Pond Becomes a Lake: Challenges for Herders in the Himalayas

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiban Mani Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Himalayan Region ◽  
Functional Relations ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
The Social

Abstract Climate change is disturbing the existing functional relations between socio-ecological systems in the Himalayan region of Nepal. In this paper, I look at the disturbance posed by climate change to the social and ecological dimensions, referencing the Himalayan herders as eye-witnesses. I focus on two thematic areas, that is, the challenges faced by the mountain herders in the context of climate change and their coping strategies. This paper is a product of nine months of ethnographic study between the years 2012 and 2018 conducted at the Nhāson valley. The herders' stories are “real stories” with insights into the climate variability and fluctuation, which is critically valuable to understand the environmental phenomena at a time when scientific evidence is not enough. In this context, an ethnographic study can contribute in documenting the place-specific and culture-specific stories as the powerful evidence to climate change and how it impacts the grounded social and ecological systems.

scholarly journals Pond Becomes a Lake: Challenges Posed by Climate Change in the Trans-Himalayan Regions of Nepal

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiban Mani Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Past ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecological Relationship ◽  
Change Context ◽  
Past Climate Variability

Satellite images, repeated photography, temperature and precipitation data, and other proxy scientific evidences support the claim that climate is changing rapidly in Nepal, including in the Trans-Himalayan regions of the country. Climate change in the Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal is altering the existing relations of functional socio-ecological system for generations. This ethnographic assessment of Nhāson village looks at the disturbance posed by climate change to the social and ecological relationship in reference to livestock management practices. It focuses on two thematic areas of communities’ verbalisation of issues and challenges faced by the mountain herders in the climate change context. This paper is the product of ethnographic study between the years 2012 and 2014 in Nhāson. The locals’ attachment to environment and witnesses of change is capable of telling the story on the disturbance of climate change in the social and ecological systems, contextually. The stories gathered during walking, herding, travelling, watching and observing of the places are “real stories” with insights into the past climate variability and fluctuation which is critically valuable to understand the environmental phenomena at times when scientific evidences are not sufficient. Ethnographic study can contribute in documenting the place and cultural specific stories as a powerful evidence to climate change and its impact on grounded social and ecological systems.

Gender Influence on Access to and Control of Resources for Coping to Climate Variability. A Case of Mbita Fisher Community, Homa Bay County, Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 8-18
Author(s):  
Robert David Lubalo Onyango ◽  
Christopher Oludhe ◽  
Doris Amwata
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Fish Distribution ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
P Value ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Global warming effects have far reaching impacts of livelihoods of many rural communities including fishers. It is in record that fishing accounts for world’s 36 million fishers nearly 1.5 billion consumers who rely on fish for their dietary animal protein. Past studies have concentrated on fisher communities and climate variability in marine waters and oceans; mainly investigating the impact of climate variability on fish distribution and production. Limited focus has addressed the interaction between impacts of climate change on the fishing activities on inland and fresh waters such as in Lake Victoria and the fishers coping and adapting with changes and variability of climate. The discussions in this article focused on Lake Victoria shore location of Mbita where the livelihood of local community is largely fishing. The objectives were to: Determine the influence of gender on access and control of fisher resources for climate adaptation in Mbita sub-county; Document the current coping strategies and constraints to Climate variability/change in Mbita sub-county. The study used a constructivist epistemology and the mixed methods research design to help it achieve its findings. Yamane’s formula (1964) is used to get the sample size of 388 respondents out of a population of 13191. Primary data was collected through use of  questionnaires, interview schedules for KII and FGDs. Secondary data collection was collected through document reviews of relevant past studies reports and working papers on  (temperature/rainfall data) of Mbita for the last 30 years data to get the trend of these elements and to determine climate variability and change. The instruments were validated using experts’ content validity with the supervisors. Piloting was used to ascertain reliability of the instruments Analysis was accomplished using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences. Presentation was done in descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that there was gender discrimination in access and control of resources which support adaptive activities that makes women more vulnerable to Climate Variability/Change hazards and disasters. The study further found that adaptation  requires access and control of factors of production which were traditionally under the control of male fishers making women more vulnerable and susceptible to surviving through chamas and table banking activities. Statistically access to and control was significant to adaptation at p-value of 0.000. Under coping strategies the study found that adaptation required transformation of mind set that called for bigger investment which required the collaboration and consultation of entire Mbita community and county government to address environmental and conservative resource utility. The study concluded that lack of alternative livelihood opportunities/options is the major constraints to adaptation for people living in the Lake Victoria region escalated with limitation of skills outside fishing industry, limitation of other employable professional skills including lack of capital. The study recommends a transdiciplinary concientization of adaptive strategies which can translate into flexible and sustainable climate change adaptation and gender inclusive livelihood activities. Future research should explore participatory action research on environmental influences affecting CCA by comparing findings across other beaches and livelihoods to see if gendered resources have any role in their adaptation.

scholarly journals Droughts and governance impacts on water scarcity: an~analysis in the Brazilian semi-arid

