McLean, Kirsty Galloway. 2009. Advance Guard: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, Mitigation and Indigenous Peoples – A compendium of case studies. United Nations University – Traditional Knowledge Initiative, Darwin, Australia.

This compendium presents a wide-ranging overview of more than 400 projects, case studies and research activities specifically related to climate change and Indigenous Peoples. It provides a sketch of the climate and environmental changes, local observations and impacts being felt by communities in different regions, and outlines various adaptation and mitigation strategies that are currently being implemented by Indigenous Peoples – the world’s “advance guard” of climate change – as they use their traditional knowledge and survival skills to trial adaptive responses to change. Indigenous strategies include application and modification of traditional knowledge and modern technologies, fire management practices, changes in hunting and gathering periods and crop diversification; management of ecosystem services; awareness raising and education, including an increasing use of multimedia and social networks; and policy, planning and strategy development.