Thin Lei Win in AlertNet: Indigenous communities around the
world are highly vulnerable to climate change but instead of seeing them as
victims, policy-makers should tap into their centuries-old knowledge of
adapting to extreme weather patterns, aid workers say.
In Iran, which has some 700 nomadic tribes, pastoralists
have been successfully adapting to climate fluctuations for 12,000 years,
development expert Catherine Razavi told an international conference on climate
change.
In recent years they have adjusted their migration patterns
and switched to more drought resistant strains of livestock, said Razavi who is
executive director of Iran’s Center for Sustainable Development (CENESTA).
In central Iran, where much pastureland has been destroyed
by drought, she said pastoralists were now planting drought tolerant crops on
previous grazing land. These crops include pistachios and fodder barley which
can be used to feed livestock. The story
of Iran’s nomads was highlighted during the sixth International Conference on
Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change, hosted in the Vietnamese capital
Hanoi.
Indigenous communities are vulnerable to climate change
partly because they are marginalised and poor and have little access to
information and services. But far from watching passively as their ancestral
lands and traditions are threatened by climate-related hazards, many such
communities are actively adapting to new conditions, the conference heard....
Inside a Qashqai tent in Iran, shot by Bouille, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License
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