Climate Change and the Health of Indigenous Communities / Changements climatiques et santé des autochtones

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    Understanding urban vulnerabilities to climate change impacts in Khon Kaen and Mukdahan in Thailand
    (2019) Beringer, Astrud Lea; Inmuong, Yanyong; Kaomuangnoi, Kontaros
    This paper analyzes key urban vulnerabilities to climate change impacts in two secondary cities, Khon Kaen and Mukdahan, in northeastern Thailand. In terms of tackling climate risks, inclusive planning is lacking. An essential understanding of how planned urban growth is necessary, as well as a long-term approach that considers climate sensitive land use and sufficient and adequate water availability. Current approaches will exacerbate future climate change related impacts. Weak law enforcement of relevant policies point to a lack of transparency and participation of civil society in decision making, due to a largely centralized and paternalistic structured society.
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    Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC) project : final technical report
    (2016-11) Ford, James; Llanos-Cuentas, Alejandro; Lwasa, Shuaib; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Harper, Sherilee; Maillet, Michelle; Bussalleu, Alejandra; Anicama, Jahir
    Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC) established a multinational interdisciplinary team from Canada, Uganda, and Peru to develop an understanding of the health dimensions of climate change for Indigenous populations. Research goals underpin intervention objectives towards empowering Indigenous peoples’ capacity to adapt to the health effects of climate change. Major knowledge translation / knowledge sharing workshops were held in all project locations (Peru, Arctic, and Uganda) bringing together researchers, students, community members and leaders, partner and civil society organizations, as well as government officials and decision-makers. The report provides a bibliography of research outputs.
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    What caused the 2012 dengue outbreak in Pucallpa, Peru? : a socio-ecological autopsy : pre-print version
    (2016-12) Charette, Margot; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Llanos-Cuentas, Elmer Alejandro; Carcamo, Cesar; Kulkarni, Manisha
    Dengue is highly endemic in Peru, showing increases in transmission particularly since vector re-infestation of the country in the 1980s. This study suggests that the 2012 Pucallpa outbreak was proximally triggered by the introduction of a new virus serotype (DENV-2 Asian/America). Increased travel, rapid urbanization, and inadequate water management facilitated the potential for transmission. These triggers occurred within the context of failures in surveillance and control programming, including underfunded and ad hoc vector control. The findings have implications for future prevention and control of dengue in Ucayali region where chikungunya and Zika diseases are emerging.
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    Vulnerability of indigenous health to climate change : a case study of Uganda's Batwa Pygmies
    (2012-09) Berrang-Ford, Lea; Dingle, Kathryn; Ford, James D.; Lee, Celine; Lwasa, Shuaib
    Findings stress the importance of human drivers of vulnerability and adaptive capacity and the need to address social determinants of health to reduce the potential disease burden of climate change. This study formed the basis of pilot research to inform development of a 5-year health research and intervention project. It provides summaries of climate-sensitive health outcomes identified as priority concerns, including malaria, malnutrition, respiratory disease, and stomach disorders, followed by characterization of the pathways of biophysical exposure to climate-sensitive health outcomes: water, food security, infectious disease vectors, and weather events.
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    Including indigenous knowledge and experience in IPCC assessment reports : post-print version
    (2016-03) Ford, James D.; Cameron, Laura; Rubis, Jennifer; Maillet, Michelle; Nakashima, Doug
    Assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) play a critical role in producing global knowledge on climate change. This is not a value-neutral role. As Indigenous issues have been underrepresented in previous IPCC assessments, this review analyzes how Indigenous content is covered and framed in Assessment Report 5 Working Group II (WGII). The development of culturally relevant and appropriate adaptation policies requires a more robust, nuanced, and appropriate inclusion and framing of Indigenous issues in future assessment reports. The article outlines how this can be achieved.
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    Adaptation and indigenous peoples in the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change : post-print version
    (2016) Ford, James D.; Maillet, Michelle; Pouliot, V.; Meredith, T.; Cavanaugh, A.
