Indigenous knowledge and disaster risk reduction: insight towards perception, response, adaptation and sustainability

In the practice of reducing disaster risks and addressing climate change, various effective practices have been adopted in different regions around the world, among which indigenous knowledge systems with distinct regional characteristics and disaster reduction effectiveness have played a significant role. How can we understand the role of indigenous knowledge systems in reducing disaster risk? What are the challenges of indigenous knowledge systems in the framework of disaster risk reduction strategies, and how can they address shortcomings in the policy framework? These are the questions addressed by Gopal Krishna Panda’s and co-authors’ new book, Indigenous Knowledge and Disaster Risk Reduction: Insight Towards Perception, Response, Adaptation and Sustainability. Their insights into indigenous knowledge and its contribution to disaster risk reduction are valuable, and bound to have significant theoretical and practical implications in the future.

The highlights of this book, in my view, are reflected in four aspects. Firstly, this book analyzes the inherent connections between indigenous knowledge, community beliefs, human responses, and adaptation, and believe that indigenous knowledge systems are an integral part of disaster risk reduction strategies, an important foundation for adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change, and a focus on enhancing community disaster resilience. The authors believe that with the expansion of disaster scale in today’s era, modern disaster management strategies based on proficient technology cannot deeply consider local specific physical and social characteristics as well as potential details of the entire disaster reduction process, which will lead to a reduction in effective response to disasters. The authors believe that an indigenous knowledge system based on generational transmission can compensate for this deficiency. A disaster management strategy that combines modern technological systems and indigenous knowledge systems is more conducive to enhancing the effectiveness of disaster response.

Secondly, this book introduces methods for indigenous knowledge to participate in disaster management. The authors believe that indigenous peoples are an important component of disaster risk management, but in the modern era, the loss of indigenous identity, low capacity, distrust of government, and economic pragmatism among indigenous peoples have led to a decline in local intelligence in their communities, resulting in a decrease in the effectiveness of their participation in disaster risk management. The authors believe that the close relationship between indigenous peoples and nature and natural ecosystems has cultivated their sensitivity to detecting environmental changes and developing adaptive strategies. Therefore, they have developed many effective methods in disaster management, enabling them to achieve sustainable livelihoods. The methods used by indigenous communities in different disaster and risk management lead to differences in vulnerability impacts, resilience growth, capacity building, and community preparedness.

Thirdly, this book introduces the idea of achieving sustainability through local knowledge and practice. The effective development of local knowledge can be achieved through the development of indigenous tools such as digital folklore, disaster movies, and disaster warning, and the implementation of response measures at the community level. The combination of indigenous and scientific knowledge helps to better manage local disasters and promote sustainable development. Local knowledge helps to perceive disaster risks and promote vulnerability management at the community level, therefore strengthening interaction between communities, scientists, and policymakers can help promote the adoption of indigenous knowledge and effective decision-making in disaster management. The role of indigenous knowledge and practices in disaster management in different regions promotes local sustainability, reflecting the unique local cultural values and indispensable disaster reduction value of indigenous knowledge.

Fourthly, this book reflects the integration of indigenous knowledge and scientific policies. At present, the comprehensive adoption of indigenous knowledge faces various challenges, including systemic barriers and different worldviews. The way to address these challenges lies in focusing on common goals and understanding each other’s challenges. The authors extensively analyze the correlation and impact parameters between local practices in different countries and disaster risk reduction, and conclude that a more effective process of disaster risk reduction requires a more comprehensive process, combining local and scientific knowledge, and a large number of stakeholders to bridge the gap in disaster reduction. For example, they evaluate the gap between specific indicators for disaster risk reduction in India and the United Nations Sendai Framework disaster reduction goals which aims to significantly reduce global disaster mortality rates, the number of affected populations, economic losses related to global gross domestic product, damage to critical infrastructure and interference with basic services caused by disasters, promote international cooperation, and increase access to multi hazards early warning systems and disaster reduction information and assessments, and proposed a policy framework for building resilient indigenous practices. The application and full integration of indigenous knowledge in disaster risk reduction scientific policies in different regions reflect their understanding of bridging the gap in indigenous knowledge and policies, reflecting the importance that stakeholders attach to indigenous knowledge, and facilitating the development of community disaster risk reduction strategies and policy frameworks for adapting to climate change.

I believe that this book attempts to understand how to effectively utilize the indigenous knowledge systems of local communities in various types of disaster management, and I believe that integrating local knowledge and modern technology to reduce disaster risk is the direction for improving future disaster governance policies. Whether the sharing of indigenous knowledge systems can promote the effectiveness of disaster risk reduction in other regions has not been systematically compared and analyzed in this book. Whether indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge have a nested dependency relationship in the policy framework for disaster risk reduction, and how the differences in knowledge levels play a role in disaster risk reduction, are also important areas that could have been further developed. Still, this book provides numerous valuable references for international disaster risk reduction strategies and community disaster reduction and climate adaptation strategies.