ABSTRACT
Indigenous peoples, estimated at about 380 million people in the world today, are identified primarily by their unique ways of life and connection to land – and also by their marginalized status in the states in which they live. Although their subsistence strategies are generally low-impact, recent research on the social dimensions of climate change has found that indigenous peoples remain among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change; furthermore, they are often vulnerable in specific ways (Kronik and Verner 2010a; Mearns and Norton 2010; Nakashima et al. 2012). In addition to being highly dependent upon natural resources, as are other rural peoples, the very conditions necessary for the reproduction of their culture, social structures, and knowledge systems are also under severe pressure.
