‘Traditional knowledge’ is not one input when knowledge, labor and authority are gendered
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A critical narrative review organizes Pacific evidence across food and agriculture, water and marine management, disaster-risk awareness, caregiving and recovery. It finds complementary gendered knowledge and roles, while women's ecological expertise and recovery work are frequently undervalued in formal decision-making.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Locally led adaptation is not strengthened merely by adding a generic ‘traditional knowledge’ box to a plan. Governance has to identify who actually holds particular knowledge, who performs the work, who has decision authority and whose knowledge is systematically excluded.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is a critical narrative review rather than a quantitative effectiveness meta-analysis. Evidence is uneven across the Pacific, concentrated in several high-island contexts, based largely on localized qualitative studies and restricted to English-language literature; findings should not be flattened into a universal Pacific gender model.
SOURCE
Regional Environmental Change
View original evidence ↗
A Pacific Islands review finds adaptation knowledge distributed through different roles and responsibilities—and warns that formal inclusion can still overlook who holds and transmits it.
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