A systematic scoping review of Indigenous governance concepts in the climate governance literature

While Indigenous peoples have governed their territories for millennia, mainstream climate governance literature underrepresents Indigenous governance roles in climate governance. The objective of this study is to systematically document the extent to which Indigenous governance concepts are incorporated into the climate governance literature. Using a systematic scoping search and screening process, we identified 195 references. To be included, references had to be published between 2010 and 2020, in English, explicitly mention Indigenous peoples, have a substantial focus on human responses to experienced or anticipated effects of climate change and governance, and be based on primary data or a review of primary data. Relevant references were analyzed using a data extraction questionnaire. Our results indicate that despite the growing number of publications, only two-fifths fully incorporated Indigenous governance concepts. We found that Indigenous governance concepts were more likely to be incorporated in references that included an author affiliated with an Indigenous organization, used qualitative methods, and focused on protected areas or climate transformation. Finally, most references incorporated Indigenous Knowledge systems, but this did not correspond to greater attention to Indigenous governance. Based on our findings, we make three recommendations for the climate governance literature: (i) follow Indigenous research protocols, (ii) move beyond a narrow focus on the “supplemental value” of Indigenous Knowledge systems to acknowledge the “governance value,” and (iii) engage with transformational climate responses that address the systemic inequalities created by historical and ongoing colonialism.