4/8/2021
Climate change presents threats to the pastoralist way of life and threatens food security. Environmental degradation, the disappearance of natural vegetation and viable pastures due to increased temperatures, water scarcity and reduced reliability of rain result in challenges to the pastoralist way of life. Besides climatic threats, rangelands which pastoralists are dependent on, are threatened by large scale land investments including; agricultural expansion, charcoal making and mining activities. For the last one year, PWC has begun a process of co-creating solutions with pastoralist communities for climate change adaptation and resilience.
“Rains are no longer predictable, and as a result, there is a lack of grazing areas, poor outcomes from farming, and strong winds from north to south, so many things cannot be predicted as they were in the past,” says Frank Samwel Mushi, natural resources officer at Monduli District Council
Since March of this year, we have worked with 27 local communities in the Monduli, Longido and Ngorongoro Districts, leaders and district governments to develop Community Climate Change Action Plans that include climate-smart pastoralism. The Pamoja Voices climate tool presents a simple and affordable methodology to identify the climate change adaptation priorities of men, women and young people using participatory learning and action methods.
At a recent workshop on climate change resilience facilitated by PWC, pastoralists identified challenges resulting from climate change and possible solutions to those challenges. They shared their views and experiences, stating that the rains were reliable in the past, but they do not produce enough in recent times. Further, they shared that the knowledge gained from participating in the workshop was crucial for ensuring that pastoralist communities engage in climate change action and cope with the resulting challenges. Participants lauded the inclusion of women in the training because women face many challenges, including walking long distances to get or sell firewood and milk. Check out a video of their reflections here https://youtu.be/lITQGuD_3jE