“Climate change might have caused our small harvest”: indigenous vulnerability, livelihoods, and environmental changes in lowland and high jungle indigenous communities in Peru

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze how indigenous livelihoods are challenged by the global phenomenon of climate change while paying particular attention to how historically shaped, non-climatic factors influence how climate change is experienced in the Peruvian Amazon. In this sense, we will address indigenous people’s lived experiences of climate variations using a theoretical framework based on concepts of vulnerability. Methodologically, we draw on both a recent literature review and fieldwork conducted during 2015 and 2016 with two Kukama Kukamiria communities in Loreto (low jungle) and three Ashaninka communities in Junín (high jungle). After describing our theoretical framework and qualitative methods, we discuss the economic history of the addressed areas and show how non-climatic factors, such as colonialism, influence these communities’ experiences. This context allows us to better understand indigenous people’s experience of seasonal variations, precipitations and climatic events, its effect on their livelihoods, and their adaptive strategies in response to challenges imposed by climate unpredictability and broader transformations in their territories. Our conclusions are twofold: (a) addressing climate change must incorporate multiple temporal and spatial scales and (b) non-climatic factors are integral to understanding the role of climate change vulnerability of indigenous population.