Climate Change Adaption Strategies of Local Pastoral Communities. A Case of Chereti District, Somali Region, Ethiopia

Term Paper , 2020 , 9 Pages , Grade: A-

Geography / Earth Science - Meteorology, Aeronomy, Climatology

The main objectivee of this paper is to understand climate change adaptation and coping mechanism used somali pastoralist to cope climate change hazard. Somali Pastoral communities have their own indigenous knowledge to their environments and develop various adaptation strategies to cope with climate risk, stress and shocks.

INTRODUCTION

Climate change adaptation consists of a set of activities on a spectrum that ranges from addressing the drivers of vulnerability; to building response capacity; to managing climate risk; to confronting climate change. Climate change has been affecting different production systems throughout the world. However, pastoralism has been the most vulnerable production system (Helland 2015).

There are different adaptation strategies (both traditional and modern) to climate change that are using in different Pastoral communities of Ethiopia, and the effect of climate change and variability is more severe in dry lands than other humid areas, The intensity, frequency and magnitude of weather related changes are proving a challenge to pastoralist communities. The rainfall pattern has been unpredictable and there is a frequently migration of pastoral communities from rural to the urban centers (Hogg, R.2017.)

The vulnerability of pastoral communities to climate change is higher than that of humid or rainforests (Highlands) due to the synergic effect of the following factors. These factors are inadequate health services, inadequate infrastructure, poverty especially among rural communities, lack of alternative means of income especially in marginal areas, inadequate public awareness of disease risks, illiteracy, lack of appropriate marketing for their product, poor management of natural resources, deforestation and widely practiced harmful traditional practices (Neely, C 2010).

Climate change is one of the major challenges to livestock production in pastoral areas; it impacts on the livelihood of the societies and effects the forage production, water availability and cause disease, shock and stresses, some evidence gathered from local pastoral areas in southern and southeastern part of Ethiopia shows that decreasing rainfall trends being a major cause of declining livestock production. Drought is one of the climate variability that is highly affecting the pastoral areas and cause decline of livestock productions in Somali region and many other parts of the country including (e.g. afar and borena)

DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA

Chereti district is one of the nine districts in Afder zone, Somali region, Ethiopia .The Somali Regional State (SRS) is one of the nine regional states of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE). Geographically, SRS is the second largest in the country. It covers a total area of 350 000 km2. According to the last Population and Housing Censuses in 2007, the regions' population is estimated about 4 439 147 million. In 2013 an unofficial projected population census produced by regional Bureau of Finance and Economic Development (BoFED), the population of the region is projected about 5. 3million, the region has 11 administrative zones which encompass up to 93 districts and four administrative towns or councils and more than 780 centers/ kebeles. It borders Djibouti to the north; Somalia to the east and northeast; Kenya to the south; Oromia Region to the west and Afar Region in the north-west,

More than 85% of the population is pure pastoralist while the remaining is agro pastoral (small scale farmers) and small commerce; the trends of temperature and rainfall are getting up normal condition for the last ten years due to Elnino and lalina. There is two seasonally rainfall found in Somali pastoralists namely the long rainy season spring (GU) from March to May and short rainy season autumn (Deyr) from September to October. The severity of drought and shortage of feed and water in pastoral areas such as the Somali rangeland depends significantly up on the amount of rain the area received.

INDIGENOUS FORECASTING METHOD USED PASTORALIST FOR CLIMATE VARIABILITY

Pastoralist use different method of forecasting for climate variability such as Tree phenology, wind direction, monitoring unique behavior of some animals, bee and special bird movement, and moon and star characters are indigenous knowledge of climate forecasting methods. This indigenous knowledge of pastoralists has been used to forecast the likelihood of future climatic conditions that affect their entire decisions and options for coping. Somali pastoral elders use this traditional forecasting to predict the future climate variability and this knowledge is transferring from one generation to another generation. Different societies use different method of forecasting sometimes the forecasting method depends on the type of livestock that they, the characteristics and movement of livestock give sense the traditional forecaster

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• College: Hawassa University
• Course: climate change adaptation
• Grade: A-
• Author: Mahad Hassan (Author)
• Publication Year: 2020
• Pages: 9
• Catalog Number: V1155009
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346552426
• Language: English
• Tags: climate, change, adaption, strategies, local, pastoral, communities, case, chereti, district, somali, region, ethiopia