IHACC Holds Annual Program Meetings Online

The IHACC Project Management Committee hosted a series of virtual meetings last week in place of our typical annual in-person meeting. The meetings were an important opportunity for international team members to come together, discuss challenges and successes in the past year, and plan activities for the year ahead.

The online meetings brought together team members from Uganda, South Africa, UK, Peru, and Canada over a three day period, spanning a time difference of 9 hours between Edmonton, Canada, and Kampala, Uganda!

IHACC Results Sharing Meeting in Nuevo Progreso

Written by Carol Zavaleta

National Indigenous leaders and IHACC Peru team members visited Nuevo Progreso for results dissemination and an informative workshop about food security adaptation to climate change.
Photo credit: Guillermo Lancha

A results dissemination meeting was held in the Shawi community of Nuevo Progreso, Peru, in August 2018. The meeting was facilitated by IHACC team members Carol Zavaleta and Guillermo Lancha, and attended by community members and leaders from the Peruvian National Indigenous Development Association (AIDESEP)[i].

Rocilda Nunta, a female youth Indigenous leader, and Indigenous Apu Richard Rubio (Amazonian Indigenous leaders are referred to by the Quechua word Apu), vice president of AIDESEP, expressed their appreciation to the community for receiving them, as it was their first visit to a Shawi community. Dr. Carol Zavaleta presented her PhD thesis findings about climate change, food, and nutritional security, while Guillermo Lancha, a local IHACC research assistant, facilitated interpretation.

During the meetings, Rocilda also shared information about her work experience on food security adaptation to climate change with Quechua women in the neighboring region of San Martin. She provided practical examples of how women can organize local crop production for both food and cash income, and emphasized the importance of promoting food and nutrition security via the utilization of local Indigenous crops and animals.

Richard Rubio, Indigenous Apu, tells stories about how his own community is adapting to new environmental and social changes.
photo credit: Guillermo Lancha

Indigenous Apu Richard Rubio spoke of the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge and western scientific knowledge to foster water and food security adaptation, and explained how his own community was adapting to environmental and social changes (for example, using solar light to purify water as a response to environmental contamination).

Before closing the meeting, Rocilda and the Apu Richard expressed their interest in continued collaboration with the IHACC team, and their desire to participate in future events and promote food-related adaption from a local Indigenous perspective.

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[i] Note: There are more than fifty Amazon Indigenous groups in Peru and most of them are politically organized in 109 local Indigenous Federations. Every two to three years they participated in internal Indigenous elections to select National Representatives. National Indigenous representatives are part of the Indigenous National Counselling at AIDESEP.

IHACC end of project knowledge sharing workshops in Kampala and Buhoma, Uganda July 27th and 29th-30th

End of project workshop - Buhoma

Team members from the IHACC project Uganda team were in Kampala on June 27th to host a workshop with participating partners and students at Makerere University to share knowledge and insights gained throughout the 5 years of the project. The team then held a two day workshop in Buhoma on June 29th-30th with community leaders and members, as well as partner organizations. Team members present included Dr. Shuaib Lwasa, Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, Dr. Sherilee Harper, Mr. Didas Namanya, Ms. Kaitlin Patterson. Workshop participants were given a wealth of materials produced from the project, including copies of scientific papers, reports, results booklets, posters, and presentations. We look forward to future collaborations in the community as IHACC moves to an end, and follow-up projects begin to take shape!

End of project workshop - Kampala

IHACC end of project knowledge sharing workshop in Iqaluit, Nunavut on April 25th

Team members from the IHACC project Arctic team were in Iqaluit on Monday April 25th to host a workshop with participating community members and partners at the Nunavut Research Institute to share knowledge and insights gained throughout the 5 years of the project. Team members present included Dr. James Ford, Dr. Victoria Edge, Dr. Sherilee Harper, Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Ms. Anna Bunce, Ms. Mya Sherman and Ms. Jolène Labbé. Workshop participants were given a wealth of materials produced from the project, including copies of scientific papers, reports, results booklets, posters, and presentations. We look forward to future collaborations in the community as IHACC moves to an end, and follow-up projects begin to take shape!

IHACC Iqaluit end of project meeting banner

IHACC team in Montreal March 8-9 to develop IHACC2 project proposal

Team gathers for a discussion on IHACC2

Members of the IHACC team were in Montreal last week to work on developing a project proposal for phase two of the IHACC project, planning for another five years of work as phase one comes to an end this year. Team members from Canada, Uganda and South Africa were at the table at the McGill Faculty Club in this first meeting of the proposal development stage, including Dr. James Ford and Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, Dr. Sherilee Harper, Dr. Shuaib Lwasa, Dr. Mark New, Mr. Didacus Namanya, and Ms. Michelle Maillet. Canadian team members will soon head to Peru to meet with the team there and work on finalizing the proposal later this spring. Keep an eye out for more news on plans for phase two of the project as the team continues to build the proposal.