Global Mapping of Indigenous Resilience Facing the Challenge of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Indigenous social development scenarios must be understood as the possibility of improving the sustainability of the planet and human health in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating the institutional resilience approach by learning from the experience of indigenous peoples’ informal institutions through the design of public policies can be a reality. To demonstrate the potential of this premise, a case study was conducted that examined the institutional resilience of one indigenous people, whose findings under nomothetic conditions may be useful for other territories around the world. These peoples provide lessons on how they cope with adversity, the COVID-19 pandemic being one of them. Institutional resilience is a step towards reaching out to the world’s ancestral populations to learn from their knowledge. These scenarios can help us understand the implications of international policies on the capacities of nations to secure access to food and resources and, subsequently, to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Building an Ethnic Food Ethic: The Case of the Ngigua Indigenous People of Southern Puebla, Mexico

“…Modern civilization in the framework of an advanced social metabolism is reaching planetary limits in the use of natural resources (Haberl et al 2021 ), the way in which indigenous societies interact with their environment can provide a new vision of sustainability in the framework of natural resources (Lugo-Morin 2021 ).…”

Innovate or Perish: Food Policy Design in an Indigenous Context in a Post-Pandemic and Climate Adaptation Era

“…In general, these initiatives involve generating data on infections and deaths in their communities; conducting information and awareness campaigns on virus prevention; adopting containment and mitigation measures information and awareness campaigns on virus prevention; adopting containment and mitigation measures, such as cordon sanitaires, prohibition of access to communities, surveillance, community supervision, establishment of circulation and isolation protocols, use and promotion of traditional medicine, and adoption of measures to ensure food security [74]. According to Lugo-Morin [15], in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous peoples in Latin America have deployed strategies for food security and health, including the management of their food systems and the revaluation of wild plants for medicinal use.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic is a scenario for change, and a look at the experiences of indigenous societies in the context of their food systems can be an opportunity to transform the way we feed ourselves [15]. In addition to this pandemic dynamic that has put the region's capacities to the test, Latin America has been suffering from the impacts of climate change.…”

“…In the face of this landscape of biodiversity affectation, the region has the advantage of having 60% of the world's biodiversity with important freshwater reservoirs [66]. A significant number of indigenous peoples have settled in Latin America and have used the region's biotic resources in a sustainable manner since ancient times [15].…”

“…For today's society, the COVID-19 pandemic represents the beginning of an era of change [14], with an eye on experiences, such as those of indigenous societies, which have seen the health crisis as an opportunity to revalue their belief systems, values, and traditions [15]. The resilience of indigenous peoples is a condition that is activated in the face of an adverse situation of any nature and generates innovative dynamic responses, creating exceptional survival conditions, allowing the individual and their territory to deploy a high capacity to manage resources in accordance with the problems they face and to recover in multidimensional terms with little or no government intervention [16].…”