Climate Justice and Participatory Research: Building Climate-Resilient Commons

Diverse stories of participatory research, collective action, and equitable community engagement as a path to climate justice.

Climate catastrophe throws into stark relief the extreme, life-threatening inequalities that affect millions of lives worldwide. The poorest and most marginalized, who are least responsible for the consumption and emissions that create climate change, are the first and hardest impacted, and the least able to protect themselves. Climate justice is simultaneously a movement, an academic field, an organizing principle, and a political demand. Building climate justice is a matter of life and death.

Climate Justice and Participatory Research offers ideas and inspiration for climate justice through the creation of research, knowledge, and livelihood commons and community-based climate resilience. It brings together articulations of the what, why, and how of climate justice through the voices of energetic and motivated scholar-activists who are building alliances across Latin America, Africa, and Canada. Exemplifying socio-ecological transformation through equitable public engagement, these scholars, climate activists, community educators, and teachers come together to share their stories of participatory research and collective action.

Grounded in experience and processes that are currently underway, Climate Justice and Participatory Research explores the value of common assets, collective action, environmental protection, and equitable partnerships between local community experts and academic allies. It demonstrates the negative effects of climate-related actions that run roughshod over local communities’ interests and wellbeing, and acknowledges the myriad challenges of participatory research. This is a work committed to the practical work of transforming socio-economies from situations of vulnerability to collective wellbeing. 

With Contributions By: Guy Donald Abassombe, Ferrial Adam, Joaquin Almonacid, Francisco Araos, Ayansina Ayanlade, Oluwatoyin Seun Ayanlade, Adefunke F. O. Ayinde, Camila Bañales-Seguel, Petra Benye, Francisco Brañas, Natacha Bruna, Daniela Campolina, Kátia Carolino, Marcondes G. Coelho Junior, Daniela Collao, Jamie Cursach, Eliane M. R. Da Silva, Lara Da Silva, Eduardo C. Da Silva Neto, Florencia Diestre, Ronaldo Dos Santos, Vadel Eneckdem Tsopgni, Mary Galvin, Lussandra Martins Gianasi, Allan Yu Iwama, Margaret O. Jegede, Chrislain Eric Kenfack, Carla Lanyon, Manuel Lemus, José Molina-Hueichán, Boaventura Monjane, Andries Motau, Patience Mukuyu, Solomon Njenga, Aico Nogueira, David Núñez, Moses O. Olawole, Adewale M. Olayiwola, Abimbola Oluwaranti, Claudio Oyarzún, Marcos G. Pereira, Patricia E. Perkins, Emerson Ramos, Wladimir Riquelme, Daniella Ruiz, Ramin Soleymani-Fard, Marcos Sorrentino, Mesmin Tchindjang, Francisco Ther, Adrien Tofighi-Niaki, Ana P.D. Turetta, Darlys Vargas, Patricia Figureido Walker, Lemlem F. Weldemariam, Kathryn Wells, and Gonzalo Zamorano

Patricia E. Perkins is a feminist ecological economist and professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto, Canada. She is the editor of Water and Climate Change in Africa: Challenges and Community Initiatives and Local Activism for Global Climate Justice: The Great Lakes Watershed.

Published by LCR Publishing 

Introduction
Participatory Research, Knowledge, and Livelihoods: Commons Build Community-Based Climate Resilience
Patricia E. Perkins

Part I: Knowledge Commons

Putting Ethos into Practice: Climate Justice Research in the Global Knowledge Commons
Kathryn Wells

Integrating Citizen Science Observations in Climate Mapping: Lessons from Coastal Zone Geovisualization in Chilean Patagonia and the Brazilian Southeast
Allan Yu Iwama, Francisco Brañas, David Núñez, Daniela Collao, Ramin Soleymani-Fard, Carla Lanyon, Adrien Tofighi-Niaki, Lara da Silva, Petra Benyei, Francisco Ther, and Sarita Albagli

