Global climate change disproportionately affects rural people and indigenous groups, but their rights, knowledge, and interests concerning it are generally unacknowledged. Shifts in precipitation, cloud cover, temperature, and other climatic patterns alter their livelihood pursuits and cultural landscapes, accentuating their existing social and economic marginalization. Planners and researchers of climate change mitigation and adaptation must take into account the knowledge and capacity of rural people, and engage them as active participants in the design and governance of interventions.This book documents the capacities and constraints to be encountered among communities facing changing climates. It explores human interactions in environments ranging from subarctic tundra to equatorial rain forest, from oceanic lagoons to inland mountains. It is important reading for policy makers and academics in climate change adaptation, anthropology and development studies.

Table of Contents:
Prelims (Contents, Tables, About the Editors) 1. Introduction - Climate Change and Threatened Communities A. Peter Castro, Dan Taylor, and David W. Brokensha 2. Climate change and forest conservation: a REDD flag for Central African forest people? Philip Burnham 3. Social vulnerability, climatic variability, and uncertainty in rural Ethiopia: a study of South Wollo and Oromiya Zones of eastern Amhara Region A. Peter Castro 4. Farmers on the frontline: adaptation and change in Malawi Kate Wellard, Daimon Kambewa, and Sieglinde Snapp 5. Risk and abandonment and the meta-narrative of climate change Dan Taylor 6. Mobilizing knowledge to build adaptive capacity: lessons from southern Mozambique J. Shaffer 7. Climate change and the future of onion and potato production in West Darfur, Sudan: a case study of Zalingei locality Yassir Hassan Satti and A. Peter Castro 8. Comparing knowledge of and experience with climate change across three glaciated mountain regions K.W. Dunbar, Julie Brugger, Christine Jurt, and Ben Orlove 9. Aapuupayuu (the weather warms up): climate change and the Eeyouch (Cree) of northern Quebec Kreg T. Ettenger 10. 'The one who has changed is the person': observations and explanations of climate change in the Ecuadorian Andes Kristine Skarbo, Kristin Vander Molen, Rosa Ramos, and Robert E. Rhoades 11. Good intentions, bad memories, and troubled capital: American Indian knowledge and action in renewable energy projects Raymond I. Orr and David B. Anderson 12. Reclaiming the past to respond to climate change: Mayan farmers and ancient agricultural techniques in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico Betty Bernice Faust, Armando Anaya Hernandez, and Helga Geovannini Acuna 13. Can we learn from the past? policy history and climate change in Bangladesh David Lewis 14. Local perceptions and adaptation to climate change: a perspective from Western India Dineshkumar Moghariya 15. Ethno-ecology in the shadow of rain and light of experience: local perceptions of drought and climate change in East Sumba, Indonesia Yancey Orr, Russell Schimmer and Roland Geerken 16. Local knowledge and technology innovation in a changing world: traditional fishing communities in Tam Giang Cau Hai lagoon, Vietnam Thanh Vo and Jack Manno 17. Conclusion: some reflections on indigenous knowledge and climate change Dan Taylor, A. Peter Castro, and David W. Brokensha Back Matter (Resources, Notes, Index)