Climate change impacts and vulnerability in Africa

Meeting: Workshop on Integrated Climate Risk Assessment, 2-6 November, 2009, Nairobi, KEClimate change impacts have the potential to undermine and even undo progress made in improving the socioeconomic well-being of many countries in Africa. This brief presentation provides an overview of climate change hotspots and vulnerabilities in Africa based on current trends using maps and graphics

A Look at the Social and Environmental Opportunities Brought by Climate Variability and Change in Kenya

Climate variability and change will definitely stress the rural livelihoods and especially the agropastoral communities in various ways which include, but not limited to, reduction of harvested produce and death of livestock. It is very important for communities to understand the actual and anticipated changes that may affect their livelihood systems to enable them make informsed choices in tackling the adverse impacts. Understanding the factors that make a certain community vulnerable and managing climate related risks opens opportunities for the communities to overcome the challenges hence increase their resilience. This paper presents empirical findings on the opportunities associated with climate variability and change that the agropastoral community in Kieni can pursue to adapt better. House hold survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were used to gain insight into what the community has in terms of resources and the opportunities perceived as a result of changing and variable climate. The study revealed that 91% of the agropastoral community are aware of the opportunities brought by climate variability and change. Those opportunities were seen in livelihood diversification including poultry farming, dairy goat farming and dairy cow farming; social and environmental entrepreneurship mainly in agribusiness; technological innovation and development; land use and land management; improved farm production practices; financial and market services; employment and in education. Of the 350 households who were aware of the opportunities, only 67% had taken up one or more, 33% of those households did not utilise any of the perceived opportunities. The research revealed that despite being the majority who perceived opportunities brought by climate variability and change; female headed households had a lower uptake level (48%) as compared to male headed households (52%). Some of the barriers that hinder utilisation of these opportunities include lack of financial capital, lack of knowledge and technological awareness, old age( because majority of the young people have migrated to urban areas in search of employment),health problems, unreliable water supply and hindering market services and credit facilities. Keywords: Livelihoods; climate variability and change; opportunities; Adaptatio

Climate risk evaluation methods and tools

Meeting: Workshop on Integrated Climate Risk Assessment, 2-6 November, 2009, Nairobi, KEThe presentation deals with the stages of climate risk assessment and climate risk management. A key component of integrated climate risk management is the provision of usable weather and climate information products that can help stakeholders to proactively manage their risks. Two of these are: Assessment and Design for Adaptation to Climate Change (ADAPT), a prototype tool developed by the World Bank which aims to raise the profile of adaptation to climate change in project planning; and the Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation & Livelihoods (CRISTAL) which provides climate change vulnerability and livelihood profiles at the local project-based level

Downscaling of climate variability and change

Meeting: Workshop on Integrated Climate Risk Assessment, 2-6 Nov. 2009, Nairobi, KEClimate models can visually represent a climate system. Downscaling tools can add finer scale climate projection information. The example provided is the General Circulation Model (GCM). With the PRECIS (Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies) application to allow for regional climate modeling, GCM can provide grid-scale averages of spatio-temporal hydro-climatic state variables as well as soil hydrology and thermodynamics, and some vegetation dynamic variables. The presentation outlines drivers of climate change. It provides a family of scenarios that factor in different variables such as greenhouse gas emissions, with tools that can be used to project outcomes

Climate change science : detection, attribution and evidence of climate change

Meeting: Workshop on Integrated Climate Risk Assessment, 2-6 November, 2009, Nairobi, KEThe presentation describes the fundamental concepts of climate science, global greenhouse emissions, weather patterns, and climate change impacts as these affect the African continent as well as globally. Images of the disappearance of glacial snow from Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as the obliteration of Lake Chad are included

Climate change adaptation

Meeting: Workshop on Integrated Climate Risk Assessment, 2-6 November, 2009, Nairobi, KENo matter how robust mitigation measures are, a certain degree of climate change is inevitable due to historical emissions and the inertia of the climate system. However, most adaptation activities need to take effect immediately. The presentation provides an analytical framework for vulnerability assessment, which includes identifying conditions or exposures that are pertinent to a community, and assessing the adaptive capacity of the community to deal with these exposures. Two types of adaptation are distinguished in the framework: facilitation and implementation

Resource guide on climate change science

AfricaAdapt is is an independent bilingual network (French/English) focused exclusively on Africa. The Network’s aim is to facilitate the flow of climate change adaptation knowledge for sustainable livelihoods between researchers, policy makers, civil society organizations and communities who are vulnerable to climate variability and change across the continent. In many cases, the abundance of resources has led to confusion and misinformation surrounding climate change issues. This resource guide provides selected resource materials and links that specifically target non-climate experts

Exploration of Knowledge, Perception and Adaptation Strategies of the Mbita Fisher Community to CC/ CV

Decreasing livelihoods of fishers’ communities is blamed on consequences of global warming and climate change impacts. Food security and livelihoods of the world’s 36 million fishers and the nearly 1.5 billion consumers rely on fish for their dietary animal protein. Past studies concentrated on fisher communities and climate variability in marine waters and oceans; mainly investigating the impact of climate variability on fish distribution and production. Limited research has addressed the interaction between impacts of climate change on the fishing activities on inland and fresh waters such as in Lake Victoria and how the fishers are coping and adapting. This article discussion focuses on Lake Victoria shore location of Mbita where the livelihood activity of local community is fishing. The interactive field study was guided by these two research objectives to: Determine the fishers’ knowledge and perception of climate change and variability in Mbita sub-county. Establish the effect of gender in climate change adaptive activities among the Mbita county fishers. The study used a constructivist epistemology and the mixed methods research design to help it achieve its findings. Yamane’s formula (1964) is used to get the sample size of 388 respondents from a population of 13191 fishers. Primary data was collected through use of questionnaires, interview schedules for KII and FGDs. Secondary data collection was collected through reviewing of documented information, such as the fish catch data and climate (temperature/rainfall data) of Mbita for the last 30 years data to get the trend of these elements and to determine climate variability and change. Content validity of the instrument was done through experts; supervisors. Reliability was attained through test and re-test Data analysis was accomplished through use of computer based software (SPSS). Presentation was done in descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings were:-there was gender discrimination in access and control of key fishing resources which support adaptive activities that makes women more vulnerable to CC and CCV hazards and disasters. The study found that majority fishers had clear perception of CC but only 46% had knowledge of CC. The fishers relied more on indigenous knowledge and meteorological forecasts were too technical and considered irrelevant. The study further found that erratic variations in temperatures and rainfall were greatest stressors with statistical significant p-value = of 0.02. Wet seasons destroyed infrastructure, increased weather-borne diseases and endangered the fishers’ lives while dry and hot season resulted in insufficient fish catches and near starvation food consumption.  Statistically loss life and access to food were significant at p-value of 0.001 and p-value of 0.000 respectively. The study found that CCA requires access and control of factors of production which were traditionally under the control of male fishers making women more vulnerable and susceptible to surviving through chamas and table banking activities. Statistically access to and control was significant to adaptation at p-value of 0.000. The study concluded that lack of alternative livelihood opportunities/options is the major constraints to adaptation for people living in the Lake Victoria region escalated with limitation of skills outside fishing industry, limitation of other employable professional skills including lack of capital. The study recommends a transdiciplinary consientization of adaptive strategies which can translate into flexible and sustainable CCA gender inclusive livelihood activities. Future research should explore participatory action research on environmental influences affecting CCA by comparing findings across other beaches