Perceptions of mountainous people on climate change, livelihood practices and climatic shocks: A case study of Swat District, Pakistan

Abstract

This study examines the association among perception regarding climate change and climatic shocks with a set of socio-demographic variables like age, education, occupation, annual income, socio-economic status and land. Random sampling method was followed to conduct household survey, a total of 279 households were interviewed from rural mountainous areas of Swat District (Pakistan). For this purpose, structured and semi-structured questionnaire was designed to gather the household information. Perception analysis revealed, large number of participants (75%) are of the opinion that present climate has substantially changed in their area compared to previous years. Findings of bivariate model showed significant impact of age, education, income, occupation, land ownership and socio-economic status on local community's perception regarding climate change in addition to climatic shocks. Furthermore, land ownership, socio-economic status and crop sowing appeared as significant predictors of rainfall decrease perception. Similarly, these variables along with water source efficiency in the area were also found significant with perception on temperature rise. Our findings clearly discern a falling trend in earnings in recent years for Swat District which local people connects with influences of changing climate. Hence we suggest local government to intervene and enhance Swat community's livelihood capacity to adjust from climate shocks.