, past and present environmental catastrophes specifically those related to climate change and the traditionally adaptive mechanisms being utilized. The paper concludes that the integration of effective and innovative IEK practices with scientific knowledge and a possible replication as observed from this case study can be one of the most effective ways for a sustainable adaptive agriculture sector in the face of climate change.