Victoria Reyes-García (PhD in Anthropology, 2001, University of Florida) is ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Her research focuses on the relevance of Indigenous and local knowledge systems in understanding and addressing environmental and climate crises. Climate change is the most urgent and complex problem faced by humanity. Probably no single discipline, no single knowledge system, can address such complexity on its own. In that context, scientists and policy-makers have started to consider how the inclusion of plural knowledge systems could inform climate policy, science, and social action. Indigenous peoples and local communities with long history of interaction with the environment have developed knowledge systems that allow them to detect climate change impacts on their territories and livelihoods. Beyond factual information, these knowledge systems are based on values, worldviews, and beliefs that could also contribute to the development of alternative responses. However, walls between knowledge systems avert some knowledge systems to be included in current climate policy and research. Professor Reyes-Garcías current research aims to break these walls. She coordinates a network of 50 researchers who use a standard protocol to document climate change manifestations, drivers, impacts, and adaptations based on Indigenous and local knowledge systems. Results indicate that Indigenous and local knowledge systems 1) detect not only changes in climatic variability, but also the impacts of these changes on biophysical systems, 2) associate climate change impacts to the social, political, and ecological context in which they occur, and 3) are the bases to generate local responses to climate change impacts.
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Breaking the Wall of Knowledge Systems to understand Local Climate Change Impacts
Local indicators of climate change impacts (LICCI)
Victoria Reyes-García
Victoria Reyes-García (PhD in Anthropology, 2001, University of Florida) is ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Her research focuses on the relevance of Indigenous and local knowledge systems to understand and address the environmental and climatic crises. She has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited three books, and trained 20 PhD students. Between 2010-15, she directed an ERC Starting Grant to study the relations between biological and cultural diversity using a cross-cultural approach. In 2017, she received an ERC Consolidator Grant to study the contribution of Indigenous and local knowledge to climate change research. She has contributed to international policy-oriented efforts, including the IPBES Global and Transformative Change Assessments and the IPBES-IPCC Report. Since 2021 she is International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.