The Pastoralists' Resilience and Innovative Adaptation Strategies On

International Journal of Environment and Bioenergy, 2017, 12(1): 47-61 International Journal of Environment and Bioenergy ISSN: 2165-8951 Journal homepage: www.ModernScientificPress.com/Journals/IJEE.aspx Florida, USA Article

The Pastoralists’ Resilience and Innovative Adaptation Strategies on Impacts of Climate Change in Rangelands of Longido District, Tanzania

Laurent Joseph1*and Abiud Kaswamila2

1Department of Management Science, Faculty of Economics and Management Science, Institute of Finance Management, Box 2372, Mwanza, Tanzania 2Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 395, Dodoma, Tanzania

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected];

Article history: Received 3 March 2017, Revised 3 April 2017, Accepted 10 April 2017, Published 14 April 2017.

Abstract: The study investigated pastoralists’ resilience and innovative adaptation strategies to the impacts of climate change in Longido district. Data were collected using several methods including household survey, Focus Group Discussion, interviews and field visits. The results indicate that pastoralist’s resilience and adaptation strategies varied from one village to another. The major strategies were migration, construction and use of water reservoirs, use of traditional weather forecasting techniques, regulation of livestock reproduction, and use of by-laws.

Keywords: Pastoralists, resilience, innovative adaptation strategies, climate change rangelands, Longido District.

1. Introduction

Climate is a vital aspect for the survival of animals and plants all over the world but the change of its characteristics in terms of temperature increase and rain shortage, disturbs the whole ecosystem, Copyright © 2017 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA

Int. J. Environ. Bioener. 2017, 12(1) : 47-61 48 especially for pastoralists and farmers who directly depend on natural resources for their survival (Waugh, 2009). These changes in temperature and humidity have caused prolonged droughts globally and at local levels (IPCC, 2007) hence climate variability which leaves the ecosystems disrupted, causing disability and instability on dry lands particularly in poor communities (Mubaya, 2010). In Tanzania, climate change in semi-arid parts has diverse impacts on the pastoralists including water shortage, loss of pasture and eruption of diseases. In this context, for the pastoralists to resilient and adapt to the climate change impacts they have to employ various strategies (Mwilawa et al., 2008; Martin, 2012). The objective of this paper is to investigate the pastoralists’ resilience and adaptation strategies to the impacts of climate change in the semi-arid Longido District in northern Tanzania.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. The Study Area Longido District (7782 km2) which is administratively in Arusha region lies at an altitude of between 600 and 2,900 m asl is located between Latitude 2⁰20" and 3⁰10" South of the Equator and Longitude 36⁰00" and 37⁰30" East of Greenwich. It is bordered by Meru and Rombo Districts to the East, Ngorongoro to the West, Monduli and Arusha Districts to the South and Siha District to the South East. The District stretches from the western slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in the East to Lake Natron in the West. Out of the total District land area 82.14% is grazing land, 13.6% is arable land and 4.7% is forest land (LDP, 2015). Four villages namely Sinya, Engikaret, Keserian and Mairowa were involved in the study (Fig. 1). The study area is predominantly occupied by the pastoral Maasai community. Both water and natural pasture are sometimes insufficient, especially during dry periods. The District is also rich in wildlife (LDP, 2015). The vegetation in the area can be described as mixed forest, bush lands, and grass lands (LDP, 2015). Agro-ecologically the district has two distinct agro- ecological zones- highlands and low lands. The highland zone is characterized by a number of isolated mountains with an average altitude of 2000 m above sea level. It has mainly deep, freely drained loamy soils with natural fertility status. It is occupied by forests on top of hills. Major economic activities in this zone are livestock keeping and agro – pastoralist where livestock keeping is practiced on a moderately large scale (LDP, 2015). The low zone is characterized by flat and rolling plains with altitude ranging from 600 m to 1,200 m above sea level. It has mainly deep, freely drained loamy soils with natural fertility status. It is occupied by forest on top of hills. The major economic activities are extensive livestock keeping and tourism. Livestock keeping in this zone is practiced on a large scale and include cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys and camels (on a small scale) (LDP, 2015). The District is one of the driest areas in Tanzania,

Copyright © 2017 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA Int. J. Environ. Bioener. 2017, 12(1) : 47-61 49 the temperature ranges from 20⁰C – 35⁰C. Rainfall ranges from less than 500 mm in low lands to 900 mm in high altitude. From year 2007 the District has been experiencing prolonged dry seasons.

