The food systems and territories of Indigenous Peoples sustain much of the world’s biodiversity, cultivated and wild, through agroecological practices rooted in Indigenous cosmovision and cultural and spiritual values. These food systems have a critical role to play in sustainability transformations but are widely threatened and have received limited research attention. This paper presents the results of four virtual workshops with Indigenous Peoples: a global workshop and local workshops with communities in coastal Kenya, northeast India and southwest China. Indigenous participants highlighted the role of their food systems in resilience to climate change, nutrition, sustainability and resilience to pandemics, and threats from agriculture, development and conservation policies. They called for research on the rapid loss of Indigenous knowledge; Indigenous Peoples’ land rights and food sovereignty; and the impacts of industrial agriculture on Indigenous food systems, stressing the need for decolonial approaches to revitalise Indigenous knowledge. The paper presents a decolonial and interdisciplinary framework for action-research on Indigenous food systems past and present, from farm to plate, drawing on the virtual workshops, Andean decolonising methods and historical approaches. It concludes that decolonising action-research, led by Indigenous Peoples, is urgently needed to reverse the rapid loss of food-related biocultural heritage.

Climate change in combination with socioeconomic processes and opportunities have an especially severe impact on people living in remote mountain areas of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. What is less well known is how changes in climate will affect in the quality of lives, livelihoods, and resources of diverse groups of people of the region. The chapter argues that it is not only important but also necessary to link climate science and climate interventions with relevant contextual experiences of the different groups of people due their differential experiences and vulnerabilities. The chapter provides illustrative cases studies to demonstrate the differential experiences and vulnerabilities of women and men as a result of the dynamics of gender relations in the context of climate change.

Maintaining farmer’s seed systems is important to secure the adaptive capacity both ecologically and socially for global food systems, and to secure genetic diversity. In a mountain village of southwest China, a Participatory Action Research Team has carried out action research for more than 20 years to support women's participation in participatory breeding and to enhance the farmers’ seed system. In this case study, the team assisted women in the conservation of local varieties and establishment of community seed banks to enhance farmers’ seed systems. The women-led agricultural cooperatives promoted the economic development of the community and improved the sustainability of farmers’ seed system through eco-circular agriculture and the community supported agriculture (CSA) model. In this participatory process, the empowerment of women improved women's comprehensive ability and provided the guarantee of human resources for enhancing farmers' seed system. Multi-stakeholder processes also extended important support to this model work.