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Sharon Hausam

In the face of climate change and associated increases in disturbances, some areas, known as refugia, will remain or become newly habitable for species, while others will be lost. Planning and managing for refugia can support biodiversity and conservation. However, without explicit consideration of justice, planning and management for refugia risks unnecessarily limiting information about local conditions and traditional practices that may be contained in Indigenous knowledges, and causing maladaptive consequences such as exclusion of Indigenous communities from decision-making and from protected areas, with loss of use of traditional plants and animals. The article proposes a new concept, Indigenous refugia, that...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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Integrating Cultural Resources into Adaptation Planning in Tribal and Marginalized Communities
Climate change threatens to damage historical sites and disrupt cultural practices in communities around the world, including the South-Central United States. Researchers are now paying greater attention to the impact of climate change on these cultural resources, but currently little guidance exists for decision makers who are interested in protecting them. Because communities value and interact with cultural resources in different ways, effectively planning for their protection requires broad public participation. In the planning phase, this project will focus on (1) building relationships with researchers and professionals working to protect cultural resources, (2) identifying and engaging with tribal and marginalized...
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Exploring How Stakeholders Use, Understand, and Feel about Climate Science Products
Future climate conditions may dramatically impact many of the natural resources, cultural resources, and ecosystem services on which society depends. To ensure the long-term sustainability of these resources, decision-makers across many domains (e.g. federal, state, NGO, Tribal) commonly consider climate forecasts in their strategic planning efforts. In the South Central United States, future climate conditions are routinely considered in plans for water sustainability, agricultural production, the design of new infrastructure, urban heat impacts, and decisions to federally list a species as threatened or endangered. Scientists have developed sophisticated projections of future climate conditions and their impacts...
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Incorporation of Scientific Information and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledges into Natural and Cultural Resource Plans: Status and Challenges
Federal and state agencies gather information; work with partners, stakeholders, and others; and then write planning documents that guide their natural and cultural resource management. To be useful, these planning documents must reflect current and anticipated conditions, and therefore must include information about climate change. However, there has been little research about what climate information is actually included in federal and state natural and cultural resource plans, or the challenges planners face in incorporating different types of climate information in these plans. Sources of climate information can be grouped into two major categories: scientific information and Indigenous traditional ecological...
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