Mapping the Demands of Indigenous Women’s Organizations on Climate Change Adaptation and Health in Peru

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8: Inequality, Gender, and Intersectionality

Abstract

The 2025 Lancet Countdown Latin America Report highlights a critical gap between rising climate-related health threats and delayed adaptation, with the greatest impacts falling on politically and economically marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous peoples and women. In Peru, climate change threatens Indigenous health through increased exposure to infectious diseases, extreme temperatures, wildfire smoke, and mental health stress, while also undermining access to clean water, land, and traditional livelihoods. These risks are intensified by land dispossession, extractive industries, and violence against environmental defenders, who are often criminalized. Indigenous women face additional gender-based violence and remain underrepresented in land and resource decision-making.
Although Indigenous peoples play a central role in protecting the Amazon, research rarely examines their specific climate adaptation demands, especially those related to health, gender, and racial justice. Existing studies emphasize land rights and the concept of Buen Vivir—a relational worldview linking human and ecological well-being—as essential for climate action and as an alternative to extractive development. However, this strategic framing may obscure more localized needs such as healthcare access, protection from domestic violence, food security, and clean water, which have not been systematically documented.
Using Hajer’s concept of discourse coalitions, this study examines how Indigenous women’s organizations connect land defense, health, and social protections, and how they adopt or challenge the land–Buen Vivir narrative. The project combines content analysis of organizational documents and social media with interviews and focus groups involving leaders from eleven organizations.
By systematically mapping these demands and creating a shared dataset, the study will help organizations build alliances, support more targeted adaptation policies, challenge narratives that criminalize Indigenous defenders, and advance research on equitable climate adaptation in the Amazon.

Author

• Maria Isabel Espinoza, Michigan State University