    The article catalogues the discourse of adaptation within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by reviewing decision texts from the Conference of the Parties (CP) to the UNFCCC from 1992 until CP20 in 2014 (Lima). Through critical discourse analysis, Indigenous rights, practices, and knowledge are examined as they are embodied in decision texts. Implications of discursive trends around adaptation for Indigenous peoples are presented. Since CP16 (Cancun 2010), the discursive space for incorporating the voices, needs, and priorities of Indigenous peoples has expanded. The paper outlines opportunities for greater engagement in the UNFCCC post-Paris Agreement.
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    Acute gastrointestinal illness in two Inuit communities : burden of illness in Rigolet and Iqaluit, Canada : author version
    (2014) Harper, Sherilee; Edge, Victoria; Ford, James D.; Thomas, M.K.; Pearl, D.L.
    Results of this study highlight the need for systematic data collection to better understand and support previously anecdotal indications of high acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) incidence. Cross-sectional retrospective surveys captured information on AGI and potential environmental risk factors. Lack of access to health services can result in reduced care-seeking behaviour, which can compromise the quality and quantity of available surveillance data. The aim of the research was to estimate the incidence and prevalence of AGI, and to identify potential socio-economic and environmental risk factors in the Inuit communities of Rigolet, Nunatsiavut and Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada.
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    Inuit food security : vulnerability of the traditional food system to climatic extremes during winter 2010/2011 in Iqaluit, Nunavut
    (Department of Geography, McGill University, Montréal, QC, CA, 2012-04) Statham, Sara; Department of Geography, McGill University
    Broader social determinants such as poverty have a greater influence on Inuit food security. When poor socioeconomic conditions, such as those associated with public housing, are coupled with poor environmental conditions, such as those experienced during winter 2010/2011, the vulnerability of the traditional food system is exacerbated. Resilience was particularly impeded for financially insecure households reliant on income support. Results show increased environmental stresses to the traditional food system compared to previous years, which negatively impacted hunters’ harvests and residents’ food supplies, but overall, the traditional food system was not as vulnerable to climatic extremes as anticipated. Socioeconomic conditions are more problematic.
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    Balancing indigenous principles and institutional research guidelines for informed consent : a case study from the Peruvian Amazon
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012-11) Sherman, Mya; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Ford, James; Lardeau, Marie-Pierre; Hofmeijer, Irene; Zavaleta Cortijo, Carol
    Background: Current literature emphasizes the need to implement informed consent according to indigenous principles and worldviews. However, few studies explicitly address how informed consent can be effectively and appropriately obtained in indigenous communities in accordance with research ethics guidelines. Methods: This article uses participatory rural appraisal methods to identify and characterize community preferences for informed consent in two indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, using Canadian federal research regulations and McGill University's Research Ethics Board as a case study to examine where institutional ethics guidelines constrain or support culturally appropriate notions of informed consent. Results: The study emphasizes the importance of tailoring informed consent procedures to community circumstances. Although both communities in this case study are located in the Peruvian Amazon, there were important distinctions between them, such as gender dynamics and social structure, which profoundly affected informed consent procedures. It is also important to consider the balance of collectivism and individualism at a community level in order to determine the role of individual and community consent. Conclusion: Research ethics guidelines generally allow for this contextualized approach. However, regulations still have the potential to constrain indigenous informed consent due to content requirements for informed consent forms, limited flexibility for modifications in the field, and requirements for individual consent.
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    Community vulnerability to the health effects of climate change among indigenous populations in the Peruvian Amazon : a case study from Panaillo and Nuevo Progreso
    (Springer, 2012-07) Hofmeijer, I.,; Ford, J.D.; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Zavaleta, C.; Carcamo, C.
    This paper presents the results of an exploratory study working with two Amazonian communities in Peru to identify key climate-related health risks from the perspective of local residents, and characterize how these risks are experienced and managed. The work adopts a vulnerability-based approach and utilizes participatory methodologies to document and examine local perspectives on vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Thirty nine community members were engaged in participatory photography (photovoice), and rapid rural appraisal workshops were conducted with a total 40 participants. Contextual information was obtained from 34 semi-structured interviews with key informants and participant observation during fieldwork. Three climate-related health risks were identified by the communities as pressing issues (food insecurity, water insecurity, and vector-borne disease), all of which are climate-dependent and reported to be being affected by observed changes in climatic conditions. Sensitivity to these risks is high due to social and economic disadvantages which force people to live in suboptimal conditions, partake in dangerous activities, and engage in unhealthy behaviors. Traditional approaches to health and strong social networks are important in moderating health risks, but are placed under increasing stress in the context of local social and economic changes due to larger scale influences, including resource development, deforestation, and changing social relations.
