Understanding and Compensating for Climate-enhanced Losses and Damages in Adaptive Mobile Cultures and Livelihoods

There is increasing recognition of climate-induced cultural losses, especially after establishing the Loss and Damage Fund at COP27. However, current frameworks for assessing and compensating such losses remain largely inadequate, especially for some often-overlooked cultural losses. Focusing on Fulani transhumance pastoralists in Senegal, this study explores how their adaptive mobile culture – built upon generational ecological knowledge, kinship, and seasonal migration – is being disrupted by climate variability, environmental degradation, and restrictive conservation practices. These disruptions cause both tangible losses, like declining livestock productivity and disrupted migration patterns, and intangible losses, including weakened communal ties and eroded indigenous knowledge systems. Beyond economic compensation, we are advocating for inclusive strategies that acknowledge the sociocultural dynamics sustaining adaptive mobile cultures. Highlighting adaptive mobility as a critical heritage and resilience mechanism, this research offers a nuanced approach for recognising the intersection of mobility, heritage, livelihood vulnerability, and climate resilience, offering a more grounded basis for understanding and addressing cultural losses and damages in changing climates.