Health systems collaboration can strengthen climate change resilience: Insights from Indigenous knowledges in the Latin American region

Strengthening the resilience of health systems is a recognised pathway for responding to the impacts of climate change. However, current approaches often rely on biomedical models that exclude Indigenous Peoples and their knowledges. In Latin America, Indigenous communities have long maintained comprehensive health systems that support both individual and collective well-being, rooted in traditional medical knowledges and close engagement with biodiversity. These systems are grounded in lived experience and provide valuable evidence for addressing climate-related health risks. This essay explores how collaborative approaches rooted in Indigenous health practices can enhance climate resilience in the Latin American region. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature and personal experience in the Andean and Amazonian regions, I argue for health system responses grounded in Indigenous leadership, knowledges and health needs to offer context-specific and high-quality care to adapt to and mitigate climate change. In doing so, this approach can advance health and climate policies by ensuring that justice, meaningful participation, and Indigenous Peoples ‘health are not left behind as in the past.