This workshop will showcase how Live & Learn Environmental Education integrates Indigenous Knowledge (IK) into its Climate Resilient Islands (CRI) programme, active since 2020 across six Pacific nations: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Funded by the New Zealand government, CRI works with 65 rural communities to strengthen resilience through nature-based climate adaptation strategies rooted in local knowledge systems.
The programme emphasizes participatory approaches, beginning with Community Resilience Profiles and progressing to tailored resilience plans co-developed with communities. Central to this effort is the Indigenous Knowledge Leadership Programme (IKLP), which revitalizes traditional ecological practices and ensures intergenerational knowledge transfer. Using a Pacific mentoring model inspired by the Māori Tuakana–Teina approach, IKLP embeds cultural relevance into climate adaptation planning and implementation to support ecosystems management through nature-based solutions and intergenerational transfer of Indigenous resilience strategies.
Flexibility is a core principle, allowing each country to adapt the IKLP framework to its unique context. This adaptability ensures culturally grounded, community-led solutions that counter the marginalization of Indigenous Knowledge and provide cost-effective, context-specific alternatives to Western adaptation models.
The proposed workshop (20–30 participants) will feature:
• Presentation: Overview of CRI and IKLP, including conceptual foundations, participatory processes, and practical implementation examples.
• Interactive Activity: A scenario-based exercise on Pacific Island food-preservation practices to illustrate IK’s role in ecosystem management, resilience solutions, and intergenerational knowledge transfer.
By highlighting Indigenous Knowledge as a vital safety net for Pacific communities facing existential climate threats, the session advocates for its prioritization in global adaptation strategies.