Pastoralists’ Resilience And Adaptation To The Impact Of Climate Change In Semi-Arid Rangelands: A Case Of Longido District- Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Climate Change Impact has been a critical aspect of concern globally. This is because both ecosystems and socio-ecological system are greatly affected by climate change causing some (ecosystems and socio-ecological system) to disappear and die. However, how pastoralists have been resilient and adapting to climate change impacts has not been clearly known and established and also the adaptive climate change framework has not been given out. In this perspective, this study aimed at investigating on the pastoralists‟ resilience and adaptive strategies to the impacts of climate change in semi-arid rangelands in Longido district. The study used different approaches and methods for data collection: exploration of secondary information, observation, household survey, structured interview and focus group discussion as data collecting methods. The sample included 312 of respondents in this study. This study revealed out that climate change has diverse impacts on livestock domestication and on the livelihoods of the pastoralists in Longido district. It was revealed that climate change in the district is attributed by various aspects: - prolonged drought, disparity in temperature and erratic rainfall. The major climate change impacts upon the pastoralists included shortage of water, loss of pastures, eruption of livestock diseases, death of livestock, eruption of human diseases, loss of income just to mention a few. The study discovered that the pastoralists have resilience and innovative adaptation strategies against climate change impacts which includes migration with livestock for search of pasture and water, dam construction, supplementary food/feeds, savings, finding an alternative source of income, traditional climate forecast and formation of by-laws, adoption of drought resistant species of livestock, regulation of livestock reproduction and livelihood diversification to mention just a few for precision. It was revealed that, the pastoralists have acquired new traditional ways of determining climate variability that is the use of signs of domesticated livestock and that of Ngakwa techniques. Ngakwa is a star which is used by pastoralists to determine whether regimes in their areas. Additional to that, it was revealed that viii pastoralists have been using traditional trees to determine climate regimes; for example, the use of Eiti” tree flowering signs is used as an onset of rainfall indicator. For the roles of institutions and organizations in enhancing pastoralists‟ resilience and adaptation to the calamity of climate change included restocking, dam construction at least in every village, provision of education regarding livelihoods, provision of education on helping pastoralists‟ children, provision of employment to many pastoralists, capacity building, construction of water tanks, food provision and livelihood diversification. The study recommends that the establishment of integrated programs such bottom up policy formulation strategy, where all problems caused by climate change are discussed together and the solution, mitigation measures and coping mechanisms are identified in order to adapt to climate change impacts. For effective and sustainable livelihood, the local people should be fully involved in planning and making decisions on how to curb the climate change impacts on people‟s livelihood.