Weeks before Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold loomed over the Vanuatu islands in 2020, Indigenous ni-Vanuatu people received nature’s warning call. Locals secured their thatched roofs and baked taro and laplap (a common delicacy) in an underground oven to stock up on food for the harsh weather. For generations, the ni-Vanuatu relied on terrestrial and marine species like flowering plants, bees and turtles as indicators that forecast upcoming extreme weather events. This traditional knowledge helped communities adapt and prepare for floods, droughts and cyclones, like Harold, which scientists predict will be more frequent in this nation of islands. “If the weather appeared fine in the middle of the cyclone, it indicated that winds would return with even more force,” one local told geographers assessing traditional knowledge in the region. To revitalize this knowledge, the VanKIRAP project developed a national indicator booklet documenting an extensive list of traditional meteorological indicators. Led by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD), researchers worked with traditional knowledge holders to preserve knowledge that is typically only orally passed down. “To bridge this gap, we collaborated with the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department o develop the ClimateWatch mobile app, which is the first citizen science mobile app in the Pacific Islands region where traditional knowledge holds significance for extreme weather forecasting,” he says. So far, there are 43 traditional climate knowledge indicator species recorded with the booklet and 20 with the app. Traditional knowledge indicators collected via the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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