The Role of Local Knowledge in the Risk Management of Extreme Climates in Local Communities: A Case Study in a Nomadic NIAHS Site

doi:10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2021.04.011

Abstract

Abstract:

In the context of climate change, research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation. Local communities, which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life, have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management. Therefore, this research aims to link Local knowledge (LK) to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model. It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework. The main research objectives of this study are: (1) To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events, risk management, LK, and farmers' adaptation strategies; (2) To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component; (3) To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation, and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation. The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management, local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK, because as a knowledge system, LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.

Key words: local knowledge, extreme climate, adaptive strategies, disaster risk management, Ar Horqin Grassland Nomadic System in Inner Mongolia, China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China-NIAHS), Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

WANG Guoping, YANG Lun, LIU Moucheng, LI Zhidong, HE Siyuan, MIN Qingwen. The Role of Local Knowledge in the Risk Management of Extreme Climates in Local Communities: A Case Study in a Nomadic NIAHS Site[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2021, 12(4): 532-542.

Figures/Tables 14

References 43

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Type of measures	Specific strategies	Location
Diversification	Diversified crop varieties, diversified planting patterns (Sun, 2012; Yang, 2015), and diversified collection and consumption strategies (Fu, 2010)	Ethnic minority communities in southwest China
	Diversified livestock animals and their varieties (Shi, 2015)	Inner Mongolia
	Diversified use of improved crop varieties (drought resistant varieties, high-yield varieties, short-term varieties) (Tun et al., 2017)	Magwe District, dry zone region of Myanmar
	Planting different crops and crop varieties	Eastern Ethiopia
Storage	Purchase and store ensilage (Wang et al., 2017)	Gannan Plateau, Gansu Province
	Purchase ensilage, renting pasture (Zhang et al., 2019)	Hulun-Beir grassland, Inner Mongolia
	Rainwater collection (Elizabeth et al., 2019)	Latin America
Mobility	Seasonal nomadism (Shen, 2013).	The Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau
Mobility	Sale of livestock, immigration (Kattumuri et al., 2015)	Karnataka, southern India
	Rotation and continuous seasonal grazing (Wang et al., 2016)	Gannan Plateau, Gansu Province

Type of measures	Specific strategies	Location
Diversification	Diversified crop varieties, diversified planting patterns (Sun, 2012; Yang, 2015), and diversified collection and consumption strategies (Fu, 2010)	Ethnic minority communities in southwest China
	Diversified livestock animals and their varieties (Shi, 2015)	Inner Mongolia
	Diversified use of improved crop varieties (drought resistant varieties, high-yield varieties, short-term varieties) (Tun et al., 2017)	Magwe District, dry zone region of Myanmar
	Planting different crops and crop varieties	Eastern Ethiopia
Storage	Purchase and store ensilage (Wang et al., 2017)	Gannan Plateau, Gansu Province
	Purchase ensilage, renting pasture (Zhang et al., 2019)	Hulun-Beir grassland, Inner Mongolia
	Rainwater collection (Elizabeth et al., 2019)	Latin America
Mobility	Seasonal nomadism (Shen, 2013).	The Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau
Mobility	Sale of livestock, immigration (Kattumuri et al., 2015)	Karnataka, southern India
	Rotation and continuous seasonal grazing (Wang et al., 2016)	Gannan Plateau, Gansu Province

Survey sites	Inter- viewees	Gender		Age (yr)
Survey sites	Inter- viewees	Male	Female	0-30	31-50	>50
Hailasutai Gacha	8	5	3	1	5	2
Arihubu Gacha	6	4	2	0	5	1
Talinhua Gacha	5	2	3	0	3	2
Bayanbaolege Gacha	5	3	2	1	3	1
Total	24	14	10	2	16	6

Survey sites	Inter- viewees	Gender		Age (yr)
Survey sites	Inter- viewees	Male	Female	0-30	31-50	>50
Hailasutai Gacha	8	5	3	1	5	2
Arihubu Gacha	6	4	2	0	5	1
Talinhua Gacha	5	2	3	0	3	2
Bayanbaolege Gacha	5	3	2	1	3	1
Total	24	14	10	2	16	6

Basic information	Categories	Number of interviewees	Proportion (%)
Gender	Male	59	76.60
Gender	Female	18	23.40
Age (yr)	0-30	4	5.30
	31-50	37	48.70
	> 50	35	46.10
Time for grazing experience (yr)	0-5	5	6.50
	6-10	2	2.60
	11-15	1	1.30
	16-20	6	7.80
	>20	63	81.80