Fig. 1: The study area

2.2. Data Collection Methods

Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey, FGD, key informant interviews, and field visits. The questionnaires consisted both closed and open-ended questions. An open-ended question gives respondents room to give their own views without being influenced by researcher. On other hand, closed-ended questions gives options to respondents and are good in collecting quantitative data, hence can simplify data analysis. The aspects included in questionnaire were: challenges of climate change on pastoral communities and pastoralists resilience strategies. Before using the questionnaires they were pre-tested for testing the questionnaire wording, sequencing and lay out. The key informant’s interview was conducted using interview guides. Eight Village Extension Officers (two extension officers from each village from the four selected villages - livestock and agriculture) and four District officers (two environmental officers and two District livestock officers)

Copyright © 2017 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA Int. J. Environ. Bioener. 2017, 12(1) : 47-61 50 were involved hence made a total number of 12 key informants. Aspects covered during interviews were major climatic challenges affecting pastoral communities’ livelihoods and resilience strategies among the pastoral communities to impacts of climate change. Focus Group Discussion involved two groups in each village, males and females. Each group comprised of 10 people, making a total of 80 group members. These two groups were involved in order to capture views as they are likely to perceive issues differently even for the same problem or issue (Creswell, 2012). During the discussion the authors were mainly facilitators and this had the advantage that participants were able to discuss issues at hand freely and without fear. The main subtopics discussed included climatic challenges affecting pastoral communities and associated resilience adaptive strategies. Direct field visits were undertaken in study villages to observe climate change impacts upon the pastoralists’ communities. Through field study the authors were able to see the effects of climate change impacts and at the same time meet people (local households) who have been affected by climatic change. Data collected were qualitative and quantitative in nature. Therefore, the nature of data necessitated the use of qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. In this perspective both qualitative and quantitative information were analyzed separately to complement and supplement each other. For example, qualitative data collected from Focused Group Discussions were analyzed basing on themes and content. The themes were classified whereby every answer was patterned in relation to a theme in question. For Key Informant interviews, data was analyzed through themes and content analysis. Subsequently, quantitative data were collected through questionnaires, and were analyzed through statistical analysis where data were edited, coded, summarized, and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Pastoralists Indicators for Climate Change Impacts

Field results indicated that, climate change impacts in the study area started to be felt by pastoralists in the 1970s and continues to be felt to date. It was also observed that all four villages studied have been experiencing the impact of climate change. The main indicators associated to the situation were mainly drought, erratic rainfall, floods, temperature rise, and pasture and water shortages (Fig. 1). The latter have been the main cause of decreased livestock productivity and death of livestock in the study area. Drought frequency was more noticed in Mairowa and Sinya villages, erratic rainfall in Engikaret, and temperature rise in Sinya.

Fig. 1: Indicators of Climate change (Source: Field Data (2015))

3.2. Pastoralists Resilience and Innovative Adaptation Strategies

The results revealed that pastoralists in the study area employ a number of highly specific risk spreading strategies to safeguard their herds and family livelihoods in the face of unpredictable and sometimes extreme climatic change events such as drought, temperature rise, disease outbreaks, and shortage of water. Resilience and innovative adaptation strategies ensure the rational use of the natural resource base on which the herds depend and also build strong social networks. Overall, the main adaptation strategies in order of importance were migration, use of traditional by-laws, afforestation, forest conservation, savings, dam construction and use of supplementary feeds/foods (Table 1). Others were livelihood diversification, climate forecast and livestock production.

Table 1: Resilience and Adaptive Strategies Resilience, Adaptive and Local Innovative Villages Average Strategies* Mairowa Kiserian Engikaret Sinya % % % % Migration 70.9 81.8 70.9 89.0 78.1 Dam Construction 50.9 69.0 56.3 40.0 54.0 Supplementary Foods 41.8 49.0 40.0 78.1 52.2 Savings 38.1 34.5 74.5 69.0 54.0 Livelihoods diversifications 63.6 49.0 34.5 41.8 47.2 Climate forecast 54.5 56.3 41.8 29.0 45.4 Formation of Bylaws 74.5 50.9 67.2 70.9 65.9 Forest conservation 50.0 70.0 65.8 45.0 57.1 Afforestation approach 60.0 45.0 55.0 50.0 60.0 Poultry Production 33.0 34.0 41.0 30.0 34.5 *=Multiple Response Source: Field data (2015)

