Guest editorial: circular economy and climate change: valuing indigeneity and sustainability

This guest editorial introduces a special issue that examines the vital intersection of circular economy principles, climate resilience, and the valuation of indigenous and traditional knowledge systems. It challenges longstanding Eurocentric narratives that have historically marginalized indigenous communities as "nonfunctional" and instead highlights how circular practices—such as reuse, refurbishment, composting, and regenerative resource management—once suppressed through colonial regimes, offer sustainable, context-specific pathways for climate adaptation and ecological restoration.
Through interdisciplinary case studies drawn from diverse regions across Asia and Africa, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and China, the contributions in this issue employ a range of mixed methodologies—econometrics, structural equation modeling, and ethnography—to demonstrate the transformative potential of place-based knowledge. These studies reveal how indigenous practices enhance urban sustainability through informal entrepreneurship and waste reclamation, empower fishing communities as they navigate climate-induced ecological shifts, inform low-carbon development trajectories through reinterpretations of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and expose the risks of "greenwashing" within emerging circular business networks. They also illustrate how smallholder resilience is strengthened through localized agricultural knowledge rooted in traditional environmental understanding.
The editorial argues that Indigenous knowledge and circular economies—integrating material stewardship, social well-being, and spiritual ecology—offers a profound alternative to the linear, extractive logic of industrial modernity and digital capitalism. These systems challenge the disposable ethos of contemporary development models by prioritizing reciprocity, regeneration, and intergenerational responsibility. By centring community agency and epistemological plurality, the special issue advocates for urgent policy reforms that align the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with the protection of cultural sovereignty and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge.
As the global climate crisis intensifies, the editorial emphasizes the importance for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to acknowledge Indigenous wisdom not as peripheral but as essential to the development of just, regenerative, and resilient futures. Rather than treating traditional knowledge as a relic of the past, this issue positions it as a frontline strategy for navigating the planetary challenges of the present and future.