2015 ◽  
Vol 369 ◽  
pp. 129-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. S. Silva ◽  
C. O. Galvão ◽  
G. N. S. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Semi Arid

Abstract. Extreme events are part of climate variability. Dealing with variability is still a challenge that might be increased due to climate change. However, impacts of extreme events are not only dependent on their variability, but also on management and governance. In Brazil, its semi-arid region is vulnerable to extreme events, especially droughts, for centuries. Actually, other Brazilian regions that have been mostly concerned with floods are currently also experiencing droughts. This article evaluates how a combination between climate variability and water governance might affect water scarcity and increase the impacts of extreme events on some regions. For this evaluation, Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems (SES) was applied. Ostrom's framework is useful for understanding interactions between resource systems, governance systems and resource users. This study focuses on social-ecological systems located in a drought-prone region of Brazil. Two extreme events were selected, one in 1997–2000, when Brazil's new water policy was very young, and the other one in 2012–2015. The analysis of SES considering Ostrom's principle "Clearly defined boundaries" showed that deficiencies in water management cause the intensification of drought's impacts for the water users. The reasons are more related to water management and governance problems than to drought event magnitude or climate change. This is a problem that holdup advances in dealing with extreme events.

scholarly journals Mitigation and Adaptation Analysis of the Climate Change Impact Using Sustainable Livelihood Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.5) ◽  
pp. 108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deffi Ayu Puspito Sari ◽  
Faroby Falatehan ◽  
Diki Surya Irawan ◽  
Gede Sedana ◽  
Robbi Rahim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Actual Condition ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

This study aims to identify and analyze the farmers’ perception of the climate variability and the impacts of the climate variability, identify and analyze the vulnerability and the income of the farmers due to the climate variability, identify and analyze the farmer strategy in anticipating and adapting the climate variability and recommending the adaptation mechanism based on engineering, institutional, technological, social, economic, and cultural organizations to the farmer in responding to the climate variability. Most of the farmers know and understand the climate change information from the television. Farmers mostly feel this climate change through the increase in temperature and the number of dry days. The impact of the climate change affects the livelihood of the farmers, not a few farmers suffered the losses due to the decreased in productivity. To reduce the decrease in income, the farmers increase the use of input, thus affecting the income of the farmers. The results of a comparison of the farmers between 2009 and 2015, there is an increase in productivity and revenue, but this increase is lower than the increased costs incurred by the farmers. This resulted in lower revenues of the farmers in 2015 than in 2009. There are 3 kinds of the strategies which is undertaken by the farmers: economic, ecological and social adaptation. For the economic adaptation, the expectations of the farmers to the capital assets are higher than the actual condition. Ideally, the highest ideal expected by the farmers is physical capital, while the lowest is social capital. Meanwhile, for the ecological adaptation, the community seeks to improve the irrigation channel, replace commodities and utilize the appropriate technology. As for the social adaptation, farmers are expecting the help from the government.  The policy implications from this research are: 1) the farmer in Jatiluwih are mostly aware of climate change, some strategies have been implemented by the farmers to maintain their income that affected by the climate change such as to work in the city or become a tour guide in their area. Based on the analysis of the sustainable livelihood, the farmers' expectation of physical capital such as electricity, water, irrigation, and roads are relatively high compared to the other capital. Because of the cost of supply is high, the provision of the physical capital is not easy, the government intervention is needed. Therefore, the farmers are expecting the government to be able to improve the condition of these facilities, especially for the irrigation. Irrigation plays an important role in farming. 2) The social capital of the farmers is high, the farmers have a good relationship with the government, indigenous people, and farmer groups. Therefore, in addition to providing the physical assistance, the government can also conduct the guidance and socialization on reducing the impact of the climate change through farmer or cultural group.   

scholarly journals Household Vulnerability and Transformability in Limpopo National Park

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2597
Author(s):  
Michel Notelid ◽  
Anneli Ekblom
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
National Park ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Household Economy ◽  
Cattle Production ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
The Social ◽  
Household Vulnerability ◽  
Interannual Climate Variability

In this paper, household vulnerability in Limpopo National Park (LNP) is discussed in relation to interannual climate variability and the effects of the park itself. Climate variability is high and projected to increase with climate change. Meanwhile, the establishment of the national park in 2002 has added both challenges and possibilities. We present the results of livelihood surveys carried out 2013 and discuss changes taking place in and around the park until present day. Constraints and possibilities for endurability of households are discussed. In conclusion, the vulnerability of the LNP households to climate change is high, but there are a number of strategies in place to ensure endurability. Migrant labour is vital for household economy, and cattle production is important for endurability. The hunting ban in the park and losses of crops and livestock due to wildlife present serious challenges. Income from the illegal wildlife trade, which exploded from 2011, has had little impact on household economy or in mitigating household vulnerability but has had devastating effects on the social fabric of households. We discuss possible avenues for transformability, where access to markets and transport remain a challenge for farmers. Individual cattle owners’ view of constraints and possibilities for expanding cattle herding are discussed and assessed in terms of transformability.