At village specific level, the generic adaptation strategies were mainly migration and use of traditional by-laws in which the frequency were 78.1% and 65.9% respectively. What is also evident is that, priority strategies varied from one village to another as shown in Table 2. In Mairowa, the strategies were mainly use of traditional by-laws governing the use of natural resources within the village; migration to areas with sufficient pasture and water; and diversification of livelihood by switching to other socio-economic activities such as establishment of small scale businesses such as motor-cycle business popularly known as bodaboda, small shops, and establishment of small scale agriculture. In Kiserian the priority strategies were migration, forest conservation as a way to conserve the environment which could in turn bring rainfall and water dam construction for use during critical dry periods. In Sinya, the notable strategies were migration, use of by-laws and use of supplementary livestock feeds while in Engikaret the strategies were bank savings, migration and use of by-laws.

Table 2: Pastoralists priority innovative strategies Village Priority strategies Proportion of respondents (%) N=220 Mairowa Use of by-laws 74.5% Migration 70.9% Livelihood diversification 63.6% Engikaret Savings 74.5% Migration 70.9% Use of by-laws 67.2% Kiserian Migration 81.8% Forest conservation 70% Dam construction 69% Sinya Migration 89% Use of supplementary feeds 78.1% Use of by-laws 70.9% Source: Field data (2015)

The cross-tabulation (at 95% level of significance) was performed to explore the association between gender, age and education and resilience and adaptation strategies. As for gender, though not significant, females in all four villages were inclined to poultry production while males were on mobility. The association of females to poultry production could be based on the roles of females at household level. Women are responsible in providing food for the family and rearing chicken is a way to protect the family in case of death of livestock during critical dry spells. For that matter this could then be used as “shock absorbers”. Males association to mobility can be explained by the fact that males are normally responsible for moving with cattle in search of both pasture and water during dry spells. At village specific level associations varied. In Kiserian females more commonly identified forest conservation as a resilience and adaptation strategies while men commonly identified mobility.

In Sinya, unlike in Kiserian, females and males commonly identify forest conservation and mobility as a resilience and innovation adaptation strategies. In Engikaret, both gender identified construction of water reservoirs and forest conservation as resilience and innovative resilience strategies. Females association to forest conservation can be explained by the fact that firewood is the main source of domestic energy in households and, therefore, conservation of forests will save them from walking long distances in search of firewood. Regarding age, respondents aged 34-50 years old more commonly identified mobility and those with 51 – 64 year old, were associated with saving strategy. Those aged beyond 64 years old were associated with the formulation of by-laws. The age of 34-50, as earlier described, is expected to migrate with livestock in search of water and pasture. As for elders, these people in the Maasai culture have high respect and they normally use their long experience in many issues as advisors including formulation of different bylaws including those related with environmental conservation. Similar results were observed at village specific level. As for education, one’s level of education had no influence on role related tasks.

Migration to distant areas Results from households (Table 3), focus group discussion and key informants indicated that pastoralists migrate to distant areas for search of water and pastures during dry seasons when water sources have been depleted and pastures are not enough to sustain their livestock in the area. During FGD it was argued that since 1990s pastoralist’s mobility in search of water and pasture was on the increase when compared to previous years. The pastoralists’ migration for search of pasture and water can be classified into two categories: internal migration (within the country) and external (beyond country’s borders) practiced either by an individual or by a group of pastoralists. Internally, pastoralists migrate to Morogoro, Manyara, Tanga, Arusha and Kilimanjaro Regions (Table 3) and externally the destination is Kenya. The means of migration is mainly by walking but at times well to do pastoralists or group of pastoralists hire lorries. The associated transportation costs depend on the destination.

Table 3: Pastoralists migration destinations S/N Villages Place of Destination During Mobility 1 Mairowa Kenya, Ngorongoro, Babati, Monduli 2 Keserian Kenya, Simanjiro, Meru, Monduli, Ngorogoro, Babati, Ngorongoro, 3 Engikaret Ngorogoro, Morogoro, Monduli, Kenya 4 Sinya Kenya, Tanga, West Kilimajaro

Source: Field Data (2015).

