The ASSAR project team conducted a 5 day field visit from 8th - 12th of February in Kilimanjaro landscape in order to scout for appropriate research sites for the ASSAR project in Kenya. The East Africa team is led by University of East Anglia through Dr. Roger Few.
The field excursion was aimed at identifying communities affected by climate change in semi-arid areas in Kenya, understanding the driver of their vulnerabilities, the coping strategies they employ and the adaptation strategies that vulnerable communities used to respond to longer-term climate risks. This information presented an in-depth understanding of the critical determinants to vulnerability due to climate change in the semi-arid region of Kilimanjaro. The research team conducted interviews and held discussions with key informants in the government, such as agricultural officers, water and wildlife officials. In addition, the research team conducted interviews with community leaders, community members and community conservancy leaders.
The following issues emerged from the field visit:
- Cross cutting demands on land and natural resources were observed to be widespread in the region, with agricultural activities and industrialization taking centre stage. These developments were found to be antagonistic to conservation efforts in the region as they increased pressure on water and land resources with total disregard to wildlife, leading to human - wildlife conflicts, depletion of wetland resources and loss of biodiversity. The Oloitokitok Sub County Government - Agricultural Division, confirmed their efforts in addressing the issues by promoting and facilitating trainings and capacity building forums on sustainable agricultural practices. However, inadequate resources among farmers to embrace sustainable agricultural technologies such as drip irrigation, coupled with minimal efforts by the county leadership to redress land use issues and inadequate/lack of capacity to formulate policies addressing the same, proved to be prime challenges.
- To safeguard water resources quality from adverse impacts, the Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA), a state corporation under the Ministry of Water and irrigation attested their commitment to developing principles, guidelines and procedures for water resource allocation amidst defaulters. Technological advancements in rain water harvesting and irrigation methods were some of the authority's initiatives in reducing pressure on underground water and wetland resources.
- Pastoral communities (at Elerai and Ilmarba conservancies) were seen to have adopted planned grazing in response to climate change and human - wildlife conflict on water and pasture. This was accomplished through merging of communal grazing lands and ranches into conservancies where grazing plans were plotted for both dry and wet spells in full consideration of wildlife needs. Wildlife attraction into the conservancies and sustainable pasture yields for livestock in and out of season were the end results, with communities further utilizing the conservancies for income generation through tourism enterprises such as lodging and camping facilities. The communities also recommended the construction of water pans at strategic points away from the main water points to mitigate human - wildlife conflict and depletion of pasture. Lack of coordination in the establishment of conservancies vis a vis planned grazing at the regional level was observed to be a setback to the initiative as free riders were rampant.
Given the arid and the semi-arid conditions, the landscape ecosystem was observed to be fragile and even more vulnerable to climate change, with conflicting land use practices further exacerbating the situation, thus calling for integrated approaches in natural resource management as a key adaptation strategy to climate change.
Based on these findings, the research team will be in a better position to select the project sites for the ASSAR project in Kenya.
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