Is There a Place for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Climate Change Policy and Governance? Learnings from a Brazilian Case

Luciana Iocca () and Teresa Fidélis
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Luciana Iocca: Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, University Campus, 3018-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Teresa Fidélis: Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, University Campus, 3018-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: The specialized literature, leading organizations, and international law, like the Paris Agreement, have increasingly recognized the relevance of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ contributions to climate change adaptation. Despite this, few studies have investigated how their rights are considered in relevant public policies and decision-making processes. This article explores how the rights of protection and participation of Traditional Peoples and Communities are incorporated in climate- and environment-related public policy documents and examines how community members perceive their engagement in the drafting of those documents and their implementing agencies. For this purpose, it uses a Brazilian traditional community as a case study and undertakes a content analysis of a set of plans and programs applying to its territory and a series of interviews with local members. The findings reveal that while there are a few references to Traditional Peoples and Communities in the diagnosis parts of the plans and programs, they are scarce in substantive parts like objectives and measures. In addition, those references rarely relate to traditional knowledge. These results are also visible in local plans. Moreover, community members appear to feel poorly protected from climate change impacts, misinformed about these plans and programs, and overlooked when it comes to the insertion of their traditional knowledge of climate action measures into these plans and programs. The poor recognition of the protected status of these peoples and communities in the context of climate change highlights the need for a more sensitive and robust design of climate and environment-related plans and programs, ensuring the incorporation of their valuable contributions and traditional knowledge. Further efforts are required to acknowledge this gap and to better bridge the translation of international law into national and municipal plans, and programs, and effectively involve Traditional Peoples and Communities.

Keywords: Indigenous Peoples; local communities; traditional communities; traditional knowledge; climate change governance; participation; perception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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