CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE
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KEY ACTIONS.
IMPACT helps local communities cope with the challenges related to climate change, and supports them in designing adequate adaptation strategies. What we do:
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Collaborating with governments and other relevant stakeholders to formulate legislation, plans and policies that are coherent with integrated risk management (IRM) approaches and that contribute to strengthening communities.
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Promoting Indigenous Peoples' traditional livelihoods and other adaptive natural resource governance practices.
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Building grassroots organizations' resilience and their capacity to provide their communities with effective climate change adaptation initiatives.
PROJECTS
GO TO:
• SUB CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT PLANS
Sub-Catchment Management Plan (SCMP) is a tool developed to support protection, conservation and management of water resources and related natural resources within the sub-catchment. This serves to ensure sustainable and balanced water resource utilization for both socio-economic benefits and ecosystem management. A SCMP is developed through a consultative process with key stakeholders to gather consensus on strategy and framework for water resources and catchment conservation, as well as management at the sub-catchment level, ensuring sustainable use of the available water resources.
LASITU WRUA
Mount Ng'iro is a mountain in the north of Kenya overlooking the Suguta valley, part of the Great Rift valley to the west. The mountain is surrounded by a desert, with forested upper slopes. It lies in the territory of the Samburu people and is held sacred by the Samburu community. Some resources found on the mountain are gum arabic tree products and permanent water aquivers or springs.The habitants of the surrounding areas are agro-pastoralists who depend on the water from the mountain to survive.
Mount Ng'iro is a natural water source that produces 4 rivers: Naisudwokwe and Loowuara which flow to Tuum, River Simale which flows to Simale village and Nkoilalei which flows to Parkati.
Lasitu WRUA operational area is within North Ewaso Laggas Management Unit managed by Water Resources Authority, Marsabit sub region. The catchment is situated in the boundary line of Ewaso Ng'iro North Basin Area (ENNBA) and Rift Valley Basin Area (RVBA) at the foot of Mt. Ng'iro. Most of its waters flows down to Suguta valley and then to Lake Lokipi which falls under Kabarnet sub region and Lodwar sub region of Water Resources Authority.
The problems that are being handled to ensure equitability and sustainability of the water resources in the catchment are: water management, poor water works, catchment destruction, water pollution, lack of awareness by community members, water resource conflicts, and water scarcity.
MACHINI WRUA
Machini WRUA is located in Ewaso Ngiro North Catchment Area (ENNCA), Middle Ewaso Ngiro sub catchment area of Water Resources Authority (WRA). It covers an area of 278.03 km2 underlying coordinates (centroid) 0.636699N (Latitude) and 37.510699E (Longitudes). The catchment is occupied with two National Reserves (Samburu National Reserve which occupies the biggest area of the catchment and Buffalo Springs National Reserves which occupies very small part of the catchment.
The catchment is limited for any project since most part of it is covered by public land termed as protected land (National Reserve) and therefore any community project that would have helped in improving the Machini peoples livelihood may be shifted to Kiltamany or Archers Post town. The area has limited water pans to avoid wild animals to get out from the reserve which may result to human-wildlife conflicts during dry seasons since most of the peoples settlement are within the national reserve.Also some part of the catchment is used as military training zones, making it difficult in setting up some water resource projects such as water pans.
This Sub-Catchment Management Plan (SCMP) was reviewed through participatory process from 11th to 15th August 2020 by the Machini Water Resources Users Association, IMPACT Trust Kenya, Water Resources Authority (WRA) and stakeholders from county government of Samburu and national government administration. The entire process was funded by Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT Trust Kenya) and facilitated by Water Resources Authority(WRA).
Some of the major problems affecting the WRUA are:
• Lack of capacity building: less members and no office.
• Low community awareness: no regular training and sensitization about WRUA.
• Catchment degradation: no proper grazing plans, sand harvesting and encroachment on riparian land.
• Water scarcity: limited number of water sources such as boreholes, lack of storage facilities or structures during the rainy season.
• Poor water infrastructure: poor water governance, poor management of water resources and poor quality work from some of the contractors.
• Water pollution: improper waste disposal in the area with no sewer line within the area.
• Water Resources Conflicts: as a result of livestock access to water and National Reserves being low during the dry season.
• Floods: during the rainy season the area is prone to floods due to the lack of flood warning alarm systems.
• Climate change: severe droughts and erratic rainfall pattern with floods due to global warming is being experienced.
