Indigenous Peoples' Food Systems Adaptation to Climate Change in the Peruvian Amazon

Climate change poses significant challenges to Indigenous food systems, with profound implications for community health and wellbeing. Despite the critical role of Indigenous Peoples' adaptation strategies, these efforts are often marginalised and under-researched, impeding the development of inclusive, holistic, and culturally sensitive solutions. This gap is particularly salient in biodiversity-rich regions like the Amazon, where effective strategies can simultaneously address climate adaptation and mitigation. Recognising the centrality of Indigenous knowledge systems is essential for designing successful, place-based adaptation strategies that resonate with local socio-cultural realities.

To address this need, this thesis pursues three interrelated objectives: (1) it constructs a methodological framework to critically examine the justice dimensions of Indigenous Peoples' inclusion in climate policies, using Peruvian climate and food policies as a case study; (2) it presents a community-level case study focusing on Indigenous men of the Shawi people in the Peruvian Amazon to explore their perceptions of changes within their food system; and (3) it conducts an organisation-level case study centred on Indigenous women of the Ashaninka people in the Peruvian Amazon to investigate their adaptation initiatives related to food systems amidst climate change.

By adopting a gendered perspective, this research seeks to illuminate how Indigenous men and women perceive and respond to shifts in their food systems and critically evaluates the Peruvian government's approach to the Indigenous climate-food nexus. The insights gained contribute to a deeper understanding of how adaptation is conceptualised and practised in culturally diverse contexts, offering valuable lessons for more inclusive and effective climate strategies.