Pope Francis has called for the deployment of indigenous and scientific knowledge as part of efforts to address the challenge of climate change.
Francis made this known while addressing participants in a workshop organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican, to discuss the role of ethnoecological knowledge in developing local solutions with global consequences for climate and biodiversity agendas.
Themed, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and the Sciences: Combining knowledge and science on vulnerabilities and solutions for resilience’, the 2-day conference explored opportunities for cooperation between indigenous peoples and the science community on climate change.
During the workshop, the Pope also advocated for a closer collaboration between both bodies of knowledge to address climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and threats to food and health security facing the world today. He said that indigenous knowledge offers a crucial contribution to tackle the climate crisis with unique experience in matters related to the environment.
“Listening to indigenous peoples, in order to learn from their wisdom and from their lifestyles, and at the same time listening to scientists, in order to benefit from their research,” the Pope stated in a speech read by Pierluigi Giroli.
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According to him, the initiative makes a significant contribution to acknowledging the value of the wisdom of Indigenous peoples’ to advancing an integral and sustainable human development.
Acknowledging diversity to promote human fraternity, the Pope stated further that the workshop also sends a message to government leaders and to international organisations, on the need to acknowledge and respect the rich diversity within the human family.
He stated that indigenous knowledge must be protected, to prevent the loss of cultures, traditions, spiritualities and languages, which would represent an “impoverishment of knowledge, identity and memory for all of us.”
Pope Francis also stated that projects of scientific research and investments ought to be directed decisively to the promotion of human fraternity, justice and peace. Accordingly, he stated that resources can be coordinated and allocated to respond to the urgent challenges facing the earth.
He disclosed that an open dialogue between indigenous knowledge and the sciences is very important in addressing climate change challenges. He stated that such initiative presents an alternative vision to the one that is presently driving the world to increased conflict.
“Open dialogue between communities of ancestral wisdom and those of the sciences, can help to confront in a new, more integral and more effective way such crucial issues as water, climate change, hunger and biodiversity,” he stated.
Story was adapted from Business Day.