The key issues covered during the SCMP review were Flood management, catchment protection, climate change, WRUA delineated boundaries and weaknesses of the WRUA.
WAMBA NKURA WRUA
Wamba Nkura WRUA was formed in June 2016 by the local community with the technical and financial facilitation of Water Resources Authority and the Samburu county government. It was then facilitated by IMPACT to develop a sub catchment management plan (SCMP) in December of 2017.
The area covered by Wamba Nkura WRUA consists of an area of about 527.47 square kilometers within Samburu East sub county. The area consists of settled and grazing areas which are Wamba, Nkura, Nkogoltim, Lengusaka, Lkisin and Nkaron settlement areas.
Wamba Nkura WRUA is in a Semi-arid area and was formed mainly to address the issues that were identified and incorporated in the Constitution.
These include:
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Promote good management practices to make efficient and sustainable use of the water resources.
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Promote water conservation practices to ensure sufficient water reserves that meet the demands of the environment, the wildlife, the livestock and all the downstream communities who rely on the water resources.
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Promote controlled and legal water use activities in designated catchment.
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Work towards reducing conflict in use of the water resource and participate in solving those that arise.
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Promote catchment conservation measures to improve water quantity and quality.
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Support members to engage in income generating activities where possible.
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Building adaptive capacity of the community to the impacts of climate change and flood management.
SEIYA WRUA
Seiya Sub-Catchment Management Plan (SCMP) has been developed to guide the management of Seiya sub-catchment located within the Ewaso Ngiro North Basin, covering about 265.10 square kilometers. The development of the Plan includes the implementation of the provisions of Water Act 2016, Water Resources Management Rules 2007 and WRUA (Water Resources Users Association) Development Cycle 2014 (WDC) all, of which provide for the regulation and management of water resources.
The SCMP validation and adoption process was financed by IMPACT under the Partners for Resilience Program. The main water resources related issues reported in Seiya sub-catchment include: catchment degradation, water shortage, encroachment of riparian land, poor governance and water pollution. The major cause of catchment degradation identified is soil erosion, resulting from deforestation and overgrazing. Water pollution is caused by direct watering at the water sources, encroachment of riparian land and chemical transport from livestock sprays. Encroachment on riparian land is as a result of lack of awareness on need to protect water resources. In addressing the challenges, various solution strategies have been proposed which include capacity building on water resource management, active participation of the WRUA in catchment and water resources protection, promotion of water resources provision, and institutional strengthening.
ASSESSING LAKE OLBOLOSSAT, RUMURUTI AND PESII AS THE MAJOR TRIBUTARY SOURCE TO EWASO NGIRO RIVER
• EWASO NGIRO RIVER
Ewaso Ngiro River is the main source of livelihood across the northern Kenya counties that are dependent on it. Ewaso Ngiro River serves about six counties with over 3 million people depending on it for all their needs, including livestock and agricultural activities at the upper stream of the river. It is fed by nearly 40 streams flowing down from Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range.
IMPACT Trust Kenya, Isiolo Peace Link, Ewaso Ngiro North Development Authority and Isiolo Conservationists Trust came up with an idea of addressing the challenges and any accruing changes along the Ewaso Ngiro River catchment. The assessment will focus on the headwaters in Nyandarua, particularly the Lake Olbolossat basin and its tributaries inlets. The Manguo swamps, Pesi swamps and Marura swamps in Laikipia County’s Rumuruti area will also be evaluated as part of the assessment.
• COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING AND LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
IMPACT KENYA is partnering with MISEREOR in implementing a project: Strengthening Pastoralists Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Risks in northern Kenya. The one year initial phase (2021) is planning and will entail community resource mapping and livelihoods assessment in selected wards in Laikipia, Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit.
Training on participatory community resource mapping and livelihoods vulnerability assessment. The training will enhance the capacity of our team in designing strategic interventions based on community needs.
Testing the Community resource mapping and livelihood vulnerability tools with Leparua community and implementation in Burat ward and Oldonyiro respectively. IMPACT_KENYA is collecting data and information to guide conceptualization of a project to strengthen pastoralist resilience adaptation and climate change risk in Laikipia, Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit.
