Integrating Local, Indigenous, and Traditional Knowledge into Early Warning Systems for Climate Resilience

The global increase in the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of natural hazards has underscored the urgent need for robust and people-centred Early Warning Systems (EWS) as a critical component of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRR/M). Effective EWS are recognised as a cornerstone of climate resilience, designed to detect, forecast, and communicate risks and enable timely action to protect communities and prevent loss and damage. Despite significant technological advances in hazard monitoring and forecasting, access to and trust in these systems remains uneven, particularly in low-resource or geographically isolated regions.

In such contexts, integrating Local, Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge (LITK) into formal EWS can significantly enhance their reach, relevance, and effectiveness. LITK is the community-held body of observations, practices, beliefs and skills developed through long relationships with the environment. It is sustained by community structures including elders and practitioners who steward knowledge, social mechanisms that transmit it (storytelling, ceremony, apprenticeship), and local forums that apply it (customary rules, committees, communal assemblies). Drawing on a growing body of global evidence, key informant interviews, and case studies, this report explores practical models, enablers, and barriers for the systematic integration of LITK within early warning system.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

While LITK does not replace scientific observation or hazard modelling, it complements it, improving contextual relevance, timeliness, accessibility, and actionability, especially for lowerintensity, rapid-onset events that dominate Start Network member communities’ experiences and routinely fall below national monitoring and forecasting thresholds. This convergence directly supports the global ambition of the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative to ensure that every person on Earth is protected by multi-hazard early warning systems by 2027. As governments and civil society gather in Belém for COP30, Start Network calls on United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties and operational agencies to fully integrate LITK into early warning systems by:

1. Strengthening policy commitments to integrate LITK into climate information and early warning systems, including in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and commit to accountability by adopting an indicator under the Global Goal on Adaptation that tracks LITK integration in risk information systems.

2. Guaranteeing inclusive governance and equitable participation in EWS design and implementation, including by mandating the meaningful and systematic participation of Indigenous peoples, local communities, and traditional knowledge holders in the design, implementation, and evaluation of EWS.

3. Institutionalising mechanisms for knowledge co-production and feedback, including by institutionalising the triangulation of scientific and local, Indigenous, and traditional knowledge and supporting the documentation and validation of LITK.

4. Embedding LITK capacity-building and ethical frameworks within institutional training systems, including by integrating LITK-focused modules into training curricula for relevant government agencies to promote mutual learning.