Saringe (2011) argued that mobility remains the most important pastoralists’ adaptation to spatial and temporal variations in rainfall, and during drought years. Many communities make use of fall-back grazing areas unused in normal dry seasons because of distance, land tenure constraints, animal diseases or conflict. Martin (2012), on the other hand, observed that pastoral season mobility is one of the best adapted and useful means of obtaining what livestock need in an ever-variable environment. Since pastoralism is adapted to variable forage supplies and water distribution, the ability of pastoralists to survive in these marginal lands is attributed to their opportunistic mobility and diversified livestock husbandry. Rainfall unpredictability, both in space and time causes uneven and unpredictable levels of productivity. According to Meena et al., (2006), pastoral seasonal mobility has proven to be the best form of land use of highly variable and heterogeneous pastoral lands in the arid and semi-arid regions as well as in the mountainous regions due to the fact that it enables the livestock to grade the diffuse and scattered vegetation of the regions rangelands or take refuge to more favorable sites during drought. Martin (2012) observed that loss of mobility implies that the indigenous system of land use is no longer sufficiently responsive to ecological and climatic variability and that pastoral production system becomes increasingly vulnerable to climatic change and variability.

Use of traditional by-laws Establishment and enactment of traditional by-laws in Maasai land that regulate livestock grazing was revealed by household respondents as one of resilience and adaptive system that has been used by pastoralists against the impacts of climate change. It was noted that pastoralists had traditional knowledge on how to preserve their pasture/forage for reducing forage shortage during pasture stress times. Examples of the by-laws are those related to pasture conservation and water conservation. As for pastures, grazing areas are divided into restricted and non-restricted zones (lopolol). In each zone there are by laws guarding the utilization of each zone. Defaulters of the by-laws are normally fined. Regarding water conservation, constructions of traditional dams (e.g. sand dams) are common in the study area. In the study area, some local excavated dams are restricted to use until dry season (Serenge) and others are not restricted and these are used during the rainy season. Defaulters are normally fined. Mahonge et al., (2014) asserts that some strategies e.g. excavation of small dams are the initiatives of the pastoralists themselves based on their long-term interaction and experience with the environment. These are meant to avoid walking long distances in search of water.

Water dams construction

During this study, it was revealed that the constructed dams (varying in size and depth) were used only by the community members in a particular village. For outsiders, they must ask permission from the village leaders who will provide permission. It was revealed that most of the villages have dams which differ in terms of size and depth. Dams are ways of ensuring a year round supply of water for the community and livestock. Water reservoirs/dams have been one of the strategies to mitigate water availability problems. These dams are normally constructed by the pastoralists in collaboration with NGO’s and or District Council. The most common dams are reinforced by building concrete walls across seasonal river beds to hold water. Sand dam (Plate 1) is a new and preferred strategy due to several reasons: it protects water from extensive evaporation; acts as a slow filter for water resulting in potable water; limits some water borne diseases as mosquito parasites cannot breed in this condition, thus it reduces the threat of malaria; and they also act as saline water filters.

Plate 1: A Sand dam in Mairowa village Photo by: Laurent Joseph, 2015

Supplementary Feeds Field findings indicated that maize barn, cotton/sunflower seed cake, maize stalks, sweat potatoes/beans leaves, and maize cobs were the mostly used supplementary feeds for livestock in the study area as coping strategies against climate change impacts. These feeds are usually obtained after harvesting of farm products. However, for maize brans, hay, and seed cakes are normally bought from milling machines. Mbahuda area in Arusha is commonly known for the supply of maize barn while Singida Region is the main supplier of sunflower seed cakes while Babati Township in Manyara Region is the main source of cotton seed cakes. The prices of these feeds depend on the season.

Livelihood diversification

The drought which hit hard the district between 2009 and 2010 and killed most of their livestock made pastoral Maasai to change their life style i.e. to diversify livelihood options instead of relying on livestock production. The livelihood diversification options among others include petty shop trading, purchase and use motorcycles popularly known as bodaboda, the buying and selling of livestock, engagement in agriculture production, mining, formal and informal employment in urban areas (as night guards or hair dressers) and charcoal selling. One of the focus group dicussant had this to say on bodaboda business: “I am now able to feed my family also to take my children to school because I do earn more than Tsh. 20, 000/= (10 dollars) per day. This makes my life to move on comfortably. I have also not stopped keeping livestock, because livestock is our prestige. In our tribe nothing is more important than livestock. Climate change has made us to live uncertain life and this has forced us to look for other means of earning income to carter for our basic needs”.

Afforestation Afforestation as a strategy is applied against impacts of climate change. Planted trees in homesteads and elsewhere are regarded as a defenses against wind and soil erosion and a water regulator. Martin (2012) argues that the role of forests in societal adaptation is becoming increasingly recognized and has led to the development of various initiatives such as the Congo Basin Forest and Climate change Adaptation (COFCCA) project. Joseph (2011), on other hand, argues that community afforestation can, for example, diversify incomes and improve social capacity, thus reducing the vulnerability to climate change impacts.

