Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu

Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu was developed to support climate adaptation planning that integrates tribal and indigenous traditional values. The Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu (Menu) is an extensive collection of adaptation strategies based in natural climate solutions and resource management, primarily for the use of indigenous communities, tribal natural resource agencies and their non-indigenous partners. The Menu is designed to address the unique needs, knowledges and cultures of indigenous communities, and includes Guiding Principles, which describe considerations for working with indigenous peoples. This document is intended to support the incorporation of Anishinaabe or Ojibwe perspectives, specifically from the Great Lakes region, into a regional climate adaptation framework. However, while this first version of the Menu was created based on these localized perspectives and cultural values, it was intentionally designed to be useful to other indigenous communities outside of the Great Lakes region as well, allowing for the incorporation of their own knowledges and cultures.

The Tribal Adaptation Menu was developed by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) and a diverse group of collaborators representing tribal, academic, intertribal and government entities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Menu evolved from the Forest Adaptation Resources Workbook - now the online Adaptation Workbook, developed by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS).  The Adaptation Workbook was developed as a part of the Climate Change Response Framework, a collaborative effort to support climate-informed forest management and conservation. The Adaptation Workbook describes a structured process for using the Menu’s strategies as appropriate for varying adaptation planning processes.

The Menu includes fourteen primary Adaptation Strategies, that can be applied across communities and ecosystems, and more than fifty associated Adaptation Approaches which are more specific with examples of how the Strategies may be implemented. The Strategies and Approaches are presented as an open menu rather than a prescribed list, for versatility in which land managers can choose adaptation actions for their distinct context.  Each set of Strategies and Approaches offers support for incorporating indigenous traditional values and cultural awareness into adaptation planning. Strategies that are focused on relationships with other beings, the land, and the community. are deliberately presented first in the Menu to emphasize “the importance of considering these relationships first and foremost.”

Human to Non-Human Relations

The Tribal Adaptation Menu offers a different perspective on adaptation of the natural world. As described by the authors, “Western perspectives emphasize control and management of non-sentient resources.  Indigenous perspectives call for observation, recognizing and learning from our first teachers, and adaptation that addresses responsibility and reciprocity to all our relations.” The importance of human to non-human relationships is a focus of this report and the Menu approach.   

The following Adaptation Strategies are accompanied by more specific Adaptation Approaches and numerous “Example tactics” or applications for each:

Strategy 1: Consider cultural practices and seek spiritual guidance.

Strategy 2: Learn through careful and respectful observation (gikinawaabi).

Strategy 3: Support tribal engagement in the environment.

Strategy 4: Sustain fundamental ecological and cultural functions.

Strategy 5: Reduce the impact of biological and anthropogenic stressors.

Strategy 6: Reduce the risk and long-term impacts of disturbances.

Strategy 7: Establish, support, and recognize opportunities for beings or sites of concern to the community to withstand climate change.

Strategy 8: Maintain and enhance community and structural diversity.

Strategy 9: Increase ecosystem redundancy and promote connectivity across the landscape.

Strategy 10: Maintain and enhance genetic diversity.

Strategy 11: Encourage community adjustments and transition while maintaining reciprocity and balance.

Strategy 12: Support a new ecosystem balance after a major disturbance.

Strategy 13: Design and modify infrastructure and access to match future conditions and community needs.

Strategy 14: Accommodate altered hydrologic processes.

For example, the following are a few Strategies, Adaptation Approaches and Example tactics as given in the Menu, with unique regard for tribal knowledges and lifeways..

Strategy 1: Consider cultural practices and seek spiritual guidance.

Indigenous knowledges and ways can provide the backbone for successful climate adaptation. Seeking guidance from the community on adaptation needs and actions, respecting and building on dynamic relationships, and honoring cultural responsibilities and histories may benefit both short- and long-term adaptation efforts.

Approach 1.5. Maintain dynamic relationships in a changing landscape.

The changing climate may support novel combinations of beings living in a given landscape. When considering climate change adaptation actions, it is important to explore relationships between and among new beings as well as maintain relationships with existing beings. Relationships are integral to a holistic approach to adaptation.

Example tactics

  • Seek out or share traditional and/or cultural knowledge regarding beings moving among tribal communities, such as southern tree species that are intentionally planted in new areas north of their current home range.
  • Be aware of how climate change may affect the timing of cultural indicators in order to ensure the harvest of beings in a good way. For example, the traditional practice in northern Wisconsin has been to wait to harvest deer until after fireflies emerge, but climate change may alter this timing.

Strategy 8: Maintain and enhance community and structural diversity.

Land managers are already used to making decisions that affect the diversity of beings within natural ecosystems, as well as the balance of elder and younger generations (structural diversity). As a climate adaptation strategy, this general idea receives added effort and focus. Increased structural and overall diversity of beings may buffer the community against climate change. In other words, individual beings or age classes may be stressed by climate change, but the overall risk to the community is reduced if there are many different beings operating together.

8.1. Maintain and restore diversity of native beings.

Diverse communities may be less vulnerable to climate change because they distribute risk among multiple beings. This reduces the likelihood that the entire ecosystem will decline even if one or more beings are harmed by changing conditions. Even small increases in diversity may increase resilience without greatly altering the overall identity of the ecosystem.

Example tactics

  • Plant desired native beings within an area that is otherwise expected to regenerate naturally in order to add diversity (enrichment planting).
  • Utilize agroforestry practices to diversify beings on the landscape and to diversify production of non-timber forest products, such as establishing nut tree orchards or propagating other food-producing beings.

The Menu also contains comprehensive Guiding Principles that support culturally conscious adaptation planning when working with indigenous communities.  The following cultural paradigms and principles for community engagement are a brief summation of many principles further explained in the document.

Important Cultural Paradigms to Consider

The offering of gifts is important as a form of respect in Ojibwe culture, which is described in detail for those working with these communities.  Respect and reciprocity is also demonstrated through the process of dedicating time.  As explained, “(c)limate change often promotes a sense of urgency. Many agencies and institutions that are brought into indigenous communities to tackle climate change issues have a sense of time based on Western values. Projects that aim to tackle an issue like climate change need a dedication of time for the entirety of the process. Relationships with all beings also require time in order to get more complete access to the desired information. For example, working with knowledge holders involves initiating, building and maintaining relationships."

Community Engagement

A large component of the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu involves community engagement. Suggestions for engaging with the community are based on the GLIFWC Guidelines for Conducting Traditional Ecological Knowledge Interviews, which are customary practices specific to the eleven Anishinaabe/Ojibwe member tribes of the GLIFWC intertribal agency. Ways to engage with knowledge holders respectfully are detailed, including methods on approach and disseminating information. 

 

 

Publication Date: 2019

Related Organizations:

  • Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

Sectors:

Resource Category:

Resource Types:

  • Best practice
  • Tool (general)

Go To Resource