Led by the Land: Towards Community-Directed Adaptation Research

Evan Bowness (Trent University)

Land-based communities live in reciprocal relationships with their surrounding ecosystems and possess deep local knowledges about the waters and soils that sustain their ways of life. As is often the case for those who have contributed the least to climate emissions, these communities are highly vulnerable to the accelerating and intensifying impacts of climate change. They increasingly face threats to their food and water security, livelihoods, and community well-being. Furthermore, these communities are often excluded from sustainability research and policy development, instead having “solutions” paternalistically imposed on them from outside researchers and institutions. These inequitable dynamics remain dominant despite growing recognition that land-based communities play a critical role in responses to the climate and nature emergency —including a central role in the future of transdisciplinary climate change research. This talk will explore the complexities in co-creating research at the behest of BIPOC and Global South land-based communities, and the challenges and opportunities associated with building climate adaptation research collaborations that are truly community-directed.