Part II: Food, Land, and Agricultural Commons

Enhancing Local Sensitives to Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Capacities of Smallholder Farmers: Community-Based Participatory Research
Ayansina Ayanlade, Abinmola Oluwaranti, Adewale M. Olayiwola, Oluwatoyin S. Ayanlade, Margaret O. Jegede, Lemlem F. Weldemariam, Moses O. Olawole, and Adefunke F.O. Ayinde

The Oil-Palm Sector in the Climate Crisis: Resilience and Social Justice in the Municipality of Ngwéi (Littoral-Cameroon)
Guy Donald Abassombe, Mesmin Tchindjang, and Vadel Eneckdem Tsopgni

Common-Pool Resources and the Governance of Community Gardens: Experimenting with Participatory Research in São Paulo, Brazil
Kátia Carolino and Marcos Sorrentino

Linking Soil and Social-Ecological Resilience with the Climate Agenda: Perspectives from Quilombola communities in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil
Marcondes Coelho, Eduardo C. da Silva Neto, Emerson Ramos, Ronaldo dos Santos, Ana P. D. Turetta, Marcos Gervasio Pereira, and Eliane M.R. da Silva

Commons Governance and Climate Resilience: Intergovernmental Relationships in the Guapiruvu Community, Brazil
Aico Nogueira

Part III: Water and Fisheries Commons

Mining and Water Insecurity in Brazil: Geo-Participatory Dam Mapping (MapGB) and Community Empowerment
Daniela Campolina and Lussandra Gianasi

Investigating Citizen Participation in Plans for Lamu Port, Kenya
Solomon Njenga

Hydroelecticity, Water Rights, Community Mapping, and Indigenous Toponyms in the Queuco River Basin
Camila Bañales-Seguel

Sentinels of Carelmapu: Participatory Community Monitoring to Protect Indigenous Marinescapes in Southern Chile
Francisco Araos, Florencia Diestre, Jaime Cursach, Joaquin Almonacid, Gonzalo Zamorano, Wladimir Riquelme, Francisco Brañas, José Molin-Hueichán, Darlys Vargas, Manuel Lemus, Daniella Ruiz, and Claudio Oyarzún

Inequality in Water Access for South Africa’s Small-Scale Farmers amid a Climate Crisis: Past and Present Injustices in a Legal Context
Patience Mukuyu and Mary Galvin

Activist Citizen Science: Building Water Justice in South Africa
Ferrial Adam

Part IV: Collective Resilience for Climate Justice

Conflicting Perspectives in the Global South Just Transition Movement: A Case Study of Mpumalanga Coal Region in South Africa
Andries Motau

Saving Our “Common Home:” A critical Analysis of the “For Our Common Home” Campaign in Alberta
Chrislain Eric Kenfack

Action Research for Climate Justice: Challenging the Carbon Market and False Climate Solutions in Mozambique
Natacha Bruna and Boaventura Monjane

Youth Climate Activism: Mobilizing for a Common Future
Patricia Figueiredo Walker

Index

A groundbreaking book that explores the urgent need for climate justice and dives deep into the what, why, and how of climate justice. By elucidating the vital role of research, knowledge, and livelihood commons, it showcases how communities can build resilience and forge alliances to combat climate change. African leaders keen on fast-tracking locally-led climate-resilient development should start from here.

—Evans Kituyi, CEO, Dale Agro Ltd, Nairobi, Kenya

There has been a resurgence of interest in the ‘new commons’ in the last two decades, and this edited collection provides essential reading for those interested in commons and commoning in a changing climate, across Africa, the Americas, and beyond. By bringing issues of power and justice to the fore in the diverse post-colonial and governance contexts explored, the chapters encapsulate a move beyond commons as collective resources, to encapsulate processes of commoning as an active social and political process of governing, and a manifestation of struggles for participation, self-determination and resilience.

—Adrian Nel, senior lecturer, University of Kwazulu-Natal