Generational Wisdom: How Traditional Wisdom of AAPI Communities Can Teach Us Solutions to Modern Issues of Climate Change
By Benson Ninan
Across Asia, Africa and the Pacific, communities have lived in harmony with their environment for generations. Their knowledge of the ocean, local ecosystem, crop cycles and ecological balance isn’t written in textbooks rather it’s carried through stories, passed down through generations, shared in community gatherings and practiced in everyday life. This wisdom or knowledge is what scholars call Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and its more than just a survival measure. It’s about living in balance with nature, not consuming more than you need and ensuring replenishment of the environment. It is about balance and harmony between the living and the non-living.
Over the years, many international frameworks have acknowledged and recognized the importance of TEK and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). These include the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that focus on the need to protect, respect and integrate their traditional knowledge into global climate policy and environmental action. These communities are seen as crucial actors and stakeholders in combating climate change.
To commemorate the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, this blog shall not only reflect on their cultural traditions but also their sustainable contributions to mitigating effects of climate change. We celebrate their leadership, ingenuity and call for harmony with nature in times of global climate crisis.
Kiribati: Protecting Babai Pits from Saltwater Intrusion
In Kiribati, an island country in the Micronesia sub-region of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean, they consume the giant swamp taro or Babai. It is an important source of carbohydrates in a diet dominated by coconut and fish. With rising sea levels, the freshwater pit where Babai grows (see picture below) faces saltwater intrusion. This has a major impact on the culture and nutrition of the local community. To mitigate the impact of saltwater, the community elders and locals have a novel solution – the traditional technique of lining pits with coconut husks and elevating beds. This solution is being passed to younger generations to protect what matters for community life. It’s not just farming but caretaking of the local commons.
Babai is grown in pits.
Image Source: SOPAC Technical Report 229, UNDP funded project
Hawaii: Restoring Fishponds and Ahupua‘a Systems
In the Hawaii islands, about 2,000 miles southwest of the U.S. mainland in the Pacific Ocean, native communities are restoring loko iʻa (fishponds) and reviving ahupua‘a,(traditional land divisions) stretching from mountains to sea. This restoration is based on traditional linkages between land and water and designed for sustainable food production. These efforts have revitalized local ecosystems and based on ancestral wisdom and guided by community volunteers. The He‘eia Fishpond on O‘ahu is as example of how cultural restoration and climate adaptation work simultaneously.
Hawaiian fishpond weirs made of sticks allow water and small fish to travel in and out of the pond structure.
Image Source: Kim Moa, courtesy of KUA.
Vietnam: Mangrove Restoration in Shrimp Farming
Mangroves are known to act as coastal buffers. In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, shrimp farmers guided by traditional knowledge are integrating mangrove systems into shrimp farming. This not stabilizes coastlines but also naturally boosts shrimp yields. Mangrove forests, previously cleared for intensive farming, are now being replanted. Mangroves provide a natural barrier against storms and flooding. By blending ancestral practice with climate-smart farming, Vietnamese communities show that sustainability often begins by returning to roots.
Cà Mau now has more than 80,000 mangrove forests with 30,000 hectares of mangrove-shrimp farm.
Image Source: Vietshrimp.net
Africa: Kenya's Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests as Climate Sanctuaries
The Kaya forests are sacred for the Mijokenda people, who live along the Kenyan coast. This place is rich in biodiversity and central to their cultural life. These sacred forests are protected through rituals, community law and but most importantly through community reverence. Through these forests, the Mijikenda are preserving both biodiversity and belonging. Like the Pacific Islanders, their story is a reminder that sustainability begins at home and by honoring what we inherit.
Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests (Kenya)
Image Source: Okoko Ashikoye
Conclusion
The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is a chance to look beyond the food, music and language of these communities. It is also recognition of their quiet, yet powerful wisdom passed down through generations. It is acknowledgment of their community knowledge, rooted in time, shaped by their cultural ethos and guided by sense of harmony with nature.
From the Babai pits of Kiribati to the mangrove shrimp farms of Vietnam, AAPI communities offer us something that is often neglected in the modern world. They show us that resilience is not a factor of urgency or crisis but a symbiotic relationship with nature based on respect, reciprocity and harmonious living built over centuries. In nurturing these natural relationships, they amplify local solutions for complex global issues and provide blueprints on how to live sustainably with our environment. They teach us how to secure our coastlines, ensure food security and how traditional local knowledge can rebuild ecosystems. This knowledge is not to survive but to thrive.
It is expected that indigenous knowledge and community-led climate strategies would take center stage at COP-30 in Brazil later this year. This is an outcome of the global recognition of TEK as an essential part of climate policy. As host, Brazil’s leadership has placed renewed spotlight on not only its indigenous peoples in the Amazon but all such communities across the globe. Achievement of global climate goals cannot be without acceptance of the contributions of these indigenous communities.
This month, we celebrate their soft yet powerful voice in leading efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change and re-build climate resilience. Their voice is rooted in traditional wisdom and heritage.
Benson Ninan is a MALD student at The Fletcher School with a specialisation in International security and Technology and International Affairs.