The Socio Cultural Aspects of Building Climate Resilience in the Face of Changing Environment among Agricultural Communities in the Blue Nile Basin
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to explore and analyze the socio-cultural aspects of building climate resilience in the face of changing environment among the agricultural communities in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia. More specifically, it attempted to identify and analyze the socio-cultural norms and practices contributing to vulnerabilities of different social groups to climate change; to investigate the socio-cultural values and institutions employed by the local communities as adaptive strategies to climate change; and to examine to what extent climate change mitigation strategies address the needs and interests of different social groups in the local communities. To address these objectives, the study employed a combination of ethnographic methods consisting of in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, case studies, systematic observations and informal conversations. Secondary data sources were also critically reviewed to identify the research gap and to supplement the ethnographic data with conceptual and theoretical insights. The data collected through primary and secondary sources were thematically organized and analyzed through triangulation.
The study found that women, children, elders and the poor are social groups vulnerable to climate change. Local belief systems, feasts, work habits, blood feuds, gender norms, population growth, dependence on rain-fed agriculture and eucalyptus tree are also found to be factors contributing to vulnerabilities of different social groups to climate change in the study communities.
The study also found that the culture of sharing experiences as well as resources and indigenous knowledge systems are used by the local people as adaptive strategies to climate change. Marriage institution, consanguinal as well as fictive kinship systems, community-based organizations, craftwork, off-farm activities are also used by the local people as adaptive strategies to climate change.
The study further found that restriction on utilization of open access communal lands, construction of trenches on farmlands, land registration and certification, maintaining of spring waters, ground water harvesting and utilization, planting indigenous trees, adopting improved crop species and chemical fertilizer, crop mixing, adoption of improved animal breeds, and production of organic fertilizer are climate change mitigation strategies implemented by the local government in the study communities.
Finally, the key findings related to local socio-cultural norms and practices contributing to the vulnerabilities of women, children, elders and the poor to climate change need to be addressed through further investigation on why the local people adhere to these norms and practices. Moreover, the local socio-cultural values and institutions used as adaptive strategies to climate change need to be nurtured and recognized by the local government when it attempts to mitigate climate change vulnerabilities. Furthermore, some of the strategies implemented by the local government to mitigate climate change vulnerabilities need to be re-examined in line with their being properly addressing the needs and interests of the local people
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Social Anthropology