Earthkeepers
Environmental Education & Climate Resilience
Empowering children and elders through storytelling and traditional knowledge
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Resilience in Eastern Nagaland
Earthkeepers Project Report (2023–2025)
Publication Date
19 January 2026
Research Location
Noklak and Meluri districts, Eastern Nagaland (Indo–Myanmar border)
Support
International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
The Highland Institute has released a new report titled Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Resilience in Eastern Nagaland, presenting findings from the Earthkeepers Project, a three-year collaborative research initiative carried out between 2023 and 2025. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, the project worked closely with Indigenous communities in Noklak and Meluri districts along the Indo–Myanmar border.
The report documents how communities understand and respond to climate change through long-standing relationships with land, forests, farming cycles, and water sources. Climate change is described through everyday experience, including declining crop yields, changes in sowing and harvest timings, delayed monsoons, unpredictable rainfall patterns, and increasing water scarcity. These changes are understood as local and lived realities rather than distant global processes.
A central finding concerns the impact of border politics on climate vulnerability, where restrictions on movement and access to ancestral land have intensified environmental stress in a region dependent on mobility and shared ecological systems. At the same time, Indigenous institutions continue to play a key role in environmental care, collective farming, and local adaptation.
The report highlights capacity building that supported young Indo–Myanmar researchers to document community knowledge. It calls for climate and development policies that recognise Indigenous knowledge systems, reflect borderland realities, and support community-led approaches to conservation and climate resilience in Eastern Nagaland.
Key Themes
- Traditional ecological knowledge and climate adaptation
- Border politics and climate vulnerability
- Indigenous institutions and environmental stewardship
- Community-led climate resilience strategies
- Capacity building for Indo–Myanmar researchers
Report published: 19 January 2026
For access to the report:
About Earthkeepers
Earthkeepers is a community-driven environmental education initiative funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. The project focuses on building climate resilience through intergenerational knowledge exchange in rural highland communities.
At the heart of Earthkeepers is the recognition that indigenous and rural communities have been stewards of biodiversity for generations, possessing sophisticated ecological knowledge passed down through oral traditions, seasonal practices, and lived experience.
The project brings together children, youth, and elders to document traditional environmental knowledge, share stories of ecological stewardship, and develop community-based responses to climate change.
What We Do
Workshops and field activities connecting children with local ecosystems
Bringing together elders and youth to share traditional ecological knowledge
Documenting oral histories, myths, and legends related to nature and seasons
Building adaptive capacity through community-led conservation initiatives
Project Impact
Recording traditional ecological calendars, seasonal indicators, and indigenous conservation practices before they are lost to urbanization and cultural change.
Equipping young people with both traditional wisdom and contemporary environmental science, enabling them to become environmental leaders in their communities.
Strengthening social cohesion and collective environmental action through shared learning and collaborative conservation projects.
Elevating indigenous voices and traditional knowledge in regional and national climate adaptation policies and conservation strategies.
Supported By
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Canada
Part of Our Broader Work
Earthkeepers is part of the Highland Institute's comprehensive citizen science and biodiversity initiatives:
- Community biodiversity mapping and species documentation
- Participatory conservation initiatives and forest protection
- Training in data collection, GPS use, and wildlife tracking
- Integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with modern science
