Climate Change, Indigenous Community Resilience, and Socio-environmental Conflicts in the North-Central Highlands of Ecuador

This project addresses the multifaceted impact of climate change on indigenous and peasant communities in the Central-Northern Sierra of Ecuador, where erratic weather patterns (frosts, droughts) are altering agricultural practices and traditional land use. Ecosystem deterioration is exacerbated by rural development models such as livestock farming, intensive agriculture, and mining, which restrict biodiversity protection and threaten vital resources like water and fertile land. The study aims to correlate these environmental factors with the potential for generating social conflict and community tensions. The methodology includes an exhaustive literature review on Andean resilience, followed by intensive fieldwork. This fieldwork involves interviewing key informants and conducting micro-workshops with focus groups to map and document perceived environmental changes over a 50-year period (1967-2017). Finally, the collected data will be systematized and interpreted, comparing existing documentation with interpretations of observed resilience practices in Kichwa communities in Cotopaxi and Pichincha, seeking comprehensive alternatives that value local knowledge.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>To establish the central correlation between climate change, the deterioration of fragile Andean ecosystems linked to rural family economies (peasant and indigenous) in the Central-Northern Sierra of Ecuador, analyzing adaptation and resilience strategies and the dynamics of potential socio-environmental conflict.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Social responsibility, redistribution of wealth and quality of life