Correspondence between local and scientific knowledge of climate change: The case of Hutsuls, Northern Romanian Carpathians

Climate research heavily relies on the interpolation of data from instrumental recordings. However, the scarcity of meteorological data and the intrinsic heterogeneity of mountain areas complicate the prediction of local climate change impacts in these regions. Following calls to explore the potential contribution of local knowledge to understand climate change impacts, this chapter (a) documents climate change impacts observed by Hutsuls (an ethnic group of the Carpathians) through 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews and three focus group discussions, (b) describes the climatic trends detected by the closest meteorological station in the area; and (c) compares both datasets. Hutsuls reported warmer temperatures, precipitation decrease, and changes in seasonal events among the most-frequent climate change impacts. Similar trends were derived from data from the closest meteorological station. These results suggest that combining local and scientific knowledge can deepen our understanding of climate change impacts at the local scale and can serve as a robust basis for co-developing effective climate policies and adaptive management plans. This is especially relevant in mountain areas, which provide crucial contributions to people, but often lack instrumental information regarding climate change impacts