In the context of increasing intensity and uncertainty of climate change, mountainous regions – home to many ethnic minority communities – are facing serious challenges related to resource degradation, disaster risks, and livelihood sustainability. For many years, indigenous knowledge and resources have primarily been approached from an "exploitation" perspective to serve livelihood development and markets. However, this approach reveals many limitations as it has not fully considered the role of indigenous knowledge as a system for environmental resource management and a tool for adapting to climate change. This paper argues that, in the new climate era, there is a need to shift thinking from “exploiting indigenous resources” to “sustainable environmental resource management,” in which indigenous knowledge is repositioned as an informal institutional foundation to regulate land, water, forest, and biodiversity use, while supporting the implementation of nature-based adaptation solutions, ecological agriculture, and low-emission agriculture. Through a theoretical overview and analysis of community-based resource management practices in the mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam, the paper clarifies the role of indigenous knowledge in climate risk reduction, enhancing livelihood resilience, and proposes policy directions for integrating indigenous knowledge into resource management and climate change adaptation in Vietnam.
