Analysis of Climate Resilience Among the Livestock Dependent Community at Satao Elerai Community Wildlife Conservancy, Kajiado County, Kenya.

Abstract

Currently, climate change is a phenomenon of titanic concern for livestock dependent communities. In particular, climate variability is associated with increased droughts occurrence and intensity in arid and semi-arid areas resulting in rangelands degradation and livelihood loss for pastoral people. This has an impact on productivity of livestock farming and sustainability of pastoral livelihoods. As such, an assessment of climate resilience of livestock dependent communities at the household and landscape level is necessary in order to find out a way to improve adaptive capacities among livestock farming communities. This study focused on Satao Elerai Conservancy (Kajiado County, Kenya) as a case on how community wildlife conservancies can be used as structural interventions to building climate resilience for livestock-dependent communities in dryland areas. Objectives of the study included: (i) to characterise socio-economic and land use arrangements in Satao Elerai Community Wildlife Conservancy, (ii) an evaluation of management actions geared towards building climate resilience of livestock production systems in the conservancy and (iii) an analysis of prevailing policies on climate resilience among livestock-dependent communities. This was an inductive research where both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used. To characterise socio-economic and land use arrangements, semi-structured questionnaires were administered to all 120 household heads registered as members of the conservancy. To evaluate the management actions a focus group discussion of 22 members of the management committee coupled with 10 key informant interviews was conducted. The study also analysed various policy and legal instruments focusing on their provisions on climate change, livestock production and wildlife conservation. The data was analysed using Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and presented in averages, percentages and rankings to generate the information. The study found out that the community of Satao Elerai held a strong concern of their inability to survive in small parcels of land in the face of continuing threats of climate change and variability. This made them amalgamate their land parcels and identified three (3) land use types namely: livestock rearing and settlements, wildlife conservation and crop farming allocated on the basis of suitability and viability within the conservancy. The study also found out that the zonation was further backed up with a five-year management plan that stipulates how the various operations of the conservancy were to be carried out anchoring them to the provisions of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013. Eighty-eight (88%) percent of the respondents indicated that the conservancy has been achieving its main purpose of integrating livestock rearing and wildlife conservation thus demonstrating their strong support for the land use arrangements in the conservancy. The study concludes that amalgamation of land parcels into group conservancy cannot be assumed to be the panacea to climate variability, however, it enables pastoralists create the necessary adaptive capacity for building their resilience through collective land use planning and livelihood diversification. This study recommends for the implementation of planned adaptation strategies that will enhance the resilience of livestock dependent communities to the impacts of climate change. There is need to harmonize the policy environment at national and county level to support and facilitate the implementation of the identified strategies that are tailored on specific locations and targeting particular livestock production system in use