Traditional Weather Forecasting The study revealed that traditional weather forecasting has been instrumental as resilience and adaptive strategy against climate change impacts as has been able to help pastoralists not to lose livestock which is the main source of livelihood (Table 4). According to Maasai beliefs, once Ngakwa is seen it is an indicator of good season ahead and if it is the contrary that gives pastoralists a warning and they have to get prepared by economic use of feeds, pasture and water points and preparing livestock supplementary feeds. Behaviour of animals such cattle and goats also do predict occurrences. For example, refusal of the cattle to go out for grazing in the morning (if not sick) is an indicator that the rainfall onset period is approaching; mating of goats at night is an indicator of stable climate regime (good season); and aappearance of red ants near water points in lowland areas and/or in homesteads around the washing areas inside the Maasai huts, is an indicator of famine or known as Eng’oloto in Maasai language.

Table 4: Traditional Weather Forecasting strategies Months Maasai names for Maasai weather Descriptions Months January Aladalu Refers to the short dry spell between short and heavy rains. To the Maasai, this is the month when rains stops to allow calving of both livestock and wildlife. February Ilapalaa-ngakwa Refers to the eight stars found on the left side of the milk-way. This month signifies the period when the eight stars rise from the east. March Oing’ok This month indicates the time of the year when bulls become aggressive, cows go on heat and hence the beginning of the mating season. April Oloibor-are This means the month of the white waters. Essentially, this is moment when there are heavy rains. Moreover, it is the time when wildebeests and cattle mix up after the virus for maliginat-cattar-fiver disease has been killed by the heavy rains. May Alapaloloirujuruju This means the showery month. It refers to thin rains marking the end the wet season. June Kurum-ari This means the end of the rainy season. The rains stop totally and consequently rivers start to dry up and the temperatures rise. The tsetse flies appear in multitude. July Alapalengijape This most windy and coldest period of the year. Most sources of water would have dried up by this time. It is also a mating season for shoats. August Orgisan It the moment when the ground cover perishes, dust storms appear in most places and in other zones, black soils (engusero) creaks – an indicator for excessive lose of moisture. September Ndung’us It is also hot like Orgisan and the ground cover further perishes, dust storms intensify and moisture is totally lost. October Mpushuke This is the hottest month but also the moment when clouds start to appear and the first rains begin to fall though extremely scarce. This is the beginning of the new year in Maasai land. Trees particularly on hill- topes start to produce leaves and at the same time acacia species become floristic. November Iyarrat The name iyarrat literally means valleys. To the Maasai, this month indicates the period when valleys start to green up. December Irri-irpala Irri-irpala means rejuvenation. It refers to the moment of the year in which people get enough milk and blood. This is actually the time life the community comes back to normal. Source: Field Data (2015)

Another Maasai pastoralist’s ethno ecology is the use of scavenging birds, especially the vultures (Ilmotonying’iroin). If they are seen roaming in the grasslands, this tells severe drought is expected and, therefore, likelihood of massive livestock deaths. At times these indicators force pastoralists to migrate to other areas where water and pastures can sustain their livestock for a longer period of time.

Use Traditional Livestock Reproduction System This system reduces the death rate of new born calves as a system enables births to take place during stable regimes only. This local regulatory system for livestock reproduction is called Errehoti.

It is only applied on male livestock such as sheep and goats by restricting them from reaching a female during stable times. A pocket attached with a hide strip of a cow (2 meters long) is tied on a male livestock’s loin and on the neck with a small belt joining the two tied belts to avoid misbalance of the pocket (Plate 2). The system is mostly applicable during rainy season starting from the end of March to April every year.

Plate 2: Traditional System of Regulating Livestock Reproduction

Herd Splitting Splitting of herds is one of innovative strategies towards impacts of climate change. Herd splitting is done by grouping livestock herds into various groups according to age (calf and adult stocks) and productive (lactating and non-producing stocks) for enhancing efficiency in the utilization of sparse pasture and water resources. On the other hand, some groups of herds are distributed to pastoralists’ relatives living far from the District e.g. West Kilimanjaro (Kilimanjaro Region), Monduli District and at times to neighboring Kenya. In this context, pastoralists are avoiding the possibility of losing all livestock during the drought season; instead they put aside some of the livestock. Andrew (2009) argues that animals may be kept in several different areas which reduce the effects of localized droughts, and disease outbreak.