The pragmatic holism of social–ecological systems theory: Explaining adaptive capacity in a changing climate

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913252110160
Author(s):  
Sophie Adams
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Adaptive Dynamics ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological System ◽  
Human Response ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social

Now ubiquitous in research on adaptation to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change is the aim of cultivating adaptive capacity. With its promise to expand the scope of transformative human response within the adaptive dynamics of the social–ecological system, this approach is built upon the integration of the social and ecological, reflecting the ‘pragmatic holism’ at the heart of the concept of the ecological system. This vision is undercut, however, by an ambivalence about the agency of humans to effect adaptive change. I argue that this threatens to recoup the environmental determinism that characterised mid-20th-century theories of adaptation in geography and cognate disciplines – albeit in a new form defined by an understanding of agency as distributed and emergent that is associated with developments in cybernetics and complexity science. This article charts how the currently dominant discourse centred on adaptive capacity has come about and explores what it might mean for the politics of climate change adaptation, as the scope of human action is circumscribed by the adaptive dynamics of the social–ecological system.

scholarly journals Improvement on Social Representation of Climate Change through a Knowledge-Based MOOC in Spanish

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6317
Author(s):  
Enzo Ferrari ◽  
Anne-Marie Ballegeer ◽  
Miguel Angel Fuertes ◽  
Pablo Herrero ◽  
Laura Delgado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Validated Questionnaire ◽  
The Social ◽  
Massive Online Open Courses ◽  
Massive Online Open Course ◽  
Open Courses

Climate Change is the most important threat to our society and all species on Earth. Large alterations in the climate are affecting every aspect of our society and in order to limit this impact we must decarbonize the economy before 2050. Although science presents solid evidence on the magnitude of the problem and outlines precisely the consequences, people do not act accordingly and do not consider this issue a priority for their survival. The reason behind this paradox might be a non-appropriate Social Representation of Climate Change in society as the Social Representation conditions and forms the response of the society. In this paper, we extend previous investigations of how this Social Representation is formed in order to find ways to improve it through a Massive Online Open Course on the Science of Climate Change. Using a validated questionnaire, we investigated the knowledge dimension of the Social Representation of Climate Change in a group of students of a MOOC on Climate Change. A pre- and posttest revealed general improvements in all the categories that were considered in this study. A detailed analysis showed different degrees of improvement for different groups, providing new insights in the efficiency of knowledge-based online courses. Well designed Massive Online Open Courses, based on scientific evidence, targeted to the general public might improve the Social Representation of Climate Change, which may in turn trigger awareness and an effective mobilization to address this important and urgent topic.

scholarly journals Perceived Climate Variability and Farm Level Adaptation in the Central River Region of The Gambia

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bagagnan ◽  
Ouedraogo ◽  
Fonta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Farm Level ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
River Region

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the recurring erratic and uneven rainfall distribution has resulted in low crop yields, income losses, and low food stock. In response to these climate change challenges, farmers have recourse to several coping strategies to survive. This present paper explores farmers’ perception of climate variability and the coping strategies in use in the Central River Region of The Gambia. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze perceived climate variability and farm level adaptation options in the region. Data were collected from 283 farmhouses through transect walks, quantitative surveys including the use focus group discussions. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that farmers generally perceive an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events and a decrease in the duration of the growing season. With regards to vulnerability and severity, nearly 95% of the respondents considered the dryness as the main threat to their farming activities and perceived its consequences as the most severe. The results equally showed that the perception of changes is linked to the adoption of some adaptation measures among which the preferred were the use of chemical fertilizers (66%), though it is stated to be the most expensive. The Spearman correlation test showed that the use of water conservation techniques is highly correlated with the quality of soil surface structure (p ≤ 0.01) and soil storage capacity (p ≤ 0.01). Findings of this study are of paramount importance in planning and implementing adaptation policies in The Gambia and beyond. To improve farmers’ resilience, drought tolerant crops should be promoted along with climate change and variability awareness campaigns.

scholarly journals Twitter’s Messages about Hydrometeorological Events. A Study on the Social Impact of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3579
Author(s):  
Esther Oliver ◽  
María Carmen Llasat ◽  
Montserrat Llasat-Botija ◽  
Javier Díez-Palomar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Social Media Analytics ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
The Social ◽  
Specific Reactions

This study is based on an interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists from natural and social sciences to create scientific knowledge about how Twitter is valuable to understand the social impact of hydrometeorological events. The capacity of citizens’ reaction through Twitter to environmental issues is widely analyzed in the current scientific literature. Previous scientific works, for example, investigated the role of social media in preventing natural disasters. This study gives scientific evidence on the existence of diversity in the intentionality of Twitters’ messages related to hydrometeorological events. The methodological design is formed by four experiments implemented in different moments of a temporal axis. The social impact on social media methodology (SISM) is implemented as social media analytics. From the findings obtained, it can be observed that there are different forms of intentionality in Twitter’s messages related to hydrometeorological events depending on the contextual circumstances and on the characteristics of Twitter’s users’ profiles (including the geolocation when this information is available). This content is relevant for future works addressed to define social media communication strategies that can promote specific reactions in vulnerable groups in front the climate change.

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