View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Adaptation of pastoralists to climate variability The case of the Karrayu pastoralists' community in the Upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia By Dula Wakassa Duguma A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Geography Department of Sociology and Human Geography University of Oslo May 2013 Declaration I, Dula Wakassa Duguma, hereby declare that this thesis is my own original research work and has not been submitted for any degree award to any other University. Dula Wakassa Duguma May 22 / 2013 Oslo i Dedication I dedicate this thesis to Karrayu pastoralists' community, with compassion! ii Acknowledgement My great appreciation and thanks are due to all those who helped me in having this study completed. It is my pleasure to express my heartfelt appreciation and special gratitude to my supervisor, Karen O'Brien, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, who gave me appropriate guidance, through insightful comments, corrections and encouragement at all stages of the study. I learnt a lot from series of discussions we had during the writing-up. I like to acknowledge the financial support from the Norwegian Educational Loan Fund Scheme (Lånekasse) which sponsored me the entire study. I am grateful to the University of Oslo and the department of Sociology and Human Geography for providing me the opportunity to study at this big institution. My gratitude and thanks are due to the government officials and the Karrayu pastoralists for accepting me in doing this research in their area and giving me valuable information. My appreciation goes to all my key informants and focus group participants for their time, co- operation and valuable information. I am also indebted to Mitiku Fikadu who has helped me a lot during data collection throughout the fieldwork. His commitment and patience in accompanying and helping me in that inhospitable area was unforgettable. I also like to extend my gratitude for Dasallegn Gurmessa (along with his driver) for helping me in collecting the data, during their private work in that area, without any complaint in that inhospitable environment. And my grateful thanks go to Dawit Abebe for his unreserved support and moral encouragement. I like to extend my gratitude and appreciation to my parents and to all my friends in Ethiopia, who have helped me in one or another way throughout my study. My thanks also go to my friends in Norway, with whom I shared unforgettable time. iii Abstract The study has been conducted in the Upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia on the adaptation of the Karrayu pastoralists' community to climate variability and change. Pastoralists in Ethiopia are among the most socially, economically, politically and geographically marginalized groups. Recurrent drought is a perennial problem to them. The traditional coping and adaptation strategies of pastoralists in Ethiopia have become increasingly insufficient to sustain local livelihoods during times of drought. Although recurrent drought remains a constant threat, the vulnerability of pastoralist community must be explained with reference to much broader socio-economic, political and environmental issues. The purpose of the study is to understand the dynamics of vulnerability and how the Karrayu pastoralists' community became vulnerable to climate variability and how the community adapts to changes in climate related hazards, by examining and analyzing the roles of organizations in developing or destroying the adaptive capacity of the Karrayu pastoralists' community. Qualitative research method is used to address the objective of the research. Key informant interview, focus group discussion and observation techniques of qualitative data collection are used to generate the data. The study analyzes and explains the various forces that aggravate the vulnerability of the Karrayu pastoralists to climate variability and change based on the pressure and release model. It provides detail explanation on the adaptation and coping mechanisms the community, and the external responses by the government and nongovernmental organizations by using the institution, adaptation and livelihood framework. Government policy, development interventions, Awash National Park, population pressure, Lake Basaka, bush encroachment, and conflict are the main forces that aggravate the vulnerability of the Karrayu pastoralists to climate variability and change. The Karrayu pastoralists are also pro-actively responding to their vulnerability by taking different adaptation and coping mechanisms. The adaptation systems that they have use in the past have become insufficient to sustain the Karrayu pastoralists and is changing gradually, their milk and meat consumption is decreasing, their mobility is restricted, their traditional support system has weakened, and they lost different fruits of plants that they used to eat from the riverine forests. Instead, different forms of adaptation are emerging. These include diversification by shifting their livestock composition from cattle to camel and goat, and different income diversification techniques, opportunistic farming, irrigation, and dividing their household in to mobile camel household and settled household. In response to the vulnerability of the pastoralists' to climate variability and change, the government is conducting irrigation project to develop the adaptive capacity of the Karrayu community, which is part of the Climate Change National Adaptation Programme of Action. Key words : Karrayu pastoralists, adaptation, vulnerability, irrigation, diversification iv Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................................. i Dedication .................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... viii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the problem .................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Objective ........................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Research questions ........................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Significance of the study .................................................................................................. 5 1.6 Outline of the thesis .......................................................................................................... 5 2. Literature Review and conceptual framework ....................................................................... 7 2.1 Climate variability and pastoralists in Ethiopia ................................................................ 7 2.1.1 Pastoralism and pastoral population .......................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Pastoralists and vulnerability ..................................................................................... 9 2.1.3 Pastoralists and adaptation ....................................................................................... 10 2.2 The Karrayu pastoralists (the study area) ....................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Local institution ....................................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Agro-ecology ........................................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Socio-economic activity ........................................................................................... 15 3. Conceptual framework ......................................................................................................... 17 3.1. Pressure and Release (PAR) model ............................................................................... 19 3.2. Institutions, Adaptation and Livelihoods framework .................................................... 21 4. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 24 4.1 Qualitative research method ........................................................................................... 25 4.2 Data collection ................................................................................................................ 26 4.2.1 Key informant interview .........................................................................................