Level of awareness about climate change among the pastoral community

Abstract

The recognition by the government of Kenya of the adverse effects caused by climate change prompted the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources collaborating with other stakeholders to develop the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) in 2010 in preparation for the adversity. However, the aim of attaining Kenya’s Vision 2030 has remained a problem in implementation especially due to the lack of awareness by the local communities. This has resulted to food deficit and nutritional challenges that have deepened the poverty levels of most rural and urban households. This is evident in Narok County where frequent droughts and floods have threatened the pastoral livelihoods in the recent past. Climate change awareness is critical in ensuring successful response and adaptation at local level in developing countries. This paper is a result of a study that sought to assess the level of awareness of the pastoral community on the causes and impact of climate change (ICC) in Narok County. The findings of the study were based on a detailed survey conducted through face-face interviews from a sample of 415 households that was determined through multistage cluster sampling and simple random sampling techniques. An analysis of the collected data indicated that pastoralists have observed changes in climate change related indicators such as temperature, vegetation cover, and rainfall over the past two decades from their locally acquired knowledge. While the majority (84.1%) of the respondents indicated awareness of climate change causes and impacts, and the overdependence on their locally available knowledge (88.2%) portrayed that most (37%) had a belief that climate change was a punishment from the gods and ancestral spirits for man’s offences. On the contrary, only (2.2%) and (23.4%) attributed climate change to greenhouse gases and deforestation respectively, scientifically proven causes upon which mitigation could be drawn. The belief misguides and could explain why the pastoral communities are still hit hard by the effects of climate change. The level of awareness was significantly different across respondent categories (Pearson Chi Square of 19.139 and p-value of 0.001) and regions (Pearson Chi Square of 30.396 and p-value of 0.000). Therefore, to enhance resilience of pastoral communities to impacts of climate change, effective and appropriate dissemination of climate information at the local level and those that provide access to socio-economic institutions such as capital, water and information should be formulated and implemented. The study findings are aimed at benefiting the local community through creating awareness on the adoption of new livelihood technologies proposed in the study hence improving their resilience to climate change.