We are undertaking community-based mapping of pastoralists resources and livelihoods vulnerability assessment to generate and aggregate valuable evidence on challenges, risks and issues within the pastoral systems and identify grassroot solutions to inform future investments in Northern Kenya Counties. The project covers eight Northern Kenya wards of Laikipia North Sub-County (Mukogodo East and West Wards), Samburu East Sub-County (Wamba West and Waso wards), Marsabit County (Laisamis ward) and Isiolo County (Burat, Chari and Oldonyiro wards).
The community being vulnerable and being hit-hard by climate change risks face numerous threats to their traditional territories, landscapes and food sovereignty. Emerging interests and threats from government projects, multi-national companies and investments targeting the vast land that was termed idle or unproductive. This deliberately undermines their traditional economies, authority and other practices, which have sustained them since time immemorial.
COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING
With this tool we generated the initial perception maps of key pastoral resources such as water points, water courses (rivers, streams), prime pasture areas (wet and dry grazing areas and drought reserves), livestock movement and migration routes, markets, vaccination areas and other key infrastructures. The perception maps were drawn on the ground or on paper that created consensus among participants on placement and sitting of features.We digitized it using open-source GIS programs (Java Open Street Map or Quantum GIS) and added attributes to the resources identified.
COMMUNITY SEASONAL CALENDAR
This tool establishes the impacts of climate variability (seasonal and inter-annual variability) and climate extremes on the components of the pastoral livelihood system. It also establishes strategies used to manage seasonal variability and unpredictability to maintain productivity and to minimize losses from climate extremes. Most importantly the tool identifies the key factors that impact on the ability of each of the components of the pastoral livelihood system to function properly, and the relative importance of climate, especially rainfall, as a driver in building or undermining the resilience of each of the components of the system and the pastoral livelihood system overall.
COMMUNITY HISTORICAL TIMELINE
This tool helps communities to identify patterns of most significant events over time. It is often done for the 10-30 years. The participants brainstorm community significant events and the year of occurrence. It normally brings out trends or changes in the frequency or intensity of extreme events (drought, floods, conflicts) over time.
LIVELIHOOD PASTORAL SYSTEM
This tool generates an understanding that pastoral livelihood is a ‘complex system’ and not just a series of activities. It categorizes key components of pastoral livelihood system and identifies how each of the components inter-act and impact on each other to either strengthen or weaken the livelihood system overall. It highlights on key components of pastoralism which include;
1. Pastoralism resources such as land, water, pasture
2. Livestock (adaptable breed of livestock), cattle, sheep, goat, camel
3. Institutions which include families, traditional institutions
WEALTH RANKING/ WELLBEING ANALYSIS
This tool brings out what the community believes to be a “successful” life or what it is that makes someone have a high quality of life. It helps in understanding how the community categorize levels of wellbeing (wealth) and how people can increase or decrease their level of wellbeing (wealth) within the pastoral set up.
The major qualifying characteristics of the wellbeing within a pastoralist setup community are;
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Number of wives
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Number of children
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Number of livestock
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The social status and respect
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Number of children educated to tertiary levels
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The size of lands
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The health status of a person
The communities did rankings depending on what levels they are in;
(across the entire Wards, poor people had the highest percentages and their survival depended on their ability to maneuver to earn a living.)
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY
This tool brings out the pastoral household expenditures and income by season, seasonal distribution of expenditures and income, who controls what, non-monetary income and value of non-monetary income. It also assists in understanding how changes in the season affects the household economy.
The economy of the pastoralist communities heavily depended on livestock with adaptable dreed, their mobility in search of pasture and other needed resources, security, traditional set out institutions that govern the pastoralism setup. The household expenditures increase more in dry seasons as resources are limited and scarce.
RESILIENCE SPECTRUM ANALYSIS
This tool helps understand the resilience of different wellbeing groups as perceived by the community, find out features or characteristics that make some wellbeing groups more resilient than others to climate variability and change.
THEORY OF CHANGE
This tool identifies necessary and specific changes or investments which the community believe will improve their wellbeing and enhance their resilience to climate risk. It also brings out causes and consequences of each prioritized intervention to bring lasting change. Each Ward had its own theory of change activities generated. Though the activities varied from ward to ward, below is the summary of the most recurrent priorities is enumerated below: -
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Establishment or rehabilitation of strategic water points in each of the 8 wards.
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Strengthened and sustained water and rangelands management
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Support diversification of livelihoods
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Restocking with adaptable breeds
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Strengthened management of resource-based conflicts
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Management and control of invasive species
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Supporting registration of community lands