As climate change intensifies, I’ve been drawn to how indigenous knowledge systems can offer resilient, sustainable practices. For centuries, indigenous communities have developed deep ecological knowledge related to weather patterns, soil health, and seasonal cycles, that is often undervalued in modern policy.

For example, ethnobotanical knowledge (how plants are used medicinally) has yielded many pharmaceuticals. Also, traditional agricultural methods like polyculture, agroforestry, or rotational burning (used carefully) maintain biodiversity better than monocultures.

Anthropologists document how loss of land, displacement, or cultural suppression undermines those knowledge systems, that’s not just loss of culture, but loss of sustainability tools. I believe integrating indigenous perspectives isn’t optional, but indeed essential for environmental ethics, theology of creation, and our future.