Social Implications of Climate Change
ONGOING RESEARCH
2018-PRESENT
Social Implications of Climate Change
The initial phase of this ongoing project was funded through the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award. This research project investigates the social implications of climate change in the Kinnaur District, a high elevation apple-growing region in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalaya.
This longitudinal research seeks to understand the adaptive capacity of Kinnauris to climate change, with an initial emphasis on gender. The project employs a political ecology and feminist political ecology framework and contributes to the debates and literature on risk perception and adaptation of rural and indigenous mountain communities to climate change.
Some of the questions driving this research include:
1) What strategies are being used by Kinnauris to cope with and adapt to climate change?
2) How do Kinnauris perceive risk from climate change and extreme weather?
3) How are patterns of risk and opportunity shifting in Kinnaur? Specifically, how do these changes affect different categories of social strata, i.e. gender, age, caste, socioeconomic status?
4) Are Kinnauris taking advantage of their current economic success to protect against long-term environmental risks and increase their resiliency?
5) What strategies, if any, are being used to diversify and secure livelihoods?
This research provides a deeper understanding of the social implications of climate change adaptation in Kinnaur, and ultimately, draws lessons for how mountain regions in general could successfully adapt to change and enhance their resiliency.
Kinnaur is a useful indicator of the consequences of climate change in mountain regions, where rapidly shifting environmental conditions threaten livelihoods, potentially resulting in widespread economic harm.
Improved adaptation strategies may safeguard against disruption of livelihoods and ecosystem services and thus enhance community resilience to climate change and other environmental disturbances.