For the Indigenous Maasai pastoralists of northern Tanzania, access to and control over land, including the pasture and water resources it provides, are fundamental to life. Land sustains their livestock, which are their primary source of livelihood and a central symbol of their social and cultural identity. It also protects sacred sites and provides access to medicinal herbs and resources of spiritual significance. These resources shape and sustain their lives at both individual and community levels.
For these communities, climate change manifests primarily through longer and more frequent droughts, as well as increasing pasture and water scarcity. These challenges threaten their livelihoods, food security, and traditional way of life. Pastoralist women, youth, and persons with disabilities are particularly vulnerable, facing structural barriers that limit their ability to respond to and recover from climate-related crises.
As an organisation led by Indigenous pastoralist women and dedicated to addressing their needs, the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) has witnessed the profound effects of climate change on the women and communities it serves. For nearly a decade, PWC has been committed to empowering Indigenous women, girls, and communities across the northern Tanzanian districts of Ngorongoro, Monduli, Longido, and Simanjiro to address climate change and strengthen their resilience.
Our primary strategy involves facilitating the development of inclusive, participatory, and collective climate change adaptation and resilience initiatives. We have pursued this approach by co-creating Climate Action Plans (CAPs) that are collective, participatory, and contextually appropriate. These plans harness and document the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities, recognising their expertise in environmental protection and climate change adaptation.
The process of developing these collective and participatory Climate Action Plans (CAPs) involves four distinct but interrelated steps:
Step 1: Community Sensitisation
Raising community awareness about climate change and its effects on the environment, natural resources, and household livelihoods. This sensitisation is facilitated by PWC staff, trained community champions, and regional and district government officials, particularly those from the community development, land administration, and environment departments.
Step 2: Participatory Climate Change Assessment
Facilitating the collective and participatory identification and assessment of climate change impacts with local communities, involving men, women, youth, and other vulnerable groups, using the Pamoja Voices Climate Resilience Planning Toolkit.
The toolkit was jointly developed by PWC, like-minded organisations, and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). It has been instrumental in ensuring that the CAP development process promotes the meaningful participation of women, men, and youth, while ensuring that climate discussions and plans reflect their distinct needs and priorities.
Step 3: Development of Collective Climate Action Plans
Developing collective Climate Action Plans that outline community-led actions to protect the environment and adapt to climate change. These actions include tree planting and reforestation, protecting water sources, restoring rangelands and pasturelands, digging wells to improve water access, and diversifying income sources.
Immediately following the development of the CAPs, a gender-equitable coordination committee is established, with members elected by the Village Assembly. The committee takes the lead in coordinating and overseeing the implementation of the plans.
Step 4: Advocacy for Integration into Government Plans and Budgets
Working alongside gender-equitable coordination committees, community leaders, and champions to advocate for the adoption and integration of CAPs into Village and Ward Development Committee (WDC) plans, as well as district government strategic and annual plans and budgets. This ensures that the priorities identified by communities are recognised, adequately resourced, and effectively implemented.
In Leremeta village, located in Longido District, hundreds of households and their livestock have been forced to relocate to the highlands following consecutive years of below-average rainfall, which have resulted in severe pasture and water scarcity. This seasonal migration primarily involves young and middle-aged men moving with their livestock to temporary settlements, leaving women behind to care for children, older family members, and weaker livestock that are unable to travel long distances.
In December 2023, the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) facilitated inclusive community meetings involving women, men, youth, traditional leaders, and local government representatives, from the sub-village to district levels. Through these consultations, communities developed actionable plans to mitigate and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change in 10 villages across Longido District, including Leremeta.
In Leremeta, water and pasture scarcity were identified as the main climate change-related challenges. These have contributed to livestock malnutrition and mortality, disrupted livelihoods, increased food and nutritional insecurity, and a higher incidence of zoonotic, waterborne, foodborne, and vector-borne diseases. Increased human-wildlife conflicts were also identified as a growing concern.
To address these challenges and strengthen community resilience, several priority actions were identified. These include community sensitisation on climate change, land restoration, protection of water sources, investment in alternative livestock feeds, rainwater harvesting, and the development of sustainable land-use plans. Other priorities include investing in disease-resistant and climate-resilient livestock and crop breeds, as well as adopting sustainable and profitable livestock management practices.
The community, local government authorities, PWC, and other like-minded organisations were identified as key stakeholders responsible for supporting, monitoring, and overseeing the implementation of these plans over the next 10 years.
After the development of these plans, the village assembly elected a gender-equitable committee comprising community representatives to champion Leremeta village’s Climate Action Plans (CAPs). A pivotal achievement of this committee, in collaboration with similar structures from nine other villages benefiting from the initiative, is the approval and integration of the CAPs into the Longido District Council’s 10-year Climate Change Master Plan which ensures that the CAPs are receive budgetary allocations from the government and will be prioritised by other stakeholders including CSOs with aligned priorities working in the district. For the year financial year 2024/2025, the Longido district Council has committed approximately $ 12,000 for the implementation of these CAPs. This ensures the continuation of these initiatives beyond the project-based grants typically relied upon by the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), which are often limited, rigid, and time-constrained
Alongside the residents of these ten villages: Leremeta, Magazine, Loondolowo, Gilai-Meirugoi, Olopolosek, Ranchi, Mairowa, Kiserian, Engikaret, and Tingatinga, the PWC team celebrates this significant milestone. It stands as a testament to our collaborative endeavours with the community and government to enhance accountability, deepen, and scale up locally-driven interventions for climate change adaptation and resilience building.
In addition to facilitating the development of and advocating for public funding for CAPs, PWC also implements initiatives around rangeland/ pastureland land restoration through the cultivation of indigenous grass and establishment of grass seed banks, construction of simply energy-efficient cooking stoves, installation of domestic rainwater harvesting systems, clean water access by drilling deep water boreholes, enhancing land tenure security for communities and women, and livelihood
diversification to empower indigenous pastoralist women and communities across northern Tanzania to respond to the challenges posed by climate change effectively.
In conclusion, we are proud that our climate change adaptation work continues to gain recognition. On December 4th, the PWC collective received the Local Adaptation Champions Award from the Global Centre on Adaptation during the COP 28 meeting in Dubai.