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    Impacts of climate change on Caribbean life
    (American Public Health Association, 2013-01) Macpherson, Cheryl; Akpinar-Elci, Muge; Ford, James D.
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    Research on the human dimensions of climate change in Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut : a literature review and gap analysis
    (Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, CA, 2012-09) Ford, James D.; Bolton, Kenyon C.; Shirley, Jamal; Pearce, Tristan; Tremblay, Martin; Westlake, Michael
    Much of the research conducted in the North has typically engaged with communities as subjects of research rather than as partners to it. Current understanding of adaptation is derived mostly from local studies in small communities that focus on traditional activities. However, larger regional centres are emerging as hubs of economic development and population growth in which an “urban” Inuit identity is emerging. This literature review aims to direct researchers to questions that have not already been asked, and notes the absence of studies that examine how Northerners might benefit from new opportunities that may arise from climate change.
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    Vulnerability of indigenous health to climate change : a case study of Uganda’s Batwa Pygmies
    (Elsevier, 2012) Berrang-Ford, Lea; Dingle, Kathryn; Ford, James D.; Lee, Celine; Lwasa, Shuaib
    The potential impacts of climate change on human health in sub-Saharan Africa are wide-ranging, complex, and largely adverse. The region’s Indigenous peoples are considered to be at heightened risk given their relatively poor health outcomes, marginal social status, and resource-based livelihoods; however, little attention has been given to these most vulnerable of the vulnerable. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by taking a bottom-up approach to assessing health vulnerabilities to climate change in two Batwa Pygmy communities in rural Uganda. Rapid Rural Appraisal and PhotoVoice field methods complemented by qualitative data analysis were used to identify key climate-sensitive, community-identified health outcomes, describe determinants of sensitivity at multiple scales, and characterize adaptive capacity of Batwa health systems. The findings stress the importance of human drivers of vulnerability and adaptive capacity and the need to address social determinants of health in order to reduce the potential disease burden of climate change.
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    Mapping human dimensions of climate change research in the Canadian Arctic
    (Springer, 2012-07) Ford, James D.; Bolton, Kenyon; Shirley, Jamal; Pearce, Tristan; Tremblay, Martin; Westlake, Michael
    The importance of adaptation is widely acknowledged in the Arctic. Nevertheless, the literature remains dominated by impacts and vulnerability studies. While many of these projects have documented adaptations and coping strategies currently being utilized, few examine their effectiveness, durability, socio-economic and ecological implications, and long-term viability in light of multiple stresses and competing policy priorities. This review of literature shows that although major, multi-year research programs focusing on Arctic climate change have been initiated, much research is being duplicated and policy applications overlooked due to the proliferation of studies. Research needs to focus on identifying and characterizing sustainable and feasible adaptation interventions.
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    Authorship in IPCC AR5 and its implications for content : climate change and Indigenous populations in WGII
    (Springer, 2011-11) Ford, James D.; Vanderbilt, Will; Berrang-Ford, Lea
    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report (AR5) will be the culmination of over two decades of evolution for the IPCC since the first assessment report was released in 1990. While it is too late to alter the structure of AR5, there are opportunities to prioritize the recruitment of contributing authors and reviewers with expertise on Indigenous issues, raise awareness among Chapter authors on the characteristics of impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability faced by Indigenous peoples, and serve to highlight ways Indigenous perspectives can help broaden understanding of climate change and policy interventions.
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    Indigenous health and climate change
    (American Public Health Association, 2012-07) Ford, James D.
    Indigenous-focused content has largely been overlooked in reports on climate change such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This article captures place-based dimensions of climate change vulnerability as well as broader determining factors. The studies focus primarily on Australia and the Arctic, and indicate significant adaptive capacity in indigenous peoples, with active responses to climate-related health risks. However, non-climatic stresses including poverty, land dispossession, globalization, and associated sociocultural transitions challenge adaptive capacity. These are social determinants of health. The scope for climate change to affect health, therefore, is broader than altering incidence and prevalence of disease.