Adaptation to climate change: ethnic groups in Southwest China

ABSTRACT

Based on interviews with 1216 randomly selected households in Yunnan, Southwest China, we assessed local people's perceptions and coping strategies on climate change, and determined its influencing factors. Results indicated that 72% of the respondents perceived climate change-associated impacts, while 82% and 85% perceived the changes in temperature and precipitation, respectively. Most respondents perceived climate warming and decreases in precipitation. Drought and erratic rainfall are the most serious impacts. Approximately 40% of respondents who perceived climate change have chosen to do nothing. Others have reacted by migrating for work, introducing new crop types, giving up planting certain crops, and investing in irrigation infrastructure. The perception and response strategies of local residents to climate change were mainly influenced by the factors related to geographical characteristics and residents’ livelihoods. There are significant differences in perception of climate change among Tibetan, Yi and Naxi, while no significant differences in response strategies have been found among ethnic minorities. An integrated programme combining indigenous knowledge with scientific technology and government policies is proposed to enhance the adaptive capacity to climate change of ethnic populations in mountain areas. The policy implications call for understanding of cultural difference that affect people's perception and adaptation to climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Perception of climate change
• climate change adaptation
• ethnic minorities
• mountainous regions
• China

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ‘Yunnan philosophy and social science planning project’ under Grant YB2018019; and ‘First class discipline construction planning project of Ethnology in Yunnan University’ under Grant 2017SYL0060. It is also part of Ministry of Education of China Project (No. 16JJD850015), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 72063037). We thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Education of China: [Grant Number 16JJD850015]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 72063037]; First class discipline construction planning project of Ethnology in Yunnan University: [Grant Number 2017SYL0060]; Yunnan philosophy and social science planning project: [Grant Number YB2018019].