A framework for collaborative climate change research

Abstract

There is a growing understanding in the scientific community that the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of indigenous peoples and other local communities is both different from data collected by scientists and crucial to a more complete understanding of changes occurring due to global warming processes. Despite the increase in collaborative projects between scientists and local communities aimed at bringing together TEK and scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) in the last decade, no systematic analysis of what makes for an effective approach to the integration of the two knowledge systems has yet been undertaken. Through an extensive review of the interdisciplinary literature on such collaborations that identified common factors appearing across multiple studies, we propose a framework for evaluating the quality of collaborative research and, ultimately, predicting its quality. The value of such a framework lies with its broader application for researchers engaging in climate studies across regions, strengthening the quality of the research produced through both replicability and comparability of studies.