Perspectives on Indigenous well-being and climate change adaptation

Abstract

Though it is often said that climate change is a risk to people's well-being, the specific ways in which it affects people's well-being is still poorly understood, especially as it relates to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Two interrelated issues contribute to this gap in knowledge: (1) the use of different conceptualizations of well-being across disciplines; and (2) the limited use of local and context-specific understandings of well-being that are meaningful to people exposed to climate change. Here, we review 103 articles covering the topic of climate change adaptation and well-being. We find that, despite the growing interest on the topic, most of the articles do not include definitions of well-being. We then propose an approach informed by emic values to better understand how climate change may affect well-being in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. We conclude that, given the increasing recognition of well-being as a fundamental marker of successful adaptation, well-being should be central to climate change research and policymaking, but for this to be of benefit to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities context-specific understandings of well-being are necessary.