Herd Diversification Herd diversification in this study is noted as the act of rearing more than single type of livestock kind unlike before. Respondents revealed that diversification is a strategy to resilience and

Copyright © 2017 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA Int. J. Environ. Bioener. 2017, 12(1) : 47-61 59 adaptation to climate change in order to sustain their livelihoods during unstable periods. It was also reported that cattle can easily be affected by impacts of climate change if compared with small livestock that is, sheep and goats. In this situation, pastoralists have adopted the rearing of small livestock such as goats, sheep and chicken. The reason for adapting other kinds of livestock is the ability of other livestock kinds such as goat to use tree leaves as pastures even during the dry season. Yanda and Mubaya (2011) argued that due to climatic change and variability, keeping of other livestock kinds by pastoralists is a compulsory aspect. This is because the diversity of livestock herds has ecological and economic implication. Managing different kinds of animals can help pastoralists to take the advantages of the mixed nature of ecosystem. Rearing all these types of livestock by a single household is one of the indicators of adaptation strategy against the impacts of climate change and variability. Andrew (2009) argued that different kinds are bred by pastoralists for their resilience to drought and diseases.

Building of Social Networking The building of social networking was argued by respondents as an adaptive strategy against the impacts of climate change in the study area. It was noted that many pastoralists after 2009 – 2010 drought, formed social networks for sharing knowledge and experiences in relation to climate change and livelihoods sustainability in their areas. The network involves pastoral Maasai within and outside the country particularly Kenya. The way the network works is that whenever a pastoralists sense anything related to livestock production instability, they are supposed to communicate with their fellows whom they have formed a networking group on details related to pasture and water and the hosts are ready to accommodate their fellow. Examples of these networks in the study include Kisaruni, Renchi, Ramataki and Amani.

Adoption of Drought Resistant Livestock Adoption of more drought resistant livestock is one of the resilience strategies against the impact of climate change in the area. It was noted that most of drought resistant livestock (e.g. African Zebu – Saoli in Maasai) were obtained from Somalia and Kenya. It was reported that resistant livestock are very expensive which demand a pastoralist to sell 2 to 3 cattle in order to buy one Zebu. For example, during the period of study, a calf was being sold between TZS 500, 000 and 600,000 while a price of a large Zebu stood at TZS 1,400,000.

4. Conclusions

Longido district which is dominated by pastoral Maasai have been experiencing climate change impacts for nearly five decades now, the main indicators being drought, erratic rainfall, floods and rise

Copyright © 2017 by Modern Scientific Press Company, Florida, USA Int. J. Environ. Bioener. 2017, 12(1) : 47-61 60 of temperature. It was also evident from this study that the major climatic challenges facing pastoralists’ livelihood include shortage water, pasture stress, eruption of livestock and death of livestock. To mitigate the situation pastoralists have been using several adaptive strategies. The major ones include; migration to areas rich in pasture and water, dam construction, use of supplementary feeds, and use of traditional by-laws. Others were herd splitting, traditional weather forecasting, herd diversification and building social networks. For pastoralists to continue coping with climate change impacts, the study recommends the following:  Need for pastoralists to practice destocking. The number of livestock is large and land is limited, decrease of number of livestock will cope with the situation particularly in the era of climate change. Government through livestock extension officials should initiate a specific program of making pastoralists conscious on the whole phenomena of destocking;  The District Livestock Officer should explore the options and benefits for mitigation strategies in the livestock sector, particularly where there are opportunities to access carbon finance payments, and identifying synergies between productivity and environmental benefits, for example through reduced methanogenesis (lower methane reduction leading to increased fed conversion efficiency), reforestation of rangelands, manure management, or restoration of degraded rangelands;  Pastoralists’ capacity building on climate change resilience and adaptation should be done by NGOs, CBOs, and the District livestock officials. The initiation and the establishment of programs intended to consolidate the adaptability of climate change upon the pastoralists will promote the techniques of how to buffer the impacts resulting from climate change;  The district livestock officers should promote innovative approaches to local breed development that are driven by the environmental exigencies of livestock keeping groups, focusing on development of local breeds as well as promotion of ‘exotic’ breeds from comparable environments that display more locally-appropriate attributes such as drought survival and disease resistance; and  To Integrate sectors through interventions that target pastoralists’ resilience and adaptation by integrating meteorological organs, academic research and other developmental activities through civil society and community based organizations could be the most important pathway for resilience and adaptation to climate change impacts in semi-arid rangelands.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) management for the partial support which made this study possible.

References

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