What gaps exist between modern climate science and traditional community practices? How can India use them in its adaptation strategy?

At the Pre-COP31 meeting in Fiji (October 2026), India said the gap between science and traditional knowledge and community practices was one of three gaps that COP31 must close [1]. Article 7.5 of the Paris Agreement already says adaptation should be guided by the best available science and, where appropriate, by traditional and local knowledge systems [2]. Joining the two can make India's adaptation cheaper and better suited to local conditions.

Gaps between science and community practice

• Scale: Climate models work at regional scale. Traditional knowledge is hyper-local, for example Rajasthan's johads or Himachal's kuhls. The two rarely meet at district level.
• Validation: Traditional knowledge is mostly oral and undocumented, so scientists and planners often treat it as unproven.
• Time horizon: Community practices grew out of past climate patterns and may fail under new extremes. Science projects the future but often ignores what local people have learned from experience.
• Ethics and equity: India named a gap between practices and ethics [1]. Communities are often left out of planning and get little benefit when their knowledge is used.
• Resources: India also named the gap between available resources and felt needs [1]. Adaptation finance to developing countries fell to USD 26 bn in 2023, while needs are 12–14 times higher [3].

How India can use them in its adaptation strategy

• Record and verify: Use People's Biodiversity Registers, prepared by Biodiversity Management Committees, to document local knowledge [4]. Then test it scientifically with agricultural universities and the IMD.
• Combine the two: Bring revived water-harvesting systems and indigenous seed varieties into State Action Plans on Climate Change, and pair them with IMD forecasts and local early-warning networks.
• Share benefits fairly: Share benefits with knowledge-holders through the access-and-benefit-sharing provisions of the Biological Diversity Act [4]. This addresses the ethics gap.
• Make the money go further: Low-cost community solutions stretch scarce adaptation finance [3].
• Use global platforms: Present tested practices as the yearly adaptation success stories India asked for at Pre-COP31 [1]. Share them through the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) [5].

Science gives the projections, and traditional knowledge shows what works on the ground and has local acceptance. Combining the two through participatory institutions and fair benefit-sharing can make India's adaptation scalable and just. This is in line with CBDR-RC, Article 7.5 and SDG 13, and it would support India's call to make COP31 a conference of delivery.