Important to indigenous peoples in Nepal is that they have multiple relations with nature and natural resources. Environmental, economic, spiritual …
Having these multiple relations with nature and natural resources, indigenous peoples really feel the heavy impacts of climate change. We need to lay these realities on the ground for various decision makers. We also need to inform decision makers on how indigenous peoples contribute to mitigation in their different ways, and how they have been practicing adaptation to diverse impacts of climate change in their everyday life.
I did research for my MA dissertation in the Himalayan Mountains, for example, where people practice a very small irrigation system in their agriculture. Impacts from climate change is hitting these people already, but the communities are adapting to the changing climate through changing the irrigation system, through their own beliefs and traditions, and through their own village government practice.
Their culture regards water as a deity, you know? They have different rituals and festivals that worships land and water as sacred. They don’t want to overuse it or misuse it, abuse it. To them, belief, practice, and rituals balance the consumption of natural resources.