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Accepted Paper:
‘When the river grows, I am alone’: climate change and its interconnected crises for Shipibo children in the Peruvian Amazonia
Thaís de Carvalho
(Open University)
The interlinkages between urban and rural Amazonia in the climate crisis. The paper reflects on how changes in flood patterns push seasonal migration in a Shipibo village. It will focus particularly on the manifold impacts of frequent floods on Shipibo children's livelihoods and aspirations.
Paper long abstract:
In Peruvian Amazonia, climate change has been altering the flood patterns of the Ucayali River. Although the Shipibo people has traditionally resided in floodplains, inundations are now harsher, longer and unpredictable. This affects crop production and, consequently, families’ livelihood strategies. In villages more exposed to floods, adults and adolescents migrate to cities for several months to earn an income, particularly during the rainy season. However, children are left behind with their grandparents to reduce the costs of city living and to remain enrolled in the village’s public school. This phenomenon has several practical and subjective consequences in children’s lives, which this paper is set to investigate. Based on 8 months of participant observation in Ucayali, the paper will trace a comparison of children’s routines before and during a harsh flood to reflect on the impact of climate change on their social and economic lives. When asked about the floods, children emphasise not only the boredom of being left ‘with no one to play, and not even a hook to fish’ but also the toll of taking over their sibling’s subsistence workload. Drawing insights from arts-based interviews and focus groups, I will reflect on how the distress caused by the floods can justify children’s aspirations to urbanise their village. The paper will argue that understanding the link between environmental and social change is crucial to make sense of intergenerational